Eyes as Green as a Fresh Pickled Toad
by Sierra Charm
Summary: Prequel to A Lily Story. Before they were Harry's eyes, they belonged to Lily. This is her world, where pranks, gardens, necklaces, uncles, Dark Marks, and several infuriating Gryffindor boys reside.
1. The First Meeting

A/N: Before you embark on this lovely journey through the world of Lily and James as I created it, there are several rather important things you should know. If you decide to skip this Author's Note, then you are a complete ninny and I have no sympathy for you if you are annoyed with the story later on.

If you are the sort of person who normally skips Author's Notes, I would advise you to read this one.

First things first: I planned and wrote much of this story prior to the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. There are certain scenes and characters you simply will not find in this story, like…the scene that appears in Book 5 during which James reveals the state of Severus Snape's underpants to the general Hogwarts population, or the character of Horace Slughorn. There are also blatant mistakes, such as Lily being in Ravenclaw and James playing Seeker rather than Chaser on the Gryffindor House team. Several other minor characters from canon are also in the wrong Houses (Frank and Alice Longbottom, for example), and certain characters are slightly the wrong age (like Lucius Malfoy). These are just things you're going to have to deal with. (Or you could find a different story. It's cool. I'll never know.)

Quick note about Arabella Figg: I made her a character of Lily and James's generation because Dumbledore or _someone_ mentions her at the end of Goblet of Fire as being part of "the old crowd." We don't learn until OotP that she's really Harry's crazy old neighbor with all the cats, so I made her a young witch in Gryffindor House. Later I thought it might be nifty if my Arabella were actually related to the older, Squib Arabella, but I never got a chance to work that minor detail into the plot. (Not that I'm suggesting this story has a real plot…but if it did….)

Also, this story is a prequel to an Alternate Universe fiction in which Lily and James do not die. This is my main excuse for there being so many discrepancies between "Eyes" and Harry Potter canon. I am now never going to complete the AU fanfic that "Eyes" preludes, but you will find a vaguely accurate summary of the plot of this story and its sequel following the Epilogue of "Eyes."

It is also important to note that I began writing this story when I was fourteen and did not finish until I was twenty. The writing gradually improves as the story goes along (or at least…I hope it does). You may also notice, in later chapters, the inclusion of some minor details from HP canon coming from the fifth, sixth, and (in the last chapter), seventh books, but I would advise you to remember that, overall, this story was planned and written without any knowledge of what was to come in Books 5-7.

If you've never read this story before, then that's all you really need to know, so—Cheers! (And Happy Reading)

If you have read "Eyes" before, however, a quick note:

I've read through the story and roughly "edited" it—fixing minor errors in grammar and things—and have re-posted all the chapters in their final form. You'll find it mostly the same, with only minor tweaking, except for the one small storyline I blatantly removed—the "Windkey" storyline. The whole Windkey thing seemed like a good idea at the time, but later I realized it had no purpose, so now it's gone. I hope you don't find this too distressing, since frankly I don't think it was that wonderful to begin with.

I think that's all. Cheers. :-)

Eyes as Green as a Fresh Pickled Toad  
_(The tortured romance of Lily and James)_

**Part One: Fifth Year**

Chapter One  
The First Meeting

She had never really noticed him before, but now she had no choice. For he had just spilled his entire bottle of ink down the front of her favorite green robes, and they were stained black. It was Friday afternoon, and Lily Evans had been attempting to study in the library when James Potter had stumbled in and sent a bottle of ink flying across the room.

She looked down at her robes in shock, then up at James, who looked just as shocked as she did. At first Lily couldn't think of anything to say, but then she gathered her wits about her and spoke.

"Tell me, are you always this articulate, or is it above and beyond your great Quidditch-playing self to tell a poor girl you're sorry?" she snapped, and nearly clapped a hand over her mouth in shock. She never lashed out at anyone. Never.

James blinked and shook his head, as if suddenly coming back to his senses. "S-sorry," he said, his cheeks flushing. "I'm really sorry. I-I-I don't usually-I'm sorry."

Lily rolled her eyes and took out her wand. She whispered "_reparo_" and watched as the ink flew back into the bottle and the bottle put itself back together. "It's no big deal," she said, handing him the ink bottle back. James nodded and accepted it.

"You-when I walked-you were just-I didn't mean to-uh, thanks." James stammered, seeming unable to string together words to form a comprehensible sentence.

Lily sat back in her chair and crossed her arms, lifting an eyebrow at him in amusement. "So this is all James Potter, the famous, popular Quidditch captain has to say for himself?" she asked bemusedly, twirling her quill around in circles on her paper. "What a shame. I would have expected more."

What was she, teasing him? Mocking him? Since when did Lily mock anybody?

"I say interesting stuff," James said desperately, apparently still lost for words. Lily laughed and smiled.

"Don't worry about it," she said. "But if you'll excuse me, I have to study." She stood up and gathered her books into her arms. Without saying good-bye, she began walking out of the library.

James, who had dropped a stack of books upon entering and spilling his ink all over Lily, stooped to pick his things up. Lily, who was prepared to walk out of the library and not look back, found herself pausing and turning to look back at him.

Why was he so popular, anyway? Honestly, he wasn't even that cute! And he certainly didn't seem to have a flavor for conversation. And besides all that, he was a klutz!

"Hey!" she found herself calling to him. He straightened up, books in his arms, surprised. "You better watch it, you know. Or you might find yourself with a pint of pumpkin juice down your front." With that, she smirked and flounced out of the library.

Well, where had that come from? She never got to have the last word in anything...and she couldn't remember the last time she had smirked...Lily was the softspoken, quiet, studious, introverted one.

As she walked back to the Ravenclaw common room, she made a mental note not to ever speak to James Potter. What rude, uncharacteristic thing would she find herself doing next?

* * *

As Lily turned and walked out of the library, James promptly stumbled over himself and dropped all his books again. What was wrong with him? And what was with that girl? He didn't even know her name. All he knew was that she had to be about the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen, and that included the veela he'd met while on vacation in Bulgaria with his parents when he was nine...but that was another story! 

That was why he'd spilled his ink bottle in the first place. Upon entering the library, he'd found himself staring at this amazingly beautiful girl. She had been sitting by a window, scribbling on a piece of parchment. The sunlight had been streaming in through the window behind her, lighting her fiery red hair and creating a halo around her face, making her look very much like an angel.

That was when he'd tripped over himself and set the ink bottle flying across the room. A brilliant move on his part, he had to say. First, tripping over himself. Then, staining her brilliant green robes with ink. And third, just standing there, staring at her like an idiot and stammering at her. The only comprehensible sentence he'd uttered in and of itself didn't really make much sense.

"I say interesting stuff," he muttered to himself in disgust. "What a line, James, what a line. Way to get a girl's attention."

"Girl? What girl?" said a very familiar voice. James looked up, not surprised to see his best friend in the world, Sirius Black, standing there and looking devilishly handsome, as usual. He was smiling mischievously. Any mention of a girl got him going. James scowled at him.

"What'd I do?" Sirius asked, spinning a chair around and sitting on it, his chest resting on the back of it.

"You look handsome!" James said irritably.

"James, you're not hitting on me, are you?" Sirius asked, smirking.

"Shut up!" James snapped.

"What wizard's cursing your mood?" Sirius asked, picking one of James's books up off the floor and flipping through it absentmindedly. It was upside-down.

"Not a wizard," James said, slamming his books on the table and grabbing a chair for himself. "A witch."

"Ah, a witch!" Sirius said. "Someone finally stolen your heart?"

"More like my sanity," James muttered, flipping open his Transfiguration book.

"What? She got ya tongue-tied?" Sirius had been through every dating dilemma known to man.

"That would be an understatement."

"So who is it? Kim? Lorelei? Melody?"

"She's not a Gryffindor. I don't know her name."

"You don't know her name!" Sirius exclaimed. "Who in the world is she? What house is she in?"

"I don't know," James shrugged. "She was wearing green robes."

"Slytherin? She's in Slytherin?"

"I didn't say she was in Slytherin. I said she was wearing green robes," James said, irritated.

"Well, describe her. I probably know who she is."

"Red hair. Amazing green eyes, like emeralds, or...or...something really green, I dunno, like..."

"A fresh pickled toad?" Sirius suggested. James shot him a look.

"Not exactly. But anyway, red hair, green eyes, milky white skin, no freckles, the most beautiful girl in the universe..." James let it trail off.

"Yep. She's got you hook, line, and sinker, buddy," Sirius said, smirking. "I never thought I'd see you reeled in."

"I am not reeled in!" James protested. "I've known about her existence for what, five minutes? And all she's managed to do is bite my head off!"

"Bite your head off? It doesn't sound like her, but it's got to be." Sirius said.

"Well, who is she?"

"Lily Evans. Ravenclaw. Top of her class in about every subject. Favorite subject is Charms. She's about 5'6", 135 lbs, usually quiet and reserved. She likes wearing green because it accents her eyes. After she leaves Hogwarts, she wants to-"

"What is this, published somewhere?" James said, interrupting his friend's speech.

"No. She's Melody's best friend. I never hear the end of it. You should know her, James. I mean, she is a Prefect."

"She is?" James said, bewildered.

"You really need to get out more."

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"Do me a favor, would you?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

* * *

"So, what evil troublemaking scheme d'you think Sirius is going to come up with this time?" Melody Cauldwell asked of Remus Lupin, plopping down in a cozy armchair right across from his. She stuck a multicolored lollipop in her mouth, seemingly unaware that the candy was turning her brilliantly blonde hair bright blue. 

Remus, biting his lip to keep from laughing at her hair, tried to answer as normally as possible. "Five galleons says it has something to do with Snape."

"I'll bet you five it's Mrs. Norris," Melody shot back, still sucking on the lollipop, which was starting to turn her hair green.

"Deal," Remus said, smiling evilly while at the same time remembering he'd spent all his money at Hogsmeade last week. Oh, well.

At that moment, just as Melody's hair was beginning to go purple, Peter Pettigrew stumbled into the Gryffindor common room, wheezing and panting, his face red. Remus straightened up a little and turned to his friend, but Melody ignored him and continued sucking leisurely on her lollipop, which was now turning her hair an interesting shade of pink. She didn't much like Peter, and he didn't seem to like her. As a result, they completely ignored one another.

She wondered what Sirius really would come up with for their next evil scheme, and suddenly remembered she'd spent her last five galleons on three bags of magical lollipops. All she had left was two Sickles and a Knut. She hoped Sirius would be going for Mrs. Norris, because she sure could use another five Galleons.

Peter had just finished telling Remus about his run-in with Snape when James and Sirius burst into the common room, arguing terribly about something.

"-am not in love with a girl I met five minutes ago-" James was saying, but Sirius wouldn't let him finish.

"Sure you are! Got stars in your eyes, it's pathetic!"

"I wouldn't go out with her if she were the last witch-"

"Blah, blah, blah, you're a horrible liar-"

"-she's completely rude-"

"-you deserve a good kick in the rear-"

"-don't even know her-"

"-in complete denial-"

"-as we're talking about denial-"

"-she's perfectly cute-"

"-why don't you ask Melody out-"

"Shut it!" Sirius snapped, glaring at his best friend and glancing nervously over at Melody, who was completely oblivious to the whole thing. She was still sucking absentmindedly on her lollipop, which was, by now, nearly gone. Sirius laughed as he saw her hair being turned to an interesting shade of red.

"Hey, Sirius!" Melody said, noticing him. "So, what detention-worthy scheme have you cooked up now?"

"Interesting hair," Sirius said, ignoring her question and smiling at her bright red coif, which was rapidly changing to another color.

"You like it?" Melody asked, smiling cheesily.

"You look better blonde," Sirius said. Melody shrugged as she finished her sucker. She looked at the stick for a moment, then shrugged and threw it over her shoulder, oblivious to the fact that it landed in a third year's hair.

She picked up a lock of her hair and looked at it. "Damn!" She said, cursing her neon orange hair. "That's the fourth time in a row it's been neon orange! Different result every time my ass..." she muttered. The Marauders laughed. Melody stuck her tongue out. "Anyway, Sirius, have you come up with anything?"

A devilish grin spread across Sirius's face. "I have something to show you all. Come with me," he said. Melody, James, and Remus smiled, but Peter whimpered.

"Come on, guys, we're not going to break the rules again, are we?" he whined. "I hate detention! They always make me go with Filch and do some really horrible cleaning without magic."

Melody rolled her eyes. "All detentions are without magic, you idiot, that's why they're called detentions!"

Peter sniffed and looked at her indignantly. "They are not! There was that one time we all went down to Hogsmeade to investigate that murder! We got to use magic then."

"Yeah, and so much good it did us, too, in that stupid old office going through piles of useless stuff!"

"Hey, I liked that office!" Sirius said, his eyes sparking. Melody laughed.

"Yeah, only after you turned the desk into an elephant!"

All the Marauders laughed at this.

"Hey, I was bored, what can I say?" Sirius shrugged. "Come on, let's go!"

"And Peter?" Melody said as they left.

"What?" he asked sulkily.

"Don't be such a baby."

* * *

"Have fun studying?" Mimi Ramirez asked as Lily entered the common room. Mimi was one of Lily's best friends, and a little boy crazy, at that. At the moment she was concentrating very hard on painting her fingernails red. Well, red and gold, to be precise. She had already painted them gold and was painting on strips of red. 

"Not really," Lily answered. Noticing Mimi's fingernails, she frowned. "Mimi, what are you doing?"

"Painting my nails. What does it look like?"

"Uh, in case you haven't noticed, you're painting them red and gold."

"So?" Mimi asked, dipping the brush back into the container, wiping it off a little, and setting to work on her next fingernail.

"Mimi, we're in Ravenclaw! Those are Gryffindor colors!"

Mimi rolled her eyes. "Well, I knew that, silly. I'm painting them for the Quidditch match tomorrow!"

"Mimi, we're playing _Gryffindor_ tomorrow! Have you completely lost your mind? The rest of the Ravenclaws are going to slaughter you!"

"Well, that's why the rest of the Ravenclaws aren't going to find out," Mimi said matter-of-factly, finishing up the nails on her right hand, picking up her wand, and muttering an instant dry spell. She then set to work on her left hand.

"Oh, and how is that?" Lily asked curiously.

"Because," Mimi said. "I'll be sitting with the Gryffindors. And none of the Ravenclaws ever have to know."

Lily plopped down in a chair, perplexed. "May I ask why you're all of a sudden supporting Gryffindor?" she asked, her lips twitching. Last month she had avidly supported Ravenclaw because of her crush on one of the Ravenclaw Beaters, Adam Johnson. _Wonder who it is this month...?_ Lily mused.

"Because!" Mimi gushed. "James Potter! So cute! And Sirius Black! He's even cuter!" Mimi forgot her nails for a moment and leaned back in her chair, a dreamy look on her face. "I can't decide which is better. Which sounds better: Mimi Potter, or Mimi Black? Mimi Potter...Mimi Black...I can't decide. What do you think?"

Lily sighed irritably. What did she think? She thought she'd had enough of James Potter for one day, thank you! She decided to change the subject. "I don't know," she shrugged. "But who, exactly, are you going to be sitting with?"

"Remus Lupin." Mimi said promptly. "Just as cute. And get this: James, and Sirius, and Remus are all best friends! How amazing is that? The three cutest guys in school...and they're best friends..." Mimi's eyes glazed over.

Lily laughed. "Maybe you should be thinking about Mimi Lupin then, if you're so blown away by all of them."

Mimi gasped. "Maybe!" she said. "I hadn't thought of that..." She went back to painting her nails. Lily shook her head and went up to their dorm room.

* * *

"This. Is. Awesome." Melody declared. 

"How, exactly, did you create a room?" Remus asked, looking around at what Sirius had dubbed their new headquarters.

"Yes," James agreed. "And why chamber pots?"

Sirius smiled. "That's for me to know and you all not to find out!" he said gleefully. "But I'll have you know the chamber pots are for cover," he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "So if anyone happens to stumble upon it-which they shouldn't, because it's guarded by a password-but if they should, they'll just see a bunch of chamber pots, think they're crazy, and leave. It's brilliant!" Sirius declared triumphantly.

"Yes, it's the room of the crazy chamber pots," Melody said unenthusiastically.

"What? You don't like my chamber pots?" Sirius said, pretending to be hurt. Melody opened her mouth to respond, but James interrupted.

"Enough about the chamber pots!" he said. "Sirius and I have come up with a brilliant plan!"

"Oh really?" Melody asked, interested. "Do tell."

"We've come up with a way to get back at Snape for cursing your nose off in Potions," Sirius said to Melody.

"Yes!" Melody said. She was still sore about the whole incident.

Last week, during Double Potions with the Slytherins, Melody and Snape had been paired together. They were supposed to be preparing a Truthfulness Potion, otherwise known as Veritaserum, but they were having a row instead.

"You weren't supposed to put in the bat spleen yet, you idiot!" Melody shrieked.

"I'm an idiot?" Snape said indignantly. "You're the one who just spilled all of our dragon's blood onto the floor."

"It didn't all go on the floor! And anyway I wouldn't have spilled it if you hadn't pushed me!"

"Well, you pushed me first!"

"I was reaching for the eyeballs!"

"Well, you deserved it!"

"If I deserve dragon's blood on my robes, then I suppose you deserve a boiling potion on yours!" Melody said, tipping the cauldron over and watching in satisfaction as Snape howled in pain, trying to get the boiling potion off his skin and his robes.

Still in pain, he reached for his wand and screeched a spell, at which point many things happened at once:

1. The teacher ran over and started yelling at both of them.

2. Snape's skin began to melt away.

3. James and Sirius set off a wet-start firework in Jamie Bankstone's (an annoying Slytherin girl) cauldron, causing half the potions lab to be soaked in Veritaserum and Jamie, who happened to swallow some, to start spouting that she hated Transfiguration, hated the Potions master, Professor Thorne, and had a secret crush on Remus Lupin, among other things.

4. Melody's nose fell off.

"You little-" Melody began, but Professor Thorne was yelling his head off at the entire class so loudly that no one could hear what she was saying.

Between howls of pain, Snape saw Melody without a nose and started laughing. James and Sirius, who had been caught up in laughing at Jamie and teasing Remus about her having a crush on him, suddenly noticed Melody's noseless face.

Remus shied away from Sirius and James, glad he was out of the center of attention, James started laughing so hard he couldn't stop, and Sirius, although he was laughing, ran over and tried to fix her nose back on, but he couldn't, so he ended up escorting her to the hospital wing .

They lost three hundred points for Gryffindor and got detentions for two straight weeks. The Marauders really hated Potions after that.

Melody was brought out of her trance by Remus, who was speaking to her.

"You owe me five Galleons."

"Damn."

* * *

"Lily! My dearest Lily! It's been forever! How are you?" 

Lily looked up from her spot on a large blue bean bag chair to see Melody Cauldwell appear in the Ravenclaw common room. "What are you doing here?" she asked, slightly annoyed.

"Why, visiting my dear old chum Lily, of course!" Melody said, grinning cheekily and plopping down in a bean bag chair across from Lily.

Lily sighed. "What do you want?"

"I don't want anything, old friend! Just the pleasure of your company!" Melody said, just a little too cheerily. Lily rolled her eyes, shook her head, smiled, and put down her Charms book.

"Okay, what is it?" she asked.

Melody sighed, breaking down. "I need your help. I have to seek revenge!"

"For Snape cursing your nose off?" Lily asked, the sides of her mouth twitching in amusement.

"It's not funny," Melody said, glaring and poking her tongue out at Lily. Lily just giggled.

"Well, what do you need my help for?"

"Me—and the guys—need to learn how to do a little Charm to thoroughly embarrass him. It's rather advanced, and none of us are especially good at Charms—well, nothing you shake a stick at, anyway. At least not compared to you. So we need your help."

"Who are all of the guys?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow. Lately, Melody had been hanging out with a group of Gryffindor boys a lot, but Lily wasn't clear on who they were.

"Well, there's Sirius, of course," Melody began, ticking the names off on her fingers as she went, "and then Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew,"—Melody stuck her tongue out and made a face as she reached Peter's name, and Lily laughed—"and James Potter."

Lily groaned at the mention of James's name.

"What?" Melody asked, clearly confused.

"I keep hearing that name! What is it with James Potter?" Lily said furiously.

"Well, he is Quidditch captain. And extremely popular. And devilishly handsome. Although not as handsome as Sirius, of course."

"Of course," Lily rolled her eyes. Melody had a thing for Sirius, along with just about fifty percent of the school. James and Sirius were supposed to be the heartthrobs of the school, and Lily wondered why she seemed to be the only one who hadn't noticed either of them.

Well, that was a lie. She had noticed Sirius, but that was because her best friend had a crush on him (even though she refused to admit it), and besides that, Melody was right: Sirius was devilishly handsome. And certainly more handsome than James, which didn't seem too hard to Lily, considering she didn't find James cute in the least.

"What? Do you not like James?" Melody asked.

"No...not really..." Lily said.

"Not really?" Melody said with raised eyebrows. "What is going on in the World of Lily?"

"Nothing!" Lily rolled her eyes. "I just had a run-in with James in the library today. He was very articulate," she said sarcastically. "Honestly, I don't know what people see in him. He's not that great. He couldn't even string two sentences together!"

"Really? What'd he say?"

"Not much of anything. Just a lot of tripping over his own words. The one coherent sentence he could manage was 'I say interesting stuff!' Now there's a conversation starter."

"He was stumbling over his words? That doesn't sound like James," Melody said, having a hard time picturing the confident, collected mischief-maker tripping over anything.

"Well, we're even then," Lily mused. "Because I didn't sound much like myself either."

"What'd you say?" Melody asked with interest.

"I practically told the poor guy off! But he deserved it, after spilling ink all over my robes..."

"He what?" Melody cried. Lily shook her head.

"Long story."

"Well, explain it to me!" Lily sighed and explained the events of this morning as well as she could.

"Well, it's obvious!" Melody said.

"What?" Lily asked.

"He likes you," Melody said matter-of-factly.

"Uh-huh," Lily said, rolling her eyes, but her cheeks turned pink. "Melody, what are you doing here? You know you're not supposed to be in the Ravenclaw common room. If Professor Flitwick comes in to check on us and sees you here again, you'll get suspended."

"Well, that was bad luck!" Melody said. "Give it a rest!" Lily rolled her eyes again.

"I told you, only come in here for emergencies," Lily said. "I shouldn't have allowed you to come in here at all!"

"Well, what's the fun in that?" Melody pouted. "Besides, this was an emergency!" she declared.

"Yeah? And what was the emergency?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I haven't seen you for a whole--" Melody paused dramatically, thinking about it for a moment before continuing. "--two days!" she concluded.

"Yes, two days. And you've been in so much pain and torment over it, haven't you?" Lily said dryly.

"It's been unbearable!" Melody wailed. Everyone in the common room turned to look at her. Lily looked around and tried to keep from laughing.

"That's enough, Melody," she said, smiling and shaking her head.

"Okay," Melody said, snapping back to normal immediately. (If you could call anything about Melody normal.)

"Nice hair," Lily said, noting Melody's neon orange locks. "Been eating lollipops again?" she asked.

Melody nodded. "I was trying to get something besides neon orange, but it didn't work." She sighed, looking as though she were terribly disappointed. "I guess I'll just have to give it another go next weekend!" she said. She only ate the suckers on Friday, because it took the effects of the lollipops two days to wear off, and, on top of turning her hair different colors, the suckers seemed to have an affect on her listening ability as well. So if she ate one during any day of the week besides Friday, she had to go to class with the effects of the sucker still on her, and her professors kicked her out of class for a combination of reasons every time she did, the main one being she usually got bored and started blowing up the desks.

"Are you excited about the Quidditch match tomorrow?" Lily asked. Melody was a Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. She played opposite Sirius, who was the other Gryffindor Beater.

Melody nodded and smiled evilly. "And we're going to kick your Ravenclaw butts!" she declared triumphantly. Several people close to her turned and glared.

"Keep it down, would you?" Lily hissed. "You know you're not supposed to be here!"

"Sorry," Melody said, her eyes twinkling, not looking sorry at all. "But we're still gonna kick your butts!" she said, although much quieter.

"No way," Lily said coolly. "Ravenclaw rocks! We are so much better than you! Just look at our mascot: an eagle. We're obviously going to be better fliers."

"Bet you ten Galleons Ravenclaw loses."

Lily grinned. "You haven't got ten Galleons."

* * *

"You still owe me five Galleons," Remus reminded Melody as they walked down the stairs to breakfast the next morning. 

"Oh, shut up," Melody said, pretending to whack him with her broomstick.

"No violence in the hallways. Ten points from Gryffindor," said Professor Thorne, who was passing. "And watch your broomstick, Miss Cauldwell, or you might just find yourself thrown off the Gryffindor Quidditch team."

They exchanged icy glares and continued walking down the hallway.

"Bastard," Melody muttered.

"Tut, tut!" Sirius said. "Watch that language now, my dear fellow Beater!" Sirius said, slinging an arm around her shoulders as they entered the Great Hall.

"Get off me, you great oaf!" Melody said, bopping him over the head with her broomstick and laughing. Sirius rubbed his head and slinked away, doglike.

"Feisty, isn't she?" he asked James.

"Feisty?" Melody said. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Would you two knock it off?" Remus intervened. "We do not need two-sevenths of our Quidditch team mauled before breakfast."

Melody and Sirius laughed, sticking their tongues out at each other. They did so all through breakfast, and it got quite annoying. James, Melody, and Sirius preferred not to eat before a Quidditch match, as they were always too nervous, or excited, or some combination of the sort. Remus and Peter spent the whole breakfast trying to persuade the three of them (well, Remus was trying to persuade the three of them; Peter was only worrying about James and Sirius) to eat, but to no avail.

After a long and grueling Quidditch match, with Lily cheering adamantly for the Ravenclaws with her friends Susie and Matt, and Mimi shamelessly flirting up Remus, both of them ignoring Peter, the Gryffindors won. Melody flounced over to Lily after the match and said, "Ha! We won! I told you so!" she stuck her tongue out. "You owe me ten Galleons!"

"We never made an official bet. I don't owe you anything!" Lily said.

"Damn."

"You still owe me five Galleons!" Remus yelled, walking by.

"Damn!" Melody said again. "I keep hoping he'll forget."

Lily laughed. "Nobody forgets money," she said. "Nobody."

Afterwards—that is, after a long party in the Gryffindor common room and lunch—Melody went over to the Ravenclaw common room, dragged Lily away from her Charms book, and took her to the Marauder Headquarters, where they were holding a meeting. Lily entered somewhat reluctantly and looked around.

"Chamber pots?" she asked, eyebrows raised. "Nice touch."

"Thank you!" Sirius said proudly, as it was his idea, and besides, he was the only other one there. "Quite a nice collection, if I do say so myself." Lily laughed again. She had beautiful laughter, which James did not miss when he walked in the door five minutes later to hear Lily laughing again.

Struck by both the beauty of the laughter and the person producing it, James stood, frozen, by the doorway, and was run into by Remus and Peter as they arrived together.

"James? Hello? HELLO?" Sirius yelled coming up to James and waving his hand in front of his face, yelling into his ear. James winced, blinked, and came back down to Earth, to see the Marauders staring at him with odd expressions on their faces. Lily was standing in the middle of the room, by their meeting table, looking at him with an amused expression on her face.

"Right," Sirius said. "Anyway, we have called this meeting for a reason! And it's not for James to gawk at Lily, so he'd better stop doing it right now," Sirius declared, sitting down at the head of the table and putting his feet up, looking at James and Lily's reactions with a satisfied look on his face.

Lily was sputtering, her face quite red. James was giving Sirius an Evil Death Glare and fervently denying anything of the sort. No one believed him.

After James and Lily had calmed down, they all sat at the table (Lily and James as far from each other as possible) and started discussing the prank they were going to pull. When Sirius and James were done describing what it was they were going to do (with as many bad imitations of Snape as possible), Lily was rolling on the floor laughing.

"That's—_brilliant_!" she gasped, clutching her stomach and climbing back in to her chair. "But if you get caught, you'll be in so much trouble!"

"Well, that's why we're not going to get caught." James said matter-of-factly.

"And if we do, oh well," Sirius shrugged. "We've already got detentions for two weeks anyway. What's another week or two? And we earned half those points back when we won the Quidditch game today. It's no big deal!"

"So are you going to help us?" James asked, leaning across the table toward Lily, his eyes twinkling mischievously. It was at that moment Lily suddenly realized how nice his eyes were. They were the color of melted chocolate. They looked warm, inviting, intelligent, and playful. How could she say no?

Quite suddenly, she blushed and looked away, muttering, "Sure."

"All right!" James said, clapping his hands together. "Here it is! The charm we want to perform! Sirius, the book, please?" Sirius handed over a large black book, which was falling apart. Silver lettering on the cover read _Hawkley's Book of Curses and Charms, Volume III: Advanced_.

James placed on the table and gingerly flipped its pages until he found the one he wanted. He shoved the book across the table to Lily, and she looked at it.

"I don't know," she said skeptically. "It looks a little dangerous."

"What's revenge without a little danger?" James exclaimed.

"Safe," Lily shot back.

"Oh, you're no fun!" James said. Lily stuck out her tongue at him and looked back at the book. "Did you just stick your tongue out at me?"

"Mm-hmm," Lily said calmly, eyes skimming over the page. "It's difficult," she said, pushing up her sleeves. "But it's doable. I think I can help you."

"Awesome!" James said.

"Not you," Lily said, looking up at James. "Her," she motioned to Melody. James's mouth fell open.

"You're a rude little thing, aren't you?" he said, but Lily ignored him and looked back down at the book. He only knew she was joking by the badly hidden smile on her half-hidden face.

"So how do we do this?" Melody asked, walking over and looking over Lily's shoulder. Lily shrugged.

"There's not much to it," she said. "We just follow the directions and try. The difficult part will be getting enough magic behind it. Sounds like you really have to concentrate."

"So after you learn it, you can teach us!" James said matter-of-factly.

"Was that an order or a request?" Lily asked crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Both," James declared, sitting in a chair and putting his feet up on the table.

"You know," Lily said thoughtfully, looking at the book again, "I really don't see why I should help you. I mean, you haven't really given me a good reason."

"Because you'll be getting revenge on Snape!" Melody said. "And you're my best friend! It's obvious!"

"You'll be doing the school a favor," Sirius assured her. "He'll be out of the way for a few weeks."

Lily raised her eyebrow higher and looked at all of them skeptically.

"What, you don't think you can do it?" James asked, eyes twinkling, arms crossed, a smug smile on his face.

Lily's mouth fell open slightly. "Are you challenging me?" she asked, smiling slightly.

"Maybe," James said coolly.

"All right," Lily said, standing up straighter and looking down at James. "I'll do it."

"I thought you would," James said, standing up.

"What, you can predict me now?" Lily said, walking around the table and crossing her arms again.

"Of course. You're too easy."

"I'm easy?" she said furiously, eyes widening. "What about you? If I flip my hair the right way, you'll just stand there looking all starry-eyed for five minutes before coming back to your senses."

James's cheeks burned red. "I will not!" he said indignantly. Lily laughed and walked back around the table, flipping her hair as she did so. James stared at her for a moment, but he didn't gawk like he had before.

Melody ducked under the table to keep from laughing.

* * *

"I don't know about this," Lily said several weeks later as she met Melody at the Marauder headquarters. 

She and James and Sirius had been the only ones able to perform the charm they needed to pull a prank on Snape, but Lily was the best at it, so they had commissioned her to perform it. They all, of course, insisted on tagging along.

So for the last few weeks, they had been preparing an invisibility potion, to turn them invisible. However, it would only last half an hour, so they would have to hurry.

"Oh, come on, Lily! It'll be fun!" Melody said cheerily, checking the potion. Lily gave her a withering glare.

"Define _'fun_.'"

"Anything but hanging out with you," came a new voice. Lily recognized it immediately, and groaned.

It was James.

"Well, I just live to torture you James," Lily said, turning around. "But you really should have thought of that before you gave me the password to your little headquarters here."

"Don't worry, we'll change the password," James said, grinning. Lily stuck her tongue out at him and turned back to Melody.

Several minutes later, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all came in together, laughing. "You really shouldn't have done that!" Remus said, gasping for air.

"Oh, but Bertha looked so good as a mule!" Sirius said.

"At least you're getting better at Transfiguration!" Peter said, wiping the tears away from his eyes.

"What'd I miss?" James and Melody demanded at the same time.

"You know Bertha Jorkins?" Sirius said, recovering first. Peter and Remus were still laughing.

"Yeah," James said.

"We ran into her in the hallway. She was being nosy again, so Sirius turned her into a mule," Remus finished. James and Melody started laughing again. Lily couldn't help but laugh, either. Bertha was one of the nosiest girls in school, always in other people's business. She wasn't a very talented witch, which was probably why she spent so much time being nosy. Or maybe it was the other way around. Lily wasn't sure.

"Did you change her back?" Lily asked, giggling.

"Well...kind of..." Peter said, starting to laugh again.

"Oh, McGonagall'll find her and change her back eventually," Sirius said. Remus, Peter, and Sirius started laughing harder. Lily groaned and put a hand over her face, while at the same time smiling and giggling too.

"Okay-okay," Melody gasped. "Let's get down to business!"

Once the Marauders calmed down (which took a while, since nearly every time Sirius, Peter, and Remus stopped laughing, one of them would hee-haw, and they'd start all over again, laughing harder than ever), they all ran through the plan for tonight again.

"Okay, here's how it goes," James said. "First, we take the potion."

"Second," Sirius continued, "we walk—or run—down to the Slytherin common room."

"Third," James said, "we use the stolen password to get in."

"We then find the dormitory where Snape sleeps and perform the charm," Sirius said.

"Then, we run like hell and hope the potion doesn't wear off and that we don't get caught," James finished.

"Got a backup plan?" Lily asked.

"Er—not really," James said. "But if we need one, we'll figure it out."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I should have known, considering the two geniuses planning all this," she said. James scowled.

"Okay, whatever!" Melody said. "Are we ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be," Remus said. Melody dished out the potion, nearly dropping Peter's as she handed it to him. She didn't seem to care. They swallowed it down and watched each other with wide eyes as they disappeared. Soon, there didn't appear to be anybody in the room.

Lily tried walking to the door, but she ran into somebody on the way. "Ow!" they both said at the same time. "Sorry," they both said. It took a while for the six invisible people to sort themselves out, but once they had, they were all holding hands, first so they wouldn't run into each other, and second, because Sirius and James were the only ones who knew the way to the Slytherin common room.

Trying to be as quiet as possible, they slipped out of the Marauder headquarters and down the hallway. Lily didn't know whose hands she was clutching, but the person behind her was starting to sweat, and the person in front of her seemed to be leading the way.

It was a very odd experience, to be clutching something she couldn't see, and also to not be able to see herself. It was even odder to not have any idea who she was hanging onto, although she had the sneaking suspicion the person behind her was Peter, as he seemed the only one who would get nervous in this situation. The person in front was either Sirius or James, as they knew the way and seemed overly confident. She could tell it wasn't Melody because the hand was too big to be hers.

She felt oddly secure, however, with her hand tucked inside the person's in front of her. She wasn't even nervous about what she was about to do. She just knew she was going to, and quite suddenly, it didn't matter much what happened after that. She just wanted to have fun.

Lily had never really pulled a prank before, although it sounded like fun, and she'd thought about it. She couldn't think of many people she'd like to play a prank on, first of all. Second, even if there was someone she wanted to pull a prank on, she couldn't think of anything to do to them. And by the time she'd thought of something, she hadn't really cared anymore.

But now, she was thinking, if she could come up with a good prank to pull on someone, she'd have to do it to James Potter.

They reached a stone wall, and whoever was in front of Lily stopped. She heard James's voice call out a password, and the wall slid open. They entered the Slytherin common room, which wasn't as nice as Ravenclaw's, Lily noted, and tried out three dormitories before finding Snape's.

"All right, Lily, do it!" Melody hissed. Lily rolled her eyes and dug into her robes for her wand. As if she didn't know what she was supposed to be doing right now. She whispered the incantation, and watched with pleasure as the spell began to take effect. The Marauders decided to leave before they completely lost it and started laughing their heads off. As they re-entered the common room, Lily looked down to see her hand starting to re-appear. And it was attached to James's.

"Uh-oh," she whispered.

"Uh-oh what?" James asked.

"Look down."

"Uh-oh."

"What?" Melody asked, but she didn't stop to wait for a response. "Oh, shit," she said, realizing what was happening.

"Hey! Who are you?" An angry Slytherin asked, popping his head over the back of a chair.

"Everyone grab a partner and run!" Sirius said, grabbing Melody's hand and making a mad dash for the door to the hall. Remus, Peter, James, and Lily followed suit and exited the common room as quickly as possible. "Split up! That way, if we get caught, it won't look quite as bad-or as suspicious, for that matter," Sirius continued. He and Melody ran off in one direction, Remus and Peter took another, and James and Lily looked at each other in disgust and ran straight ahead.

Running up a flight of stairs, Lily tripped and almost fell. James grabbed her hand and pulled her up. They kept running, and when they reached the top of the stairs, he didn't let go. They kept running, down a long hallway with lots of portraits. As they neared the end, someone slowly rounded the corner and started coming toward them. Before the person could see James and Lily, James grabbed her and pulled both of them into the shadows, in a little niche behind a suit of armor.

They stood close, breathing hard, as they watched Filch walk by. Lily moved to get out from behind the armor, but James pulled her back.

"Wait," he whispered. "Wait until he's at the end of the hall. And then a little longer. Mrs. Norris might come by."

Oh. Duh. Lily felt stupid. They stood there for a few more minutes. "Thanks," Lily whispered.

"For what?"

"Holding me back. You could have just let me go and make a complete fool out of myself."

James shrugged. She couldn't really see it since it was so dark, but they were so close she could feel it. A fact that was making itself acutely aware to Lily. It was beginning to get unbearably cramped back there, as Lily was trying as hard as she could to prevent any part of her body from touching his.

"Lily?" James said, sounding slightly concerned. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Lily said, pressing herself up against the wall. "Why?" She felt like hitting herself in the head the second she asked.

"You're as rigid as a broomstick. And I get the feeling you're trying not to touch me." He sounded amused.

"Don't be silly," Lily said, not making a move to relax. James put a hand on her arm, and she slid away. He laughed softly.

"You're afraid to touch me," he said. "I don't have cooties, you know."

"I am not afraid," Lily whispered indignantly. "I'd just prefer not to touch you." She kicked herself mentally, realizing how stupid that sounded.

James put a hand on her arm again, but this time she didn't shy away. She could practically hear James smiling in the silence, and she was sure he could feel her glaring at him. So what if he had just won an argument?

She still didn't think he was cute.

* * *

"They are too much," Melody said as she crept along the dark corridor, trying to get back to the Marauder headquarters unnoticed. 

"Who?" Sirius asked. He crept along behind her.

"Lily and James," Melody said.

"Oh, yeah. They sure do fight a lot, don't they?"

"Ya think?" Melody said sarcastically.

"Not really," Sirius replied. Melody laughed, then quickly stopped herself, not wanting to be discovered.

"They are so funny," she continued, shaking her head.

"How so?" Sirius asked.

"Well, James is trying so hard to act like he doesn't like her, and he's obviously ga-ga over her anyway, which you can't blame him for, because she really is beautiful. You know?" Melody said, stopping to turn and look at Sirius.

"Mm-hmm," he agreed absentmindedly, but Melody could tell he wasn't really following the conversation. He seemed to be more interested in staring at her, which was hardly a bad thing, but she wasn't in the mood for making out or flirting. She was more interested in setting up her best friend.

"And then poor Lily, trying so hard not to like him..." Melody shook her head. "I wouldn't be surprised if they fall in love."

"I'll bet you ten Sickles they fall in love and James kisses her first," Sirius said, but Melody shook her head.

"Uh-uh. No way,"

"Why not?"

"Because. You'd win."

* * *

James and Lily crept out from behind the statue and continued to walk along the hallway, as fast and as quietly as they could. James led her through several secret passages, only two of which she had known about before. 

Just as they were about to reach the Marauder Headquarters, just as they were almost home-free, someone came up behind them.

"Out for a midnight stroll?" A cheery voice asked. Lily and James looked around in horror.

They had run into Professor Dumbledore himself. "I must admit, it is lovely tonight. However, lovely nights are no reason to be breaking the rules."

"Sorry, Professor Dumbledore." Lily said. "We were just-" she found herself lost for words.

"It was my fault," James said quickly. "I dragged her out of bed to come see something."

Dumbledore raised his eyes. "You visited a Ravenclaw girls' common room? And how might you have stumbled upon the password?"

"Er," James said. Lily couldn't just let him stand there and take all the blame. She had to do something!

"I gave it to him," she blurted out. "I know I shouldn't have, but...he is a Prefect, so I assumed he wouldn't abuse the privilege. We were working on a Herbology project together. I'm sorry," she said, casting her eyes downward.

Dumbledore had an amused expression on his face. He knew for a fact that James Potter and Lily Evans didn't have a single class together, and that Lily wouldn't give him the password for the Ravenclaw Tower if her life depended on it—well, that was a bad analogy, but he knew she was completely trustworthy.

He'd been watching these two very carefully, as they were both unusually bright and gifted. They pretended to hate each other, but as they were covering up for each other, it was most obviously a charade.

He should give them both harsh punishments for breaking the rules, but there were several reasons why he was preparing to hold back. First of all, James was already being punished for a rather humorous incident in Potions. Second, Lily liked James a lot less than he liked her, and, although giving them a harsh punishment would in no way stop them from being friends, it would slow progress quite a bit, and if the most powerful witch and wizard in school became close friends, it would make them all the more powerful to fight Voldemort when they got older, which Dumbledore feared they'd have to do.

"Well, as you've broken the rules, you will each receive a detention, and ten points from each of your houses. That said, let me escort you both back to bed."

Lily and James followed Dumbledore up to Gryffindor, where James climbed through the portrait hole and bid good-bye to Lily, who was both furious with him for getting her in so much trouble and glad that he'd dragged her along in the first place.

"Nice boy, don't you think?" Dumbledore said as they walked from Gryffindor Tower down to the Ravenclaw Common room.

"Depends on how you define nice," Lily snorted. Dumbledore bit back a laugh.

"I take it you two don't get along very well, then?"

"About as well as oil and water."

"You'd be surprised how well oil and water can mix, when added to the right ingredients."

Lily looked at Dumbledore with wide eyes, surprised. Was he warning her of something? Was he trying to say she and James were going to start getting along? Or what?

It was ridiculous! She'd known James for only a couple of weeks, and already even Dumbledore was more interested in their relationship than she was. Next thing you knew, Bertha Jorkins or Rita Skeeter would have it spread all over school that she and James were dating.

"Well, I'll leave you to your sleep, then," Dumbledore said as they reached the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room. "Good night, Miss Evans," he said, smiling so cheerfully Lily just had to smile back.

"Good night, Professor Dumbledore."

* * *

Melody, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were waiting nervously for James and Lily to meet them. But they weren't coming. It had been an hour already since all of them had returned to the MHQ (Marauder Headquarters), and still no sign of Lily and James. 

"D'you think they got caught?" Melody asked.

"Must've," Sirius replied. "Well, let's go back to Gryffindor Tower then, and see if James isn't there yet. If he's got back, then so has Lily,"

"Sucks she's in Ravenclaw," Melody said as they lined up in front of the fireplace to be whisked away to Gryffindor Tower by Floo Network. "We'd have a lot more fun if she weren't. Well, if she were in Gryffindor, that is," she amended as Remus got whisked away.

"Don't say that," Sirius said. "We'd never hear the end of their fighting."

Sirius, Remus, Melody, James, and Peter came over to Lily the next morning at breakfast. Lily was eating with her friends Susie, Matt, and Mimi. Mimi had just gotten up to go ask the Hufflepuffs if they had any extra bacon, since theirs was all gone. James plopped down in Mimi's now-empty seat, which was right next to Lily's.

"Someone's sitting there, you know," Lily said, shooting James a look.

James shrugged. "I'll get up when she gets back."

"What do you guys want?" Lily asked, noting the four people standing behind her. She twisted around in her chair to face them.

"We just want to thank you for last night." Melody said. "And we came over to watch the show. You have a better view of the doors than we do, and we must see Snape when he comes in..." she trailed off, glancing over at the doors.

"Heard you had a run-in with Dumbledore last night," Sirius said.

"Yeah," Lily replied. "I don't think he believed our story, though."

"What'd you tell him?" Sirius asked.

"That I dragged her out of bed to go see something," James replied. "When he asked where I had gotten the password from, Lily said she had given it to me. She made it sound like she had a crush on me until she hastily added we were working on a Herbology project together. Even though Dumbledore probably knows we don't have any classes together."

Lily gaped at him, mouth wide open. Sirius started laughing. "I did not make it sound like I had a crush on you!" she said.

"Sure ya did," James said easily, leaning back in his chair. "Ah—bacon!" he said, grabbing a piece off the tray Mimi had brought over.

Still gaping at him, Lily did the only thing she could think of.

She poured a pitcher of pumpkin juice down the front of his robes.


	2. The Box

Chapter Two  
The Box

"He--had--no--idea!" Melody said, clutching her stomach and laughing hysterically. Lily smiled rather halfheartedly, disappointed that she'd missed seeing the effects of her charm, and also still angry with James for what had happened at breakfast.

After pouring the pitcher of pumpkin juice down the front of James's robes, she had stormed out of the Great Hall, so angry that splotches began appearing on front of her eyes, clouding her vision. Upon retreating into her dormitory, Lily found herself wondering why she'd gotten so mad in the first place. It hadn't been that big of a deal, really, what James had said. But James...

Lily always seemed to lose herself whenever she was around James. All her control, her manners, her normally docile personality, and her common sense flitted away like the Golden Snitch whenever she saw him. And she hated him for it.

"It's too bad you missed it!" Melody howled. "His thoughts were broadcast like a radio program, and there was this big purple bubble over his head spelling out his thoughts--like in Muggle funnies--and he had absolutely no idea!"

Madam Pince, who had just come back from delivering Dumbledore a book, heard Melody's laughter immediately. She walked over and looked sternly at Melody. "Get quiet or get out!" She snapped.

"Sorry," Melody said, much quieter, and got up to leave. "I'll talk to you later," she said to Lily, and left the library still laughing.

After Lily had retreated up to her dorm, she'd realized she had a History of Magic essay she still needed to finish. She only had one more inch left, and so far she hadn't been able to come up with any more information on the wizard pirate raids of Ireland in 1582. Unless she was going to write a very long closing paragraph in big, loopy writing or reiterate several facts she'd already mentioned, it looked like she'd be stuck in this library forever.

However, at that moment, the last person in the world she wanted to see strolled in--James Potter. He wasn't carrying any books with him, and Lily was immediately suspicious. She hoped he wasn't coming to talk to her.

Her suspicions were confirmed when he spotted her and started walking over. She groaned inwardly and began to pack up her things. She was nearly done shoving her supplies in her backpack when James sat down across from her.

"Hi," he said. He sounded normal; not cocky or angry or taunting or anything like the James she knew at all. She looked up, a tired expression on her face, and was surprised to see his face look rather...guilty.

"Hi," she said, and finished putting her quill and ink bottle in her pack. She slung it over her shoulders and gathered up the books she intended to borrow from the library, getting up from her chair. James stood with her.

"I wanted to talk to you," he said.

"So talk," Lily said simply, walking up to Madam Pince's desk with her books.

"I'm sorry about this morning," he said as Madam Pince filled out the cards in the front of the books.

"For what? You're the one who got pumpkin juice poured down your front," Lily reminded him, taking the books back from Madam Pince and thanking her. They walked out of the library side by side.

"Yeah, that's true. But I think I deserved it."

"Oh really?" Lily said, a smile playing on her lips.

"Yeah. I was being a git."

"What, are you asking me to forgive you?" Lily said, laughing. James looked at her, giving her a lopsided smile that, for some odd reason, made her blush. She looked away and hugged her books tightly to her chest.

"Of course not!" James said. "Just thought I'd let you know I'd have done the same thing myself. Bye!" He gave her a cocky grin and strolled off, whistling to himself. Lily stared after him, blinking.

"Did that just happen?" she asked to the thin air.

"I believe it did," said a voice, and Lily jumped and turned to see the Grey Lady, Ravenclaw's ghost, hovering in the hall behind her. Lily smiled.

"Hey, Lady," Lily said, using the nickname she had given to the ghost in first year. They had become something of friends in the last five years, and, as Lady was now over 600 years dead, she always gave good advice.

"So, who is he?" Lady asked. Lily sighed and leaned back against the wall, hugging her books to her chest.

"A git," she replied. "Just like he said."

"Are you sure?" Lady asked. "He seemed very nice to me. Just a little shy."

"Shy?" Lily sputtered. "Please! That guy has an ego big to fill two World Cup stadiums!"

"That as it may be, don't you see he was trying to apologize for being a--what did you call him?"

"A git," Lily supplied.

"Yes, a git. He was trying to apologize for it, but at the last minute he lost his nerve."

Lily snorted. "Please. If I ever seem James Potter apologize for anything, I'll die of shock." Lady just shrugged.

"He does seem proud. But he likes you. And he is rather handsome."

Lily rolled her eyes. "So they say," she said. "But I, personally, don't see what's so great about him."

By this time, the Grey Lady had a knowing smile on her face. "All right, Lily flower," she said gently. "You should probably continue studying."

Lily nodded, bid her good-bye, and left.

* * *

"Chicken!" James reprimanded himself. "You are never going to make any progress if you can't at least be nice to the girl!"

"So, how did it go?" Sirius asked, bouncing out of a secret passageway on James's left and spotting him immediately.

"I must be possessed," James said. "Every time I get near her, I act like a complete git."

"Well, maybe you are a complete git!" Sirius said. James glared at him.

"You are not helping."

"Sorry," Sirius shrugged. "Maybe you should send her flowers or something. Girls like that."

James laughed sharply. "Yeah, right. She'd think I was a psycho. Besides, I don't think I like her that much anyway." Sirius shrugged again.

"Whatever. But you better be sure, because someone else is gonna snag her if you don't."

"Oh, I'm sure," James said. "I don't give a damn about what happens to Lily Evans."

* * *

"Who do you think I should ask out first?" Mimi asked, flopping down on her bed, which was right next to Lily's. Lily looked up from her copy of _Witch Weekly_ at her.

"Out of who?"

"James, Remus, and Sirius, silly!"

"Oh, them," Lily said, rolling his eyes. "I don't know,"

"Oh, come on!" Mimi whined. "You've been hanging out with them almost every day for like, three weeks. Give me some advice!"

"Fine. Then, James," Lily said.

"Yeah, he is pretty cute," Mimi said, eyes dancing. Lily snorted.

"That's not why I picked him," she said.

"Well then why did you?"

"Because he's the biggest jerk. You'll be able to get him out of the way first."

Mimi shot Lily an annoyed look.

"What?" Lily said defensively. Mimi just rolled her eyes. After a few minutes of silence, with Mimi filing her nails and Lily flipping through her magazine, Mimi gasped. "What?" Lily asked.

"You don't like him, do you?" Mimi asked.

"No! Don't be ridiculous," Lily said, her cheeks turning pink at the mention of it.

"You do, don't you!" Mimi said, her eyes widening in shock. "Oh my God! I can't believe I was about to go after a guy my best friend has a crush on. I feel so stupid!"

"I don't have a crush on him!" Lily insisted, throwing a pillow at Mimi, her flaming red cheeks not at all helping her case.

Mimi couldn't respond; she was laughing too hard at her best friend's face.

* * *

"Lily! I need to talk to you!"

Lily turned as she exited Study of Ancient Runes about a week later to see Remus Lupin jogging after her.

"What's up?" she asked as he caught up to her.

"We need your help."

"'We'? Who's 'we'?" Lily asked, not sure she wanted to know, while at the same time sure she already knew who he was talking about.

"Me, James, Sirius, Peter, and Melody."

Lily groaned.

"What's wrong? You sound like Thorne just assigned you a forty-inch essay on the importance of evenly chopped Potions ingredients or something."

"That would be better than spending forty seconds in the same room as James," Lily said.

"You try so hard to dislike him it hurts to watch," Remus said, shaking his head.

"Who's trying?" Lily shot back.

"Touché."

Lily smiled and took this moment to give him a once-over. Mimi was right--he was rather cute. But he had pale skin, and heavy bags under his eyes, as though he hadn't slept for weeks. Which, Lily reminded herself, considering his crazy friends, he probably hadn't.

"So will you help us?" Remus asked.

"Depends," Lily said, coming to a stop in front of the Transfiguration classroom, where she had to go next. "What do you want me to do?"

"None of us really understand that new Charm Professor Flitwick's been trying to teach us--you know, that Teleportation Charm--and we wanted some help." Lily rolled her eyes.

"You all do realize, don't you, that I don't really like Charms that much?"

"We know. You like Potions. But so what?" Remus shrugged. "You're good at them. So will you help us?"

Lily sighed. "I suppose," she said. Remus smiled.

"Be at MHQ tomorrow at the end of class. We can spend the afternoon on it."

"What's the password?" Lily asked. "You haven't changed it, have you?"

"Oh, that's right. Yeah. We changed it."

"So what is it?"

"'Flowers are annoying'. Bye!"

Lily looked after him as he walked away, mouth open in shock. 'Flowers are annoying'? Was that, in any way, directed at her? If it was, Lily would have bet a million Galleons it was James who had come up with that password.

* * *

It was nearing the end of November, and, as such, was getting closer to Christmas. Lily needed to start thinking about Christmas presents. She would, of course, get presents for her parents, her older sister Petunia, her younger sister Daisy, and her younger brother Dean.

Then she would buy for her friends at school: Melody, Mimi, Susie, and Matt were first on her list...Lily considered whether or not she should buy presents for the Marauders. After many minutes of thought that led her around in circles, she decided to buy presents for Remus, Sirius, Peter, and...James. She'd have to get something really stupid for James, but not too stupid, since it was, after all, Christmas. Then there was the other thing about Christmas--where was she going to stay?

Would she stay at Hogwarts, like she had last year, or would her parents want her at home? She had rather liked the Christmas at school last year--but then, there was nothing like a good Christmas at home. However, Christmases at home had been rather awkward ever since Lily had started attending Hogwarts. Petunia and Daisy had gotten rather cold with her, though Daisy wasn't quite as bad as Petunia. Lily wasn't especially looking forward to seeing her sisters. However, there was always her parents and her dear old brother Dean--they were just the same as ever. Dean was always interested in Hogwarts and constantly asking her questions about it. Her parents were ever so proud of her, too, and she did miss them over the school year.

Lily, who was up in her dormitory, sighed. She decided to write a list of all the people she was giving gifts to and what she planned to give them. Melody would, of course, be the easiest to shop for. Lily was thinking some nice jewelry or a book of hair and makeup spells might do the trick, but then, she could go out on a limb and buy her some nice dress robes. Melody's family was rather poor, and she adored nice things. She'd find something for her in Hogsmeade next weekend; she was sure of it.

Mimi always appreciated jewelry and make-up, but most of hers was of the Muggle variety, since she was a Muggle-born. Lily decided to see if she couldn't find some magical make-up for her.

Matt was rather loud, and he had a rather odd obssession with socks. He always cut his robes off at the bottom so people could see his unique socks. Lily had seen some interesting socks in Hogsmeade last weekend, and thought several magical pairs would keep him occupied for a while.

Susie was kind of like Lily--quiet, reserved, and rather studious. She would appreciate a book of some sort.

Lily's parents would appreciate anything magical she gave them. The same went for Dean. She would probably get them some candies or joke products.

Petunia and Daisy would appreciate something that looked as non-magical as possible.

Those were the easy ones. Now came the hard part--what in the world could she come up with for the other four Marauders? Lily figured they already had every joke product ever invented--and possibly some they had invented themselves. She wondered briefly if Zonko's or Honeydukes sold gift certificates like some Muggle stores and made a mental note to check.

If not, Sirius looked like the kind of person who valued hair gel--but she figured he already had a supply. Lily laughed as a brief image of Sirius in a leather jacket flashed across her mind. But a leather jacket would be an impossibility--first of all, they were too expensive; and second, she figured next he'd want a motorcycle to go with.

Peter...well, Peter was nice enough. He just needed to be a little more secure in his own right and stop trying to be someone else--like Sirius or Remus or James. She thought of maybe getting him some magical stress balls that magically soothed and lifted your mood.

Remus was probably the nicest of them all, and the most serious, at that. He might like something more practical, and she figured a visit to a bookstore would sort everything out.

And then there was James. James...well, James...there really were no words to describe James. Maybe she should just get him a box. Lily giggled at the thought of James opening his unusually light Christmas present from her and only finding a very fancy, very empty, box. She immediately felt guilty and wiped the thought away. She couldn't give a gift that mean to anybody.

But still, she had to admit to herself, it would be funny...

* * *

Lily reread the letter for the fifth time, then set it down and leaned back against her headboard, groaning. A school owl had just delivered her a letter from her parents. _Dear Lily,_ it read.

_We hope you're having fun at school! You better not be getting in too much trouble. This James fellow you've been writing about does seem rather teasing, but he is only a fifteen-year-old boy._

We've decided that it's your choice whether you'd like to come home for Christmas or stay at Hogwarts this year. We'd all like for you to come home, but if you don't want to...we understand.

"Owl" us back!

Love, Mom and Dad.

Lily reread the sentence "We'd all like for you to come home, but if you don't want to...we understand" several more times before folding the letter up and putting it away. She groaned again and covered her face with her hands.

That sentence felt like a weight on her chest. "We'd all like for you to come home, but if you don't want to..."

"If you don't want to..."

How was she supposed to make a decision like that? It should have been easy, but it wasn't. If she chose to stay at Hogwarts, she would disappoint her parents. If she chose to go home, she'd face her two sisters and disappoint her best friend. (Melody always stayed over Christmas holiday at Hogwarts--she said Christmas at home was too depressing.)

Lily rubbed her eyes, which were beginning to feel heavy. It was late, and she needed sleep. Burrowing down under her covers, Lily became oblivious to the world around her. She was oblivious to the crickets chirping outside, the spider crawling on the ceiling outside her bed, Mimi's snores in the next bed over, and she was oblivious to the fact that, several floors above, James Potter was becoming oblivious to the exact same things.

Except he was becoming oblivious for a different reason.

He was becoming oblivious because he was thinking about Lily.

* * *

It was Friday. Lily was supposed to meet the Marauders today as soon as classes were out. 'Flowers are annoying'...she still couldn't believe the password. And she couldn't believe she was actually going to get James Potter a Christmas present. She would bet anything he wasn't planning on getting anything for her.

She was on her way from Potions to Arithmancy when James Potter sidled up to her in the hallway.

"We've never had a class together, have we?" he said, as though continuing a long conversation they'd been having.

"What?" Lily asked, surprised.

"I mean, I've been thinking about it, and wondering why I'd never noticed someone as annoying as you before, and how it was possible that, in five years, we haven't had a single class together. But I don't think we have."

"You've been thinking? Well that's a shock," Lily muttered. James heard her, but he ignored it.

"I mean, it's hard to believe the Gryffindors haven't had any classes with the Ravenclaws. Well, there are Ravenclaws in my Care of Magical Creatures class, but you're not. I don't think we've had any classes together."

Lily, who had been thinking during all James's ramblings, suddenly realized that they had, in fact, had a class together. "Yes, we have," she said suddenly. "Flying class. In first year. You and Sirius kept trying to dive-bomb me because I wasn't such a good flier. My hair was a lot browner then."

"Oh, was that you?" James said thoughtfully. "Now I remember! Yeah, you were annoying. You kept whining to Madam Hooch. 'Professor! He's going to kill me! PROFESSOR!'" James imitated in a really bad falsetto voice. Lily whacked him on the shoulder and tried to keep from laughing. He was being stupid and making fun of her, and it was a really bad impression, but he was funny.

Unfortunately.

* * *

Lily couldn't pay attention in Arithmancy. The Professor was droning on about something or other, but all Lily could think about was her parents' letter. She had so much to think about...should she go home for Christmas, or stay here? What should she get everybody for Christmas? Why did Mimi have to keep talking about James, Sirius, and Remus? For that matter, why did Mimi think Lily had a crush on James? Why did James keep bugging her? Why was Melody so ga-ga over Sirius? Why had she agreed to help the Marauders with that stupid charm in the first place?

By the end of Arithmancy Lily had herself so worked up she was close to tears. She hurried to the Ravenclaw girls' dormitory and threw her books hastily on her bed. She rushed back out again just as quickly.

She had to get away—fast. She needed to go somewhere where she could think, and no one would bug her. The dormitory was out of the question—Mimi would come up and start babbling about Remus and Sirius and James. She knew she was supposed to be going to MHQ, but if Mimi babbling about Remus and Sirius and James was bad, seeing them in person would be even worse.

There was only one place she could think to go to get away from everyone and everything—and she'd need a broom to get there. Lily walked out of the castle, not caring who saw her, and went out to the broom shed. Grabbing the most promising broom she could find, Lily shakily flew up into the air.

She flew up above the school and landed on the roof. From there she could see all of the grounds and the Forbidden Forest, stretching off into the distance. She wasn't sure where it ended or why it was there, but she knew there was a reason for its existence, if not just to protect another side of Hogwarts.

She set her broom down and magically bound it so it wouldn't roll off and leave her stranded. She sat down, brought her knees up to her chest and put her head on them, willing all her troubles to just go away. When she lifted her head up, her mind seemed miraculously clear.

The sky was incredibly blue. She couldn't see a cloud in it as her gaze drifted back over the grounds. The lake sparkled like diamonds in the sunlight. Lily sighed contentedly and wished she could stay right here forever. It was perfect. Just as she was thinking to herself that nothing could be better than feeling as at peace with the world as she was now, she suddenly felt a pang of sadness, or...maybe it was emptiness...no, it really wasn't either of those things. It was...longing.

Longing? What was she longing for? Lily was suddenly confused. What was there that she could possibly want--besides time alone? She had her friends, her family, her school...

But as she looked over the grounds, she saw two seventh years kiss, and felt the pang again. She hugged her knees to her chest tighter and looked at the couple with even more longing than before.

Closing her eyes, Lily imagined herself as one of those people. She had never had a boyfriend before, and, though she'd kissed a couple guys, it was nothing special. She wanted something special. Suddenly a picture of James popped into her mind, and she opened her eyes, upset. That was the problem, right there—people like James. With all of those idiots running around the school, how was she ever supposed to find someone special? How was she going to find someone who understood her and loved her—and that she cared about equally?

It was impossible. She already knew pretty much all the boys in her year—and she couldn't imagine falling in love with any of them. She supposed she'd have to wait until she was out of school to find anyone she really cared about.

She suddenly felt eyes watching her and twisted around to see James Potter on his broomstick, looking at her. Her stomach fell. She turned back around with a stony expression on her face. Nobody would be able to tell, but despite her hard expression, she was just about to cry.

"Go away," she said bitterly.

"What's wrong?" James asked, actually sounding concerned as he landed on the roof and got off his broom.

Lily looked over at him, ready to tell him off, but she stopped, words at the tip of her tongue. He looked very...different. The sun was shining behind his head and the wind was blowing his hair. At that moment, Lily actually thought he looked...well, handsome. Her heart skipped and started beating faster.

She tried to knock some sense into herself, but it wasn't happening. Her heart continued beating faster and faster, and she kept staring at him. James smiled at her. The smile was having a strange effect on her breathing, and her legs...she was afraid if she stood up she would just fall right back down again.

What was wrong with her?! She felt like screaming, but she couldn't. Her throat had tightened and she felt she could barely speak, even if she tried.

"You're looking at me funny," James said, still smiling irresistibly. Irresistibly!? WHAT?! Since when was James Potter irresistible? Ha! Yeah right. Like she'd ever be attracted to James Potter. It was all this fresh air...it was starting to get to her. Immediately all her strange feelings left.

"You!" she said furiously. "You are harder to get rid of than a—a—popcorn kernel or—or—a—Milk Dud or—something—stuck in my teeth!"

"What's a Milk Dud?" James asked, looking confused, a weird little grin on his face. It was not cute at all, Lily was relieved to notice.

"You don't know what a Milk Dud is?"

"No."

"Your parents were wizards, weren't they?"

"Yeah."

Lily nodded. "I thought so."

"So, what's a Milk Dud?"

"It's a Muggle candy. It's chocolate, and really chewy. It gets stuck in your teeth a lot. I think it's part caramel, too...I'm not really sure what else is in them." Lily shrugged, and smiled. "I like 'em."

James nodded. "Why're you up here? We've been waiting for you."

Lily sighed and looked back out at the lake. James sat down next to her. "I couldn't come. I..." she sighed again and dropped her head down by her legs.

"You what?" James asked, reaching over and pushing Lily's hair behind her ear.

Lily looked over at him, surprised. He was looking at her very seriously and she was surprised to find herself looking just as seriously back.

"I had too much to think about. I...oh God, I am so stressed you wouldn't even understand."

James laughed sharply. "Try me."

"What, your life as a prankster and Quidditch captain is so tough?" Lily asked, expecting a smart remark like, "Oh yes, dungbombs are more technical than you think!" But she didn't get what she was expecting.

"Lily, do you know who my father is?" James asked, and this time it was him looking out at the lake.

"No." Lily said. "Who is he?"

James just shook his head. "I don't want to tell you. It's nothing embarrassing, it's just..."

"You're not ashamed of him, are you?" Lily asked, actually starting to feel sorry for him if he was.

"No, not at all. I'm very proud of him. But he..." James sighed. "His job takes a lot of responsibility. He expects me to be just the same. I'm fifteen, and he expects me to act like I'm forty-five. I don't know if I'm ready for that."

Lily looked at him, blinking. This was a side of James she'd never seen before. In fact, there were a lot of sides of James she bet she'd never seen before. He was not at all what she'd been expecting.

"I just want to be a fifteen-year-old boy while I'm still fifteen, you know?" He said, smiling wryly at her.

Lily gave a small smile. Here she had been, thinking all he cared about was where he was going to pull his next prank, but, as she had just discovered, he wasn't that simple. _No one's that simple, Lily_, she reminded herself. _You of all people should know that!_

"So what are your parents like?" James asked, leaning back. Lily shrugged and started playing with the bottom of her robes.

"They're cool," she said. "They're Muggles, but they're really happy for me. Always interested in school," she sighed and let her robes fall out of her hands. That letter was still bugging her. She was fifteen--you'd think she'd be able to make a simple decision like where to stay for Christmas!

"What's wrong?" James asked, seeing the expression on Lily's face.

"This letter," she said. "My parents wrote me this letter, and—augh!" Lily groaned, burying her face in her hands.

"What did the letter say?"

Lily sighed again and dug into her robes for the letter. She had been carrying it around with her. Now she couldn't believe she was going to share this with James. She hadn't even told Melody!

James read the letter. "So...can't decide where to stay for Christmas, huh?"

"It's stupid, I know. I don't know why it's bugging me so much."

"It's not stupid," James said. "It's hard to feel like you might be letting your parents down. I have to make that decision every year. This year I'm staying at Hogwarts."

"Well that settles it, then," Lily said matter-of-factly.

"What?" James asked.

"I'm going home for Christmas!" she declared, smiling at him so all her teeth showed. James laughed.

"Come on, let's go." James said, standing up again. Lily groaned and stood up, taking off the charm binding her broom to the roof. She looked over at the couple down by the lake and felt another pang in her heart.

"You know what, I'm not ready yet." Lily said. "I still need some time to think. I need to be alone."

James nodded. "Well, when you're ready, we'll be at MHQ, waiting for you."

Suddenly Lily felt angry and bitter. She didn't know why, but looking at the couple was making her sick. "And I'll be up here, not caring," she said bitterly. As James was about to fly away, she caught sight of his face. And he looked hurt. Lily suddenly felt guilty.

"James, wait!" she called after him, standing up suddenly. She lost her balance for a moment and dropped her broom, windmilling her arms to keep from falling herself. A strong arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her onto a broom. James.

"Thanks," Lily breathed, her heart beating like a bass drum in her ears.

"I'm taking you hostage," James whispered into her ear. It tickled, and she giggled, goosebumps springing up on her neck.

"Just don't drop me," Lily whispered back. James got an evil grin on his face. He dipped the broom almost vertically and immediately righted it again. Lily screamed. James laughed softly and wrapped his arm around her tighter.

"I won't let you fall," he promised. She felt safe, but she still didn't like hovering so many feet above the ground. She leaned as far back as she could and put her head back on his shoulder, scrunching her eyes up tight. She heard James laugh again but didn't care. She thought she felt his lips brush her forehead and her eyes flew open. He wasn't even looking at her, just concentrating on flying to the ground. She must have imagined it...

They landed and got off the broom. "Now, off to MHQ!" James said, turning back into his old self.

"Oh, goody," Lily muttered. Then she realized something—she had actually told him about the letter, and she didn't want to tell anybody else. "James, about the letter—" she began, but James cut her off.

"I won't tell anybody," he said. Lily almost smiled.

* * *

"You can't go home for Christmas!" Melody cried, overreacting as usual.

"Why?" Lily asked calmly.

"What am I going to do without you?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't know!"

"Please stay at Hogwarts! Pleeeeease!" Melody whined. Lily sighed. Here she was, stuck again.

"I don't know, Melody...I..." Lily trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"I promise I won't make you hang out with the Marauders," Melody said. "Pleeeeeease?" She begged.

Lily smiled and rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "What am I going to do with you?" she said.

"Are you staying?"

After a moment of internal struggle, Lily spat out an answer. "Oh, fine!"

"Yaaaay! Now go sign up!"

* * *

Lily had hit almost every store in Hogsmeade, and she still hadn't gotten a present for James. She had owled her parents this morning with her decision, which hadn't been easy. She had been shopping with Melody most of the day, but they had split up for about an hour to buy presents for each other.

Lily checked her watch—it was time to meet Melody in the Three Broomsticks. She hurried in, her cheeks rosy from the bitter wind blowing outside, and looked around, taking off her hat. James and Sirius were at the bar, talking to a pretty waitress, who was laughing. Remus and Peter were at a nearby table, having a very heated discussion about something. Mimi, Susie, and Matt had a table in the corner. They waved at her, and she waved back, but declined an invitation to join them. She finally spotted Melody in the center of the room.

"So, how'd your shopping go?" Melody asked as Lily sat down.

"Great!" Lily replied. "But I still don't have a present for James,"

A waitress came over and they ordered two butterbeers and some cheese fries.

Melody raised an eyebrow. "James? Since when are you buying presents for your enemies?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "He's not exactly an enemy, Melody. Just extremely annoying. Besides, I told you I was buying presents for the Marauders."

"Yeah, but I didn't know that included James. I mean, according to you, James is worse than Snape."

Lily groaned. "Don't ever say that James is worse than Snape. I mean, James is bad, but he's not that bad."

Melody laughed. Their food came and Melody pounced on the cheese fries. Lily took a few gulps of butterbeer and set her mug down again, still wondering what in the world to get for James.

"So, do you have any idea what you're gonna get him?" Melody asked, mouth still stuffed.

"A box," Lily said. Melody almost spat out the cheese fries. She swallowed quickly and started laughing, while at the same time half-choking. Lily smiled and picked up a fry. "Really, I have no idea," she said.

"Well how much do you really know about him?" Melody asked, drinking some butterbeer. Lily shrugged and bit off the end of a fry.

"Not much," she admitted. "I know he's a Prefect, he's a Gryffindor, he's a prankster, he's Quidditch captain, he doesn't bother to try at Charms, he likes Transfiguration, he hates Snape, and he feels like his father puts too much pressure on him to be responsible."

Melody froze. She had been nodding along as Lily had said all she really knew about James, but when she had gotten to the part about his father putting on too much pressure--where had she heard that? Melody didn't think she'd ever heard James say anything about his father. She shrugged and let it slide. If Lily and James were getting close, she didn't have a problem with it.

"Well, none of that's really very good for picking out a Christmas present, unless you want to get him some Quidditch stuff or a Transfiguration book."

"Yeah, I thought about it," Lily said, "but it was just too boring."

"Well, I promised the Marauders I'd spend some time with them today because I'll be hanging out with you for all of Christmas holiday."

"You don't have to hang out with me exclusively," Lily said. "Don't be silly! I don't care if you hang out with Sirius a lot."

"But you'd care if I hung out with James."

"I don't care if you hang out with James's whole family, just as long as you don't make me go with you."

Melody rolled her eyes. "Hey, I was the one who begged you to stay, and I'm not gonna desert you over Christmas. I'll see you later, okay? Good luck finding a present for James," she said, finishing her butterbeer, dropping some money on the table, gathering up her bags, and waving good-bye. Lily waved back and finished her drink. She paid for the rest of it and left a tip, then resumed her shopping.

On the outskirts, by the bottom of the hill where the Shrieking Shack stood, she spotted a small shop she'd never really noticed before.

Flitwick's  
Magical Bags, Boxes, Wrapping Paper, and Containers.  
-All sizes!  
-Bottomless  
-Shape-shifting  
-Shrinkable/Expandable  
-Musical  
-Color-changing

Lily laughed and pushed her way into the store. So she was going to end up getting James a box after all.

"Can I help you?" A rather small wizard asked, coming up to her. Lily did a double take on him.

"You--you look like one of my Professors!" she exclaimed.

"Professor Flitwick?" the wizard asked. Lily nodded. He smiled. "That's my younger brother! Excellent at Charms, you know...our whole family is, really. Which is why we charmed all these boxes and bags and opened a shop."

Lily smiled and looked around at the shelves and racks full of boxes and bags.

"So, is there anything in particular you're looking for?"

"I'm looking for a box," Lily said.

"What kind? Bottomless, shape-shifting, color-changing, musical? A combination?"

"Umm..."

"Would you like to customize a box?"

"That would be nice." Lily said. "How much?"

"It all depends," he said. "They can range anywhere from 5 Knuts to 15 Galleons."

Lily looked in her money purse and saw she still had 5 Galleons, 17 Sickles, and 12 Knuts left. That would be enough to buy a box. "I think I will," she said, and the wizard helping her got very excited.

"Oh, wonderful, wonderful!" He said, and scurried into the back room, where he brought out a very plain brown box. "Come, come, over to the table!" he said, walking over to a table, which had chairs on both sides. He sat down in one, and Lily sat across from him.

"Is this for you, or will it be for someone else?"

"Someone else."

"Would you like any engravings? A name on the box? Initials, perhaps?"

"How much?"

"One Knut per letter."

Lily considered. "A name," she decided.

"First or last?"

"First. It's James."

"Gold or silver?"

"Silver."

"Where would you like it?" Lily pointed to a side of the box. "How is it spelled?" Lily told him.

"Choose your lettering," The wizard said, waving his wand, a display popping up in front of her. She chose a very basic block lettering.

The wizard performed a charm, and five silver letters appeared on the box. Lily smiled. They looked nice, but the colors didn't match the rest of the box. "We need to change the color."

The wizard smiled. "Would you like one color, color-changing, color changing with limited colors, patterns, changing patterns, patterns and colors to change at will, or something else?"

Lily's head was spinning. "Uh..."

"Would you like to hear them again? An explanation of each, perhaps?"

"Explanation, please."

"Certainly. And I can demonstrate each if you like." Lily nodded.

"Very well! First, we have the one-color option. You may choose any color you wish, but the box will stay that color forever. It will not fade." He demonstrated by turning the box blue. "You can have any color effects on it you wish. Glossy, metallic, pastel, et cetera." Lily nodded. "You can also choose or create a pattern that will stay permanently. Colors for this option will be one sickle, and patterns are one sickle, two knuts.

"You can have constantly changing colors on the box. You can have unlimited colors, or a specific number of colors for the box to change to. There are a number of different transitions to choose from, such as fading, melting, glowing out from the inside, etc. You can also have a certain set of colors or an unlimited range of colors which the owner can change at any time. The exact same is true for the patterns. Although I find the changing patterns are much more interesting." Mr. Flitwick demonstrated. He was right. "Unlimited colors are five sickles, limited up to twelve is three sickles. Unlimited patterns are seven sickles, limited up to six is five sickles.

"Or you could have the box enchanted to change from patterns to solid colors, either on its own or at the will of the owner. This option is one Galleon. Or you could suggest something of your own."

"Could I have the box be both changing unlimited patterns and changing unlimited colors, but with the option of choosing whether or not you want the pattern or solid color?"

"Yes, you could."

"How much would that be?"

"Two Galleons. Would you like that?"

Lily bit her lip. Two Galleons...for James? But she nodded anyway. "I'd like that."

Mr. Flitwick took a few minutes and performed several complicated Charms on the box. "Are you sure you want this before I place an irreversible charm on it?"

"I'm sure," Lily said after a few seconds of hesitation.

Mr. Flitwick put on the charm. "All right, now we can discuss depth, size, shape, etc. We have bottomless, shape-shifting, shrinking & expanding..."

"What's shrinking & expanding?"

"It can shrink or expand to any size or dimension within limits. Smallest dimension would be 1 cm in all directions. The largest is 10 meters in all directions."

"That sounds good." Mr. Flitwick nodded and put the charm on. He explained how to control the dimensions of the box.

"Would you like a musical box?"

Lily considered for a fleeting moment, to get James a really pretty box with a really annoying song, but then decided it was stupid. "No," she said. Mr. Flitwick nodded.

"Almost done. Would you like any anti-theft, alarm, anti-loss, or other charms?"

"What's anti-loss?" Lily asked, curious. She'd never heard of it before.

"If the box is left in a certain place designated by the owner and is removed from that place by anyone but the owner, it will return to that place automatically after 48 hours. If it is left alone, and out-of-place for a week it will return to its proper place. The designated place can easily be determined by the owner by using a simple Placement Charm. Do you know how to perform one?"

"Yes."

"I thought you would. Your friend would as well?"

"Yes."

"How do you like the sound of anti-loss?"

"I like it." Lily said. "How much for that?"

"Four Sickles."

"I'll take that." Mr. Flitwick put the charm on.

"Anything else you'd like?"

"No, thanks."

"That'll be two Galleons, seven Sickles, and five Knuts."

Almost three Galleons for a BOX?!?! Lily thought, but she shrugged and paid up. He put it into a bag for her and waved her from the shop. She waved back and started walking down the street, back towards Hogwarts.

As she walked, she thought about what she had just done. She had just paid nearly three Galleons for a magical box. She had seriously considered size, colors, and security options. And she'd had James's name put on in silver lettering.

Walking down the street, carrying Christmas presents and her very expensive box, Lily Evans burst into hysterical laughter and couldn't stop for nearly five straight minutes.


	3. Christmas

Chapter Three

Christmas

Lily Evans and Mimi Ramirez were lounging around the Ravenclaw Common Room, trying to relax. Holidays started in a couple days, and everyone was trying to pretend they were already here. Matt and Susie (two fellow Ravenclaws) rushed in, yelling about some snowball fight or another they were having outside. Matt's socks were also making a great deal of noise, as they were musical and had started playing the William Tell Overture. Mimi and Lily groaned, but allowed themselves to be dragged outside.

The simple snowball fight between a handful of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs soon turned into an all-out war. The Gryffindors, not wanting to miss any of the fun, soon came over and joined in. Then the Slytherins wanted to be a part of it, came over, and started building a snow fort. The other houses followed suit (using magic, of course).

The Hufflepuffs, led by 7th year Amos Diggory, made a very simple snow fort. It was a big semicircle, really, with a few peepholes and two floors. The Slytherins, led by Snape and some of his friends, were in the process of making what looked like a Doomsday fortress, complete with boiling oil. Melody, over at the Gryffindor fort, tried to point out the boiling oil would just melt the Slytherin castle, but would they listen? Of course not.

The Gryffindors had set out to make something of a miniature Hogwarts, but with Sirius Black and James Potter in charge, they often forgot to add things, and as a result, their fort ended up looking more like a lopsided birthday cake than a fortress. The Ravenclaws, who were led by Lily, got finished first, with a neat, precise, fully armed, rather glorious-looking fort, and began to wreak havoc on the other three houses as they desperately tried to finish building their forts.

Matt's socks, sensing the occasion, started in on a battle march as the war began. The Hufflepuffs were finished next, and then the Slytherins, and last were the Gryffindors, still making additions to their very odd-looking fortress. The Slytherins first decided to pick on the Hufflepuffs, which they figured was probably the easiest target. Lily frowned when she saw this and thought it was an incredibly bad strategy. If they wanted to win, they ought to eliminate the larger threat first. Then she shrugged. Hey, it was Severus Snape. Who said he was going to be good at battle tactics?

The Ravenclaws concentrated on pelting the Slytherins and the Gryffindors—the Slytherins, because they were annoying, and the Gryffindors because it was funny. The Gryffindors wouldn't respond with snowballs. They'd respond with things like showers of blue bubbles, or little pink flowers, or Wet-Start Fireworks—anything but what they were supposed to be using.

The Slytherins weren't responding with snow, either. Instead it was balls of ice and fire, and little bottles of potions that exploded on impact and had strange effects on the people around them. Lily narrowed her eyes and Summoned her cauldron and potions ingredients, whipping up antidotes and such as quick as she could.

The first to fall were the Hufflepuffs. The Hufflepuffs ran to take cover in the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor forts. Amos Diggory came to the Ravenclaw fort and helped Lily make the antidotes. Things in the Ravenclaw fortress were frantic. They were trying to beat out the Slytherins, but all those blasted blue bubbles the Gryffindors kept sending over were making it hard to see. Things in the Gryffindor fort, however, were completely different.

* * *

"I say, old chum, bring me another glass of butterbeer, would you?" Sirius said lazily, sitting back in his chair.

"But of course, comrade!" James replied, whipping out another bottle of butterbeer.

They were sitting in the Commander's Quarters, their latest addition to the rather lopsided fort. It was a room decorated in rich red and gold colors, with two chairs Summoned from the Gryffindor Common Room. James and Sirius were just sitting there, enjoying butterbeers, observing the battles with amusement, and lazily sending showers of blue bubbles in the direction of the Ravenclaw fortress to make Lily angry. Peter Pettigrew suddenly appeared in the doorway.

"Sirs!" Peter said.

"What?" Sirius asked, looking pompous. James straightened up in his chair and tried to look important.

"The Hufflepuffs have been defeated! We have refugees coming to our Grand Fortress for shelter!"

"Let them in, make them work, dismissed!" Sirius said. Peter nodded and left, a smile twitching on his lips.

Sirius and James stopped acting important and slumped back to their normal positions, letting a stream of blue bubbles pour out the window. Just then, Melody burst in.

"Oi!" she yelled, annoyed. "Get off your butts!"

Sirius and James straightened up again. "You should knock before entering the Commander's Quarters!" James said, deepening his voice and doing his best to sound like a Commander.

"Yes, minion! Shouldn't you be shooting pink flowers somewhere?"

Melody glared and responded by throwing snowballs at them. James and Sirius yelled and scrambled for cover.

"Stop!" Sirius said. She didn't listen.

"Do you think we're being overthrown?" James asked.

"I don't know!" Sirius said, ducking behind a chair as another snowball came flying in his direction. "Stop!" he said again. "We have but blue bubbles to defend ourselves!" He proved his point by peeking up over the back of the chair and sending blue bubbles in Melody's direction. Melody laughed, rolled her eyes, and kept pelting them until she ran out of snowballs.

"Now get up!" she said. "Get off your butts, get down there and fight!"

"Why should we?" James said indignantly as he and Sirius rose, dusting off their ridiculous uniforms.

"Because otherwise the Slytherins are going to beat us, dimwits!" Melody said, and she turned and ran from the room.

"The Slytherins are going to WHAT?"

* * *

Albus Dumbledore loved Christmas. He was strolling around the castle, looking at all the decorations and humming quite merrily to himself. He added a little more holly here, another sprig of mistletoe there, maybe another wreath over there, a little more tinsel on this Christmas tree...yes, yes, yes, Christmas was quite wonderful.

Once he was done with his sweep of the castle, he decided to do his favorite thing in the world—decorate his own office for Christmas. Humming "Deck the Halls" quite loudly, he made his way up to his office. All his Christmas decorations were kept in a rather lovely bottomless box, one that had been bought at Flitwick's shop in Hogsmeade some years ago, when it had first opened, and had the silver letters "A-L-B-U-S" on it. It had been given to him by a rather extraordinary girl when he had been in...was it his fifth year at Hogwarts? Yes, it had been…quite a long time ago, too, and, he remembered, that same year he had given that girl a very nice velvet bag—also bottomless. Albus imagined he might have married her, too, if it hadn't been for Girndelwald...but now was not the time to get in a sour mood.

No, it was Christmas, and Christmas always made Albus happy. He hummed as he unpacked the box and set up all of his trees. There were five small ones—one silver, one red, one green, one blue, and one purple. Each had a theme—one was decorated entirely with snowflakes; another, angels; another, Santa Clauses; another, elves; and the last, homemade ornaments and lots of pictures. There was one last tree, a large green one, which was decorated with a bit of everything and very colorful.

Then he had holly, wreaths, mistletoe, hovering fairies, snow globes, figurines of wood sprites who sang beautiful carols, and candles of all kinds decorating his office. Albus enjoyed putting up all his decorations the Muggle way-it got him more in spirit, for some reason.

When he was done, he sat in his chair and looked around, a smile on his face. He got up and walked to the window. He looked out and smiled wider, if that was possible. If there was one thing he loved more than Christmas, it was snow, and there was snow all over the grounds. He looked around and spotted something very interesting going on around the far side of the lake, near the Forbidden Forest. The entire school seemed to be having a giant snowball fight. Albus's eyes lit up and he grinned. He loved snowball fights!

A decision was suddenly made in his mind. He ran out of his office, down the stairs, and tore through the hallways on his way to the Great Hall. "Minerva! Poppy!" he yelled. "You must come and see this!"

* * *

The students were well in the midst of a war, with no hint as to who was going to take the lead, when they suddenly spotted Albus Dumbledore come running out of the castle, arms waving wildly, yelling about something. Half of the students froze. As all the Professors in the school came running out, plus Madam Pince, Madam Pomfrey, Argus Filch, and Rubeus Hagrid, the rest of the students froze.

Lily Evans and the rest of the Ravenclaws on the top level of their fortress were desperately trying to see what had stopped the war through those ridiculous blue bubbles when someone from the lower level burst in and explained what was happening. Instantly convinced they were all in trouble, the students began to evacuate their fortresses. But, as Lily was halfway down, she heard Professor Dumbledore's voice boom out over the grounds.

"Stop! Don't leave! Go back! Continue warring!"

Lily was utterly confused. Why would all the teachers run out, the Headmaster looking rather hysterical, and tell them all to just continue warring? What in the world was going on?

"We've come to join you!" Professor Dumbledore continued.

Oh.

Then his voice was gone and the students all hustled back to their stations.

* * *

Melody rushed to a window and strained to see what the teachers were doing. They looked to be building a magnificent fortress.

"Oh, that's not fair!" Melody cried.

"Sure it is, we just have to fight back better!" Sirius said. "MORE BLUE BUBBLES!"

Melody groaned. "How in the world are blue bubbles going to help with anything?" she asked.

"Have you looked at the Ravenclaw fortress lately?" Sirius replied.

"No..." Melody said, and leaned out the window to look at the Ravenclaw fortress. Its entire top half was surrounded in a blue haze so thick she couldn't see through it. "Oh. Okay then. That'll work."

"Exactly!" Sirius said. "See, we're not as stupid as we look!"

Melody smiled, rolled her eyes, and sent a shower of blue bubbles floating over to the teachers' half-finished fortress.

The Slytherins seemed less sure about pelting the teachers with ice, fire, and potions than they had their fellow students, but once the teachers had their fortress completed they showed no mercy, so the Slytherins stopped their hesitation.

* * *

"Pink flowers—blue bubbles—what in the world are those Gryffindors doing?" Minerva McGonagall demanded.

"I haven't the faintest," Madam Pomfrey replied.

"It's quite ingenious, actually," Albus said, walking over to them and looking out the window. "You see, the rest of us are fighting with things like snow and ice and on and on—but the Gryffindors are sending over perfectly harmless-looking things, like blue bubbles, and pink flowers, and spending more time repairing and defending their fortress than actually fighting. But if you'll look at the Ravenclaw fortress, you'll see what their strategy is." With that, he walked off, humming cheerily, and sending Snowbombs out of every window he passed with a flick of his wand. (Snowbombs are little things that start out as snowballs and roll through the air, expanding as they go and exploding on impact.)

Minerva and Poppy looked over at the Ravenclaw castle and saw the top of it surrounded in a thick blue haze with zero visibility, and the ground covered in pink flower petals that were causing the students to slip as though someone had laid out banana peels for them.

"Smart," Minerva said approvingly. "Remarkably smart."

"Ingenious," Poppy agreed, and then they both had to duck because a very large ball of ice was flying their way.

* * *

Lily collapsed on the Common Room floor some hours later, exhausted. Gryffindor had eventually won because nobody could figure out how to get rid of those stupid blue bubbles. Matt, Susie, Mimi, and the rest of the Ravenclaws shuffled in after her, Matt's socks playing a slow, sad march because of their defeat.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Lily asked Mimi as she plopped down in a chair.

"What?" Mimi replied, closing her eyes and leaning back.

"James Potter is going to pay."

* * *

"Lily! Lily! Wake up! It's Christmas!" Mimi yelled about a week later, bouncing happily on Lily's bed.

"Huh? What?" Lily said sleepily, not even attempting to open her eyes.

"It's Christmas, do-do bird! Presents!" Mimi said, grabbing a pillow and whacking Lily with it. She hopped off Lily's bed and scrambled back over to her own, where she sat on the floor next to her presents and looked eagerly at them. "Come on, Lil, I'm not opening mine until you get up!"

_Put the pressure on, why don't you_? Lily thought grouchily, but she didn't have enough energy to voice the words. She was not a morning person.

"Lily!" Mimi yelled, irritated. She grabbed another pillow and threw it at her friend. Lily grunted and threw the pillow back lamely in response.

She slid slowly out of bed, eyes still closed, and rolled onto the floor. After laying there for several moments, she rose and opened her eyes sleepily. After running a hand through her horribly tangled locks and yawning a considerable number of times, Lily finally plopped down in front of her presents.

"Open mine first!" Mimi said eagerly, shoving a present into Lily's hands. Lily yawned and gave Mimi a present from her.

Lily slowly and methodically opened her package, being careful not to rip any of the wrapping paper. There was no particular reason for her neatness—she was just so tired she couldn't quite remember what the other way was of opening a package.

She smiled as she heard Mimi's squeals of delight. "Ooh! Magical make-up! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She cried, leaning over to hug Lily. "I've been dying to get some of this, I just never have enough money. Thank you!"

Lily laughed. "You're welcome," she said, now slightly awake. She pulled out the box Mimi had given to her. She opened it and found two pairs of...chopsticks? "Chopsticks?" Lily asked, slightly confused. "Um...I do like Chinese food..." Lily said, but she was puzzled. The chopsticks had large ornaments at the ends, like silver spirals with butterflies on them and lilies with jewels in place of petals.

Mimi just laughed. "No, silly, they're not for food!" she said. "They're for your hair!"

"My hair?" Lily asked, confused. "Where in the world did you get these?" she asked, turning them over and over in her hands. Mimi laughed again.

"Look, my mom works for a Muggle fashion industry. They've been trying to come up with some new stuff for hair. She brought some prototypes home this summer and I thought they were pretty cool. I'll show you how to put them in later," she said.

"Okay." Lily shrugged. "Thanks." She hugged her friend.

"No problem," Mimi said smiling.

* * *

The Gryffindor Common Room was, in a word, chaos. Smoke, pixies, blue bubbles, fireworks, and levitating witches and wizards were everywhere. It looked as though Zonko's and Honeydukes had moved right into Hogwarts and let the Gryffindor students have a free-for-all with their products.

James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, Melody Cauldwell, and Mundungus Fletcher (another fifth year) were the sole cause of all this commotion. They had all bought themselves and each other as many joke products and candies as they could possibly afford. (This was saying something, as they had all been saving up since last Christmas to party in the Gryffindor Common Room this year.­) It was in this state that Lily and Mimi found the Gryffindor Common Room later that day when they came to exchange presents.

"Let's go," Lily said the second they stepped in. Mimi nodded and they were just turning around, when:

"Lily!"

Lily groaned and turned back around.

Melody ran up to her, smiling and waving, sucker in hand. Her teeth had become buck, her ears were twice their normal size, her hand had shrunk to half its normal size, her left foot was too big and her right too small, pink foam was pouring out of her ears, her eyes were flashing different colors, and her hair was purple.

"Is that even really safe?" Lily asked, an odd, horrified expression on her face.

"Is what really safe?" Melody asked, putting the sucker back in her mouth. Her hair was shot with streaks of blue.

"Being under the influence of all those candies and joke products at the same time."

Melody shrugged. "I don't see why it wouldn't be." She took a look at her hair, which was still streaked purple and blue. "Oh, this looks cool, I'm keeping it like this! Hey Sirius!" she yelled, dropping her sucker and jogging back across the common room. Lily Banished the sucker to the nearest trash can.

She and Mimi carefully picked their way across the common room. "This place is a mess!" Lily yelled at James as he set off another Dungbomb. James turned to look at her. He smirked.

"Lovely, isn't it?" he said happily. Lily rolled her eyes.

"I can't believe I got you a present!" she said.

"Did you, now?" James said with interest, his eyebrows shooting up.

"As a matter of fact, I did, but I don't think I'm going to give it to you anymore," Lily said, looking around the common room and shaking her head. "I've never seen any place look so bad!" she said. James just shrugged. "Besides, I'm still going to kill you for beating us in the snowball fight last week!"

James smirked again. "Sure you are, Lily,"

Lily just glared.

"So, where's this present you were talking about?" James asked, lazily eating some Toothflossing Stringmints.

"Maybe I have it, and maybe I don't," Lily said, hands on hips. "That all depends."

"On what?"

"Well, what'd you get for me?"

James smiled. "_Accio_ present-thingy I got for Lily!"

Lily rolled her eyes, and was mildly surprised when she saw something fly down the staircase from the boys' dormitory and into James's hand. She gave James a Look. "By all rules of magic and common sense, that spell should not have worked," she said.

James shrugged and smiled. "I know! Merry Christmas!" he grinned widely and handed Lily her present.

Lily smiled and accepted. "Well, I guess I owe you one now, huh?"

James nodded and smiled eagerly, holding his hands out in front of him like a four-year-old. Lily laughed and dug through her bag of gifts, finding James's now extremely tiny box, wrapped up in plain green wrapping paper. She smiled and dropped it in the palm of his hand.

James blinked and stared at it for a moment, but then, figuring it was probably magical, he shrugged, smiled, and sat down on the floor to eagerly open his gift. Lily laughed and opened hers.

Out slithered a very fine piece of cloth. Lily gasped and picked it up. It was a bag made of very fine crushed velvet, a deep purple color with deep gold drawstrings. It was...beautiful.

"It's a box!" James exclaimed. Lily looked over at him. He looked absolutely delighted and fascinated with the tiny 1 cm by 1 cm box. He was squinting very hard at the tiny silver letters. "I think it has letters on it!" he said.

"James, you idiot!" Lily snapped impatiently, snatching the box away. "You're supposed to enlarge it first!"

"Oh! Then I get a big box!" James said, looking ecstatic. Lily looked at him, slightly alarmed.

"James, it's a box," Lily pointed out.

"I know!" James cried, leaping up. "And I love boxes!" he said. He picked up Lily and twirled her around. "And you're Lily, the Box-Giver! I love you, Lily the Box-Giver!" He said a little too loud, and squished Lily in a bear hug.

"Ca--can't-- brea--ea--eathe!" Lily gasped. James let her go and smiled. The whole common room was watching them.

Lily's face turned bright red, and she glared at James as she enlarged his stupid box. "There!" she said, handing it back to him.

"So, do you like the bag?" James asked as he opened the box and sifted through its contents.

"It's beautiful," Lily said, looking at it again. "I did need a new one, but since my parents spent a fortune on one last year I wasn't about to ask."

"Well, this'll last you a long time," James said. "It's got an Unbreakable-er, Unrippable-well, something like that--Charm on it, and a whole bunch of stuff so it won't fray—that and it's bottomless."

"Really?" Lily said as James pulled an instruction pamphlet out of his box. She looked in the bag. It didn't look any different than a normal bag. She stuck her hand in, and then her whole arm, feeling around for the bottom of it. She couldn't feel it. "Wow," she said. "This is amazing."

James smiled and tossed the pamphlet he was holding aside. He then looked in the box and saw several packages stacked on one another. They were very interesting-looking packages of something called-

"Milk Duds!" James cried, and he ripped open a package and started chomping away.

Lily was going to the library. She was a little bored and wanted something to read.

"Lily flower!" A voice said. Lily whirled around and smiled as she saw the Grey Lady floating toward her in the hallway.

"Hey, Lady," Lily said, smiling.

"It's been a while," Lady said. Lily nodded in agreement. "What have you been up to?"

Lily shrugged. "Not much. Just Christmas stuff. Gifts, feasts, letters, snowball fights..." she trailed off and smiled.

"Ah, yes, the snowball fight," Lady said, her eyes somehow twinkling. "We thought that was very interesting."

"Were you all watching?" Lily asked.

Lady nodded. "Oh, yes. We haven't seen a snowball fight of that magnitude in...quite some time. I was cheering for you all the way!"

"I can't believe we lost because of some blue bubbles!" Lily said, wrinkling up her nose. Lady laughed.

"That was rather ingenious, wouldn't you say?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I don't know...if James Potter and Sirius Black were behind it, don't give them too much credit. It was probably just a mistake."

Lady smiled. "Ah, Lily flower, you don't mean what you say."

"I know I don't."

"Why are you so hard on these boys?" Lady asked curiously, but all the while knowing the reason.

"They act like idiots!" Lily said. She shook her head and started talking very fast. "Honestly! If they'd try spending two seconds acting like normal wizards, maybe I could stand them, but no, th-"

"Calm down, Lily flower!" Lady said, eyes widening. "I did not mean to get you so riled up."

Lily's cheeks went rather pink. "Sorry," she said, smiling sheepishly. "I just-"

"I know, Lily flower," Lady said, smiling. "I know." Lily had the distinct feeling that Lady was thinking along the lines of Mimi, and was about to say so when another voice cut in on her train of thought.

"Lily flower, eh?" a rather cocky voice said. Lily groaned and slowly turned around to see James Potter standing behind her, looking rather cheerful.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"You look pained to see me, Lily! I'm hurt!" James said in mock sadness. Lily rolled her eyes. She looked over at the Grey Lady-but she was gone. Lily sighed and turned back to James.

"What do you want?" she repeated. James just shrugged.

"Nothing. I was just walking, you were talking, I heard the name Lily flower and decided to comment."

"Will you do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Don't comment." And with that, Lily turned and walked down the hall. This was supposed to be her big exit, but James just couldn't let her have things her way. He jogged up behind her and started following her down the hall.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, irritated.

James shrugged. "Following you."

"And why, pray tell, are you doing that?"

James shrugged again. "Dunno."

"Well, would you stop?"

"No,"

"Argh!"

"That's an interesting word."

Lily turned and glared at him. His eyebrows rose. "Okay, okay, I can take a hint! Sheesh!" James said defensively, holding up his hands.

Lily turned back around and kept walking. James stood in place and looked at her for a couple seconds. Just as he was about to shake his head and turn away, he remembered something.

"Hey, Lily, wait up!" He called after her, and started jogging. Lily groaned and turned around.

"What do you want from me?" she whimpered.

"Calm down, I just wanted to ask you something."

"What?"

"Well, I'm still having trouble with that Teleportation Charm. D'you think you could help me?"

"Fine! Whatever! I don't care! Please, just leave me alone!"

"Okay then, Grouchy. Meet me at MHQ tomorrow at noon. Password's the same as last time."

"Okay, bye!" Lily waved him away. James got a funny look on his face, turned, and left. Lily sighed with relief and kept walking, while at the same time feeling a small twinge of guilt for being so rude. She pushed it away and walked into the library.

"Lily!" someone said as she made her way over to the bookshelves. She turned to see Amos Diggory waving at her from one of the tables, Arithmancy books spread out before him.

"Hi," she said, waving. He got up and walked over to her.

"Hey, Lily, what's going on?"

"Not much, just getting some books."

"Look, I was wondering..." he looked at the floor and scuffed his shoe rather nervously. Lily raised her eyebrows.

"Yes?" she prompted.

"Well, next Hogsmeade weekend is coming up soon, and I was wondering...well, I was wondering..."

Lily giggled. He looked so cute! He just...did. He was all nervous, and she was pretty sure he was asking her out. It was just so cute!

"Do you wanna hang out with me?" he asked, rather quickly, and he was still avoiding eye contact. Lily giggled again.

"Sure," she said, smiling.

"Great!"

* * *

The Christmas feast passed rather uneventfully-a miracle, considering all the Marauders had been there. But their display in the Gryffindor Common Room appeared to have worn them out, and they seemed content to just sit and eat...and eat and eat and eat. Remus wasn't there, though-Lily thought that was strange. When she asked Melody about it later, she had just shrugged and said Remus'd had to go home for a family emergency but that he'd be back in a week.

Lily and Mimi stayed up late that night talking and giggling about nothing in particular. Around one o'clock or so they fell asleep on bean bag chairs by the fire. Mimi woke up suddenly around 3 o'clock, woke Lily up, and dragged her to bed. Lily noticed, as she was falling asleep for the second time, what a lovely full moon there was outside...

* * *

"Okay, so how in the world do you do this?" James asked, sitting on the table rather than any of the twelve empty chairs situated around it.

"It's not that hard," Lily said. "And I don't see why you're still having trouble with it. I've already given all of you lessons at least twice!"

James shrugged. "So I wasn't paying attention. So what? I still need your help."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right! You probably have the Marauders hiding in here somewhere waiting to play a trick on me."

James put on a mask of innocence. "Would I do something like that?"

Lily glared at him.

"Okay, okay!" he said, holding up his hands in defeat. "So I would. But I didn't this time. You know why?"

"You're on hallucinogens?"

James glared.

"Okay, okay, you aren't on hallucinogens, go on!" Lily said rather impatiently.

"Because I really need to learn this charm!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine, fine. Have it your way. Let the lesson begin!"

* * *

Lily stomped back in to MHQ an hour later looking furious. James was rolling on the floor, laughing his head off.

"YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO USE THAT SPELL ON HUMANS!" Lily yelled at him, her face red. "And if you EVER do that to me again, I will curse you from here until DOOMSDAY!" At this point Lily looked so angry James stopped laughing.

"And no more lessons for ANYTHING-EVER-AGAIN!" Lily screamed, then grabbed her wand and left, ignoring James's pitiful apologies and swearing never to talk to that git again.

* * *

"I hate him," Lily said, shaking her head. "I've never hated anyone before, but I swear I hate him,"

"Don't," Melody begged. "Don't hate him! You shouldn't hate anybody. Come on, Lily, it was just a joke!"

"And at MY expense! After he promised me he wasn't going to pull a prank on me! I can't trust him! He was never really my friend anyway, so what difference does it make?"

"It makes a big difference, Lily! Come on! He's a good guy, really. You've just got to give him a chance!"

"Why should I? I mean, I'm in Ravenclaw, he's in Gryffindor, we don't have any classes together, we never see each other, I don't need to be helping the Marauders with ANYTHING. Look, Melody, you are my best friend. If you need help with something, I will help you. But for no reason will I ever need to talk to James."

"Except when you become Head Boy and Head Girl in two years."

"Oh, please, Melody, STOP SAYING THAT! I am NOT going to be Head Girl."

Melody snorted. "Yeah, right," she said, rolling her eyes. "That's what you said about becoming a prefect, too, and look what happened! I mean, honestly, Lily, the only reason you had for NOT becoming a prefect was that you got a 99 on one of your exams. Oh, dear, what a shame," Melody said sarcastically.

"Well, that was an easy exam! I should have gotten over 100!"

Melody rolled her eyes again. "Lily, the ONLY people-and I do mean the ONLY people-who scored higher than you on that exam were James Potter and Sirius Black, and that's because they are the best Transfiguration students in the school. And even though they kicked your ass in that ONE exam, you still came out on top of our class. James was second, and Sirius was third. And now, as we are all Prefects, you know exactly where to check the Prefect List for top Prefect standing, and right now, you and James are TIED. So you can't tell me that you're not going to be Head Boy and Head Girl in two years."

"You can't say that," Lily said, blushing. "Things change. Maybe you'll be Head Girl!"

Melody laughed. "That's funny, Lily, it really is, but you know it's never gonna happen. Professor Thorne hates me too much—he'll never give me really high marks for anything. I'll be lucky to scrape by."

"Whatever. This is beside the point."

"What was the point again?" Melody asked, trying to remember what they had originally been talking about.

"Uh...I don't remember."

Melody remembered, but she didn't say anything. Maybe if she got Lily to forget what they were talking about, she'd forget she hated James...

"Me either."

* * *

James tried to talk to Lily the next day in the hall, partly to apologize and partly to talk her in to something, but she wouldn't have it. She didn't say one word to him, just stared straight ahead and acted as though he wasn't there. When she saw Amos Diggory in the hallway, she called out to him and waved, then slung her arm through his and steered him down the hallway, babbling on about something, leaving James quite astounded. Lily and...Amos Diggory? Well, this was a new development...

He didn't want Lily to hate him! It was just a stupid, harmless prank!

"Stupid is right," he muttered to himself, head hung, scuffing his shoe on the floor, taking one last glance at Lily and Amos, and walking away dejectedly.

* * *

Lily took one last glance behind her at James and saw him hang his head and scuff his shoe. She felt a small twinge of guilt and bit her lip, wondering if maybe she should...NO! She couldn't forgive him, it wasn't right. He had been such an...argh! Feeling a new wave of frustration and rage, she turned her head back and kept flirting with Amos, pushing James completely out of her mind...and at the same time hoping he was enjoying the show.

* * *

"Ah!" Lily cried as three more owl swooped into her dorm, each carrying a present—Lily already knew from who. She grabbed the vase of yellow roses, the singing card, and the box of chocolates, then shooed the owls out. She set the yellow roses down on Mimi's bedside table and stuffed the chocolates and singing card into her bottomless bag, which already had six boxes of chocolates and six singing cards in it. She looked around the room at all the vases of roses. There were two on her bedside table, three on the counter by the mirror all the girls used to put on make-up in the morning, and there was one on the windowsill of the window across from her bed.

She sighed and went around the room, watering her roses again. She wondered if someone could cut off owl delivery from a single person or not, and decided probably not. She sat down on her bed and sighed. So what if James was sorry? Chocolates, cards, and several dozen roses were not going to solve the problem. Frustrated and confused, Lily grabbed her bottomless bag and pulled out a box of chocolates. She practically tore it open and started eating mercilessly, not caring what the little map on the lid of the box said. If she bit into a chocolate she didn't like (just about everything with nuts--Lily hated nuts), she threw it at the wall.

_Honestly_, she thought as she found a really good coconut-filled chocolate. _He acts like he's my boyfriend or something. All the hassle, with none of the perks!—well, except the chocolate_.

Just then, Mimi and Melody burst in.

"Lily, James is goi-" Melody began, but she cut off when she saw Lily throwing a cashew chocolate at the wall and all the roses situated around the room. "Oh my God. He really has gone crazy."

"Who said they're from James?" Lily said, throwing another chocolate at the wall. She said the word "James" with disgust, almost as though she were mocking him.

"Lily!" Mimi cried, wrenching the box of chocolates out of Lily's hand before she could throw another chocolate at the wall. "Get a hold of yourself!"

Lily didn't respond, just glared at the wall and dug another box of chocolates out of the bag. Mimi snatched the box away before Lily could even attempt to open it, and Melody grabbed the bottomless bag.

"All right, if James didn't send all this stuff to you, then who did?"

"Nobody," Lily said, crossing her arms and pouting.

"Nobody, huh? Yeah, he's a good boyfriend. I dated him for a while when I was about thirteen," Melody said, and she started digging through the bag.

"No, don't!" Lily said.

"Why?" Melody asked, looking up, interested.

"It's embarrassing!" Lily said, snatching the bag back.

"Don't go digging another box of chocolates out," Mimi said.

"I won't," Lily sighed. "Give me those," she said, pointing at the two boxes Mimi was holding.

"Why?" Mimi asked warily.

"Because I want to put them back in the bag. Just chill."

Mimi cautiously handed the boxes over, and Lily grabbed them and shoved them into her bag, and then threw it under her bed.

"So, who really gave the flowers to you?" Melody asked as Lily went to clean up the chocolates that had been thrown against the wall. She picked up a vase and examined it, looking for a card. There was none. Disappointed, she set it back down.

Lily sighed as she Banished the chocolates to a waste basket. "James," she said miserably, cleaning off the caramel and chocolate spots on her wall with a Cleaning Spell.

Mimi and Melody traded knowing looks. "Talk to him," they said in unison.

"Why?" Lily asked, flopping down onto her bed. "I don't want to!"

"Because," Melody said, kneeling down next to Lily's bed. "He's sorry. That's got to count for something, doesn't it?"

Lily sighed. "I don't know!" she said, sounding miserable. "I mean, on the one hand, I hate his guts. On the other...on the other..." It wasn't as though she didn't have anything to say. No, it looked more like she had something nice to say that she really didn't want to. "Well, on the other hand, he can actually be a nice guy," Lily finally blurted.

"Aha! See? He's not all bad!" Melody said, leaning away from the bed, smiling and crossing her arms in satisfaction.

"I told you you had a crush on him," Mimi said, laughing. Lily's mouth dropped open.

"You do?" Melody said, half-serious, half-joking.

Lily's face turned red. "Mimi, I'm gonna kill you! You know that's not true!" She threw a pillow at her friend. Mimi laughed and threw it back.

And thus the Pillowfight of The Century broke out.

* * *

"James! Stop sending me flowers!" Lily yelled. James turned around in the hallway, looking shocked and pleased all at the same time.

"So you got them then?"

"Of course I got them! Do you know how long it takes me to water all those roses?" Lily demanded, hands on hips, but looking rather good-natured nonetheless.

James looked rather sheepish. "I was just trying to get your attention."

"You have it! Now is there something you want to say?"

"Well, first of all I'd like to say that I never have to buy you another box of chocolates ever again, even when we're married and have kids, because you love me so much, right?" James asked, smiling cheesily. Lily groaned.

"James, don't jinx me! I'm getting to the point where I can stand being in the same room with you, but don't joke!"

James smiled and shrugged. "Sorry. Anyway, yeah, that's actually what I wanted to say: I'm sorry." He got down on his knees and looked up at her with doe eyes. "Will you pretty please be my bestest fwiend?" He asked in a little kid voice. Lily laughed.

"Get up!" she said, shaking her head. James got up.

"Now, I don't know about bestest, but I guess I can kind of be your friend."

"Kind of?" James asked, raising an eyebrow. "Now, what kind of a friend is that?"

Lily sighed. "Okay, you've got me!" she said, smiling and holding up her hands in defeat. "I'll be your friend. You're regular old friend. But any more pranks from you, and it's war."

James hugged her and laughed. "Don't forget, Lily flower, the last time we had a war I defeated you with blue bubbles. Lily tried to give him a sour look but smiled instead. She stuck her tongue out at him and he just laughed.

"So mature, Lily," he said, slinging an arm around her shoulders.

"Like you have room to speak!" She laughed, shrugging his arm off.

"Hey James?" Lily asked as a thought popped into her head.

"What?" James asked.

"Have you ever seen the Wizard of Oz?"

"Wizard of Oz? Who's he? Where's that? He's not in our History of Magic book, is he?"

Lily laughed and shook her head. "Guess not. But oh well! I'm going to do something crazy anyway!" Lily linked her arm through his.

"What are you doing?" James asked, amused.

"Just work with me, okay?" Lily asked, and she started skipping down the hall.

"WE'RE...OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD, THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ!"...

* * *

"Lily, we need your help!" James whined.

"No!"

"Why?" He whined some more.

"Stop whining! I'm not going to help you!"

"But we need your help to be brilliant!" James said dramatically.

"I doubt that. You just want to drag me into this, for the sake of dragging me into it!"

"No, of course not! Lily, we--" He cut off, seeing the look on her face. "Okay, maybe a little bit just for the sake of it," he admitted, "but really, it'll be fun!"

"No. I'm not helping you."

"Oh come on, why not?"

"Because!"

"That's not an answer."

"Well, 'no' is an answer, and I believe I've said _that_ several times.

"Come on, Lily, we need to annoy Snape!"

"And you've carried on just fine without me for five years, you can do without me for a few more."

"It's really only been four and a half."

"Does it really make all that much of a difference?"

"This is beside the point!"

Lily sighed. "Why do you have to pull this prank in Hogsmeade, anyway?"

"Because! It'll just be more fun that way!"

"Look, my answer is still no."

"Can't I at least get an explanation?"

Lily sighed and looked very much as though she'd regret telling him this, but she decided to tell him anyway. "Look, if you must know, I'm going to Hogsmeade with Amos Diggory our next weekend there and I can't be bothered with anything else."

James's mouth dropped open. "You're WHAT?"

"Can we please NOT talk about this?" Lily asked, blushing. "You wanted to know why, I gave you an answer. Let's just leave it there."

"Does Melody know about this?"

"Why should it matter?"

"Because it does!"

"Why, does she have something against Amos Diggory?"

"No, but she'd be mad if she heard about it from me instead of you."

Lily gasped. "James, you wouldn't!"

James got an evil grin on his face. "Wouldn't I?"

"James, you promised! No more pranks!"

"It's not a prank. It's just a little talk, that's all."

"James!"

"Well, Melody's going to want to know why you said no, too. I have no reason to keep it from her. However, if you said yes, there'd be no reason to tell anybody."

Lily's mouth dropped open. "James, that's blackmail!"

"I like to think of it as effective persuasion."

Lily glared at him. "You wouldn't."

"Well..." James got a look on his face, as though he wasn't really too sure he'd keep her secret.

Lily's eyes bugged out. "James! I trusted you! You can't do this to me! It's not fair! I thought you were a nice person! What happened to the person I was talking to on the rooftop that day?" Lily went on and on and on. James realized that maybe he'd gone too far.

"Lily, I-" he began, but she didn't hear him. She was still yelling at him. And if she did hear him, she was doing a very good job of ignoring him.

"Lily-" he began several more times, but she wasn't having it.

"LILY, SHUT UP!" He finally yelled.

"No, I won't shut up! You listen to me!" she yelled right back, and kept going. James sighed, annoyed, and was torn between slapping her and doing something else that he seemed to have the urge to do a lot when he was around her.

After several seconds of debate, he gave into his urge. James grabbed Lily and kissed her in midsentence.

* * *

Lily was right in the middle of yelling at James when he did something terribly unexpected. He kissed her. She wasn't quite sure what to do. Her eyes were wide open, and she was so shocked that for a moment she couldn't move. Her heart was hammering hard against her chest.

Before she knew what she was doing, she started to lean into the kiss. Her eyes slowly closed, and her arms were wrapping themselves around his neck.

Then, quite suddenly, she came crashing down to earth and realized what she was doing. She pushed away from James as quickly as she could, and, without even thinking about it, she slapped him across the face.

James looked stunned. He rubbed his cheek and looked as though he couldn't quite believe what either of them had done.

"How dare you!" Lily said. "After I just told you about Amos—JAMES! I can't believe you!" she yelled, furious. "If you tell anyone about this, you are dead!" she threatened, and then turned and stalked out of the deserted classroom James had dragged her into to talk about "The Plan."

God, he was annoying.

* * *

"You're not going to be mad at him forever, are you?" Melody asked.

"Maybe."

"What did he do?" Mimi asked, but Lily shook her head.

"I am not telling you. And he's not telling anybody else, either, or I will kill him."

Mimi and Melody exchanged looks. "Okay then," Melody said. "But I really wish you'd tell _us_ what's going on."

Lily sighed. "I know. But it's…complicated."

"Well, how complicated is it?" Mimi asked.

"Very."

"So what? Why don't you just explain everything to us? We're your best friends, we'll understand," Melody chided, filing a nail.

"Yeah, Lil, what's the big deal?" Mimi added.

"The big deal? Nothing. You'll just hang it over my head FOREVER."

"Hang WHAT over your head?" Melody looked about ready to explode. Lily never kept secrets from her.

"A girl's entitled to her secrets!" Lily said.

"But I'm your best friend! I HAVE to KNOW!" Melody whined.

Lily sighed again. "You know, this is all James's fault!" she complained.

"But HOW?" Mimi and Melody asked.

Lily just groaned.

* * *

"Hello, Ravenclaws!" Melody stood up and waved across the Great Hall at the Ravenclaw table. There were only five Ravenclaws staying over the holidays: Lily, Mimi, and three second years they didn't really know.

The Slytherin table was quite empty, as well, but there were a sufficient number of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors.

"Hello, Gryffindors!" Mimi said, waving back. Lily smiled.

"Hello, Melody!" she called.

"Come over here!" Melody yelled.

"No, that's okay, thanks!" Lily yelled back.

"You don't have to sit by James!" Melody yelled.

Lily's face went rather red. "We're coming over!" she yelled back.

Before Melody had a chance to yell, "Great!", they heard a fork clatter onto a plate and the impatient scraping of someone's chair at the High Table.

"Honestly!" Professor McGonagall said, standing up. "All of the Great Hall need not hear your conversations! 10 points each from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and that will be quite enough yelling for one day!"

This made Lily's face go rather redder, but Melody just waved at her Head of House and yelled, "Cheers, Professor!", which got a laugh out of everyone and caused the Professor to look quite exasperated but not enough so for her to take any more points off.

"So, how's it going, old chum?" Melody asked Lily once she got there.

"Why must you humiliate me?" Lily said. "Why?"

"Oh, do cheer up! Come and have breakfast with us!"

So Lily and Mimi sat down (Lily as far away from James as possible) and enjoyed a quite pleasant breakfast with the Gryffindors. Well, it was pleasant, at least, until after the meal was over.

They were all walking out of the Great Hall together when Mimi stopped suddenly and shrieked, "Mistletoe!"

Everyone looked up, and there were Melody and Sirius under the mistletoe. They both started blushing and managed a quick peck on the lips. It was quite unusual for either of them to be shy, and it made the mistletoe all the more interesting. Mimi and Remus paraded under the mistletoe, and Mimi kissed Remus shamelessly.

Lily, Peter, and James all avoided the mistletoe, much to the disappointment of their friends. Lily just stuck her tongue out at them and laughed. They all started walking up the stairs, chattering animatedly. Lily was just sighing with relief that she hadn't ended up under the mistletoe with James, when she heard Mimi yell the horrible word.

"Mistletoe!" she cried, and Lily stopped dead. She slowly looked up over her head, and, with a sick lurch in her stomach, saw the horrible plant hanging right above her. Looking back down, she saw the worst of her fears coming true. James was standing across from her.

"Come on, kiss!" Sirius yelled, looking quite eager to humiliate his best friend.

"They are cruel," Lily muttered. James, who had heard her, smiled.

"Yep," he muttered back, and Lily barely caught it, but she heard it nonetheless. She didn't look at him.

"What are you waiting for?" Mimi asked. Lily glared at her.

"Come on, what's the harm in a little kiss?" Remus chided.

"You'd be surprised," James muttered.

"Just kiss her, dimwit!" Melody yelled. Lily wondered if they all hadn't set this up on purpose.

"Last time I tried that, she slapped me," James said, giving Lily a sideways look.

Eyebrows were raised, and Lily's mouth dropped open. Had he just—did he really just—out of the blue...? She was suddenly furious. She reacted in bad ways in situations like this. Her brain never functioned on a good level. As a result, she did the only thing she could think of.

She slapped him across the face.

"Like that," James said, massaging his face as she stalked away.


	4. Summer

Chapter Four

Summer

The rest of the year passed without much event. Lily rarely talked to the Marauders and flat-out refused to talk to James, who didn't seem to care whether she talked to him or not. Melody and Lily still talked frequently, however, and Melody nearly drove Lily crazy for the rest of year complaining that the Marauders were doing something without her. Lily rolled her eyes at this but listened to her best friend nonetheless.

The end-of-year exams had Lily stressed for weeks, and she did nothing but study two weeks prior to them and worry for a week after she had taken them. When the results came, however, she had no reason to be stressed, since she had come out top in the class, followed closely by James, Sirius, and Melody, who was still whole-heartedly refusing to admit that she had one intelligent bone in her body.

The ride home on the train seemed far too short, as it always did, and Lily was still having quite a fun time in her compartment with Matt, Susie, and Mimi; Melody popping in occasionally, the Marauders several times seeking refuge from Slytherins they'd played practical jokes on, and the usual parade of students who ran up and down and said good-bye to every single person on the train, just because they could, when the train arrived at the station.

Lily stepped back into the Muggle world with Mimi next to her, not anticipating the events of the summer that lay ahead of her.

* * *

Melody Cauldwell and Sirius Black burst out of the barrier just behind Lily Evans and Mimi Ramirez, rather more conspicuous than they should have been, but then it was Melody and Sirius. Lily and Mimi turned to say farewell.

"Well, there goes another year," Melody said, dragging her trunk behind her, looking absolutely ridiculous with a head of bright pink hair. "Two more years and then we'll have to leave Hogwarts forever!" she wailed.

Lily laughed, but she was saddened at the same time.

"It's okay, Melody," she assured her. "We'll all be coming back next year, okay? Hold onto it while it lasts."

"Hold onto what while it lasts?" came a voice, and they all turned to see that James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew had just emerged. It was James who had spoken, and Lily rolled her eyes at that.

"Why is it you always hear the last few words of my conversations and feel a need to comment on them?"

James shrugged. "I was just asking," he said, and Lily couldn't think of any smart remark to make, so she shrugged too and didn't say anything. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized that it was very uncharacteristic of him to give so simple of a response, but the point was futile.

At nearly the same instant they all spotted their families and hugged and kissed and promised to owl one another before running off to their parents, all excited but still a little sad to be going home for the summer so soon.

"And you still owe me five Galleons!" Remus shouted to Melody as they departed, and she could be heard responding with:

"Damn!"

As Lily ran over to her parents, she was surprised to see James heading in the same direction. As she focused on her parents, however, she saw why. They were talking to a woman who looked very much like James and whom Lily concluded must be his mother. A feeling of dread settled in the pit of her stomach. Whatever they were talking about, they were getting far too friendly. She did NOT want her parents to suddenly make new best friends with James's parents and start inviting the Potters over. That would NOT be fun.

"Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!" she said, running up to them and waving, trying to ignore the fact that James was right there.

"Lily!" Her mom said, and nearly crushed her in a hug. Lily choked and laughed at the same time, and had a repeat performance of the hug with her dad.

"We'll call-er-owl you about that then!" Lily's mom said, waving good-bye to James's mother, who nodded and said,

"Till then, dear!" and waved back.

"What? Owl her? About what?" Lily asked, looking back and forth between her parents, alarmed.

"Oh, that reminds me, Lily, dear, we've been thinking about getting an owl for you. While we're here, why don't we stop by Diagon Alley and get you one?"

"An owl? Really?" Lily asked, pleased and surprised.

Her mom nodded. "Sure, why not?" she smiled.

"So, why were you talking to James's mother?" Lily demanded after smiling back.

"James? Who's that, dear?"

"That really annoying boy I kept writing you about," Lily replied, agitated. "Remember?"

"Don't take that tone!" Lily's mom quipped. "And yes, I do remember now. Well, his mother is really very nice, and she offered to do something for us...which is something else we need to talk to you about."

"What?" Lily asked, curious yet slightly alarmed, if it involved anything even remotely connected to James.

"Well, near the end this summer your father and Petunia and I are going to go away for about a week to look at Petunia's university with her and get her settled in and all that, and you'll need a place to stay," her mother replied, as they reached the car.

"I'll stay with Melody," Lily said, shrugging. That was easy.

"Well, once you get your owl, you'll have to owl her just to make sure," her mother said reasonably.

"Oh, yeah," Lily said, nodding, lifting her trunk into the car's trunk with her father. "Yeah, I'll ask her, don't worry," she said, and slammed the trunk closed, and then got in the car and looked out the window as they drove to Diagon Alley.

* * *

"No!" Lily shrieked as she read the letter her gray-and-white spotted owl had just given her. "No, no, no!" she said, stomping her feet to accentuate each word. Despite the fact that she had woken up only just a moment ago and had been groggy, she was now wide awake.

She threw the letter angrily on her bed and tossed some food and treats into her owl—Hera—'s cage before storming out of her room and stomping angrily down the stairs.

"Mom!" Lily yelled angrily.

"What?" came her mother's voice out of the kitchen. Lily stomped into the kitchen to find her mom cleaning the counters and her sisters, Daisy and Petunia, sitting at the table. Her sisters fell silent as she entered the room, but she paid no attention to them.

"Mom, Melody's going on vacation! All summer!"

"Oh, don't whine, Lily!"

"I'm not whining!" Lily pouted, crossing her arms. "I'm complaining! There's a difference!"

Lily's mom rolled her eyes. "Where is she going? Isn't she always the one complaining that she never gets to go anywhere?"

"Yes," Lily said, leaning against the counter. "She is. But she says she has this rich uncle or something who came to visit them right after school let out, and he's 'taken an interest in her', so they're going to go to Venezuela for the summer!"

"'Taken an interest in her'? What does that mean?"

Lily threw up her hands. "How am I supposed to know?"

"Hm. Well, why don't you ask Mimi?" Lily's mom suggested, and Lily felt stupid for not having thought of it before.

"Okay!" she said, and bounced out of the kitchen, happy again.

* * *

"No! No, no, no, no!" Lily yelled, no less furious than she had been upon receiving Melody's letter.

There was a knock on her door, and Lily glared at it. "What?" she snapped.

"Lily, stop making so much noise!" It was her mother.

Lily stomped over and threw open the door, crossing her arms, a foul look on her face. "Mimi can't come either!" she said, as though it were her mother's fault.

"Well, don't blame me for it!" her mom said, balancing a laundry basket on her right hip. "Is there anybody else you can stay with?"

Lily shrugged. "I dunno. Remus, maybe. Not Sirius," she said, shaking her head. "I don't know Peter well enough to say...not Matt, he's going to a camp somewhere, and Susie is too, I think."

"Well, ask Remus, and if that doesn't work I have a solution."

Lily had a horrible feeling the solution had to do with James's mother.

* * *

She felt horribly embarrassed writing a letter to Remus asking to stay at his house, but she did it anyway, because she was desperate.

She got an owl back three days later.

He said no; he had to go visit his great-aunt that week.

Desperately, and without telling her mom, she wrote to Susie to make sure she was going away to camp. She was, and Lily didn't have anywhere to stay.

* * *

"Mom," Lily said, shuffling into her parents' room. "Remus said he was visiting his great-aunt that week. I don't have anywhere to stay."

Her mother put the novel she was reading down and patted the bed next to her. "Come here, then," she said.

Lily plopped down on the bed, dreading what was going to come next.

"Do you remember how we were talking to that woman at the train station?" her mom asked, picking up a piece of Lily's hair.

"James's mom. How could I forget?" Lily replied, taking her hair back and twirling it around her finger.

"Yes. Well, we were talking about how you didn't have a place to stay for the summer, and she said she'd be more than happy to have you if you couldn't find anywhere else to stay."

Lily felt as though a rock had just been dropped into her stomach. She got a pained look on her face. "No," she whined. "I hate James! Passing him in the hallways at school is bad enough! I am _not_ spending a week of _my_ summer at _his_ house!"

"Lily," her mother said sternly, "he's a teenage boy. Give him a break. And you can tolerate him for just one week, can't you? At Christmastime you were getting along fine, weren't you?"

"Yes, but that was until he--" Lily cut herself off, blushing furiously, not wanting her mother to know what had happened.

"Until he what?" her mother asked, curious.

"No."

"No? Oh, come on, Lily, what did he do?"

"Nothing! Nothing, nothing, nothing! He didn't do anything! I just don't like him!" Lily lied, and horribly, too, because her cheeks were bright red.

"We'll be gone for two weeks if you don't tell me!" Her mother threatened, smile on her face.

"You will not!"

"Okay, fine, we won't, but I will tickle you to death if you don't tell me!" Lily's mom seized her and began tickling her mercilessly. Lily shrieked and started laughing; she couldn't help it. She was infinitely ticklish.

"No—no—st—op!" Lily gasped between laughs. "STOP! I'll tell you!" she said, and her mom relented. "He—he–" she began, but didn't want to tell.

She sighed and leaned back against the headboard. Her cheeks started to flush at the thought of it, so she covered her face in her hands and said through them, "He kissed me!"

At this her mother started laughing as though it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard in her life. Lily removed her hands from her face, which was still red, and glared at her mother.

"Stop laughing! It's not funny!"

Her mother controlled herself and looked at Lily, still smiling. "You don't really hate him!" she said, laughing again.

"Yes I do!" Lily said, only slightly hurt that her mother wasn't taking her side.

"No you don't, Lily. He just embarrassed you, that's all."

"How would you know if he embarrassed me or not?" Lily crossed her arms and pouted. Her cheeks weren't flaming anymore, but they were still noticeably pink.

"Well, you're embarrassed right now, aren't you?"

Lily didn't have a response to that. She just glared at the wall. Her mom smiled and patted her daughter's shoulder, and that was the end of it. Lily knew even if she protested and begged to stay home alone, or go to wherever Dean was going, that it wouldn't matter.

Grr.

* * *

"Lily? Oh my god, Lily Evans?" Lily turned around and saw a very familiar face. Chocolate brown eyes were looking at her eagerly. "Lily! It's me! Carrie Wilder!"

Lily's mouth dropped open at the sight of her grade school friend. "Carrie!" she squealed, and they hugged. "I haven't seen you in--wow, it's been a long time! You look...Carrie, you're all grown up!" she said, half serious and half joking.

Carrie laughed. She tucked her dark brown hair behind her ear, de-tangling it from her large gold hoop earrings, and examined herself for a moment. She was wearing a pink sleeveless top that tied together in the front with a matching pink beret and blue jean capris. "I guess I have, since I was eleven!" She laughed again. "And I guess I could say the same about you! You look wonderful!"

Lily smiled and looked at herself. She was just wearing a blue T-shirt and shorts. "Ah, yes, the epitome of high fashion," she joked.

Carrie smiled and slung an arm around Lily's shoulders. "You have to tell me all about this boarding school you've been going to all these years. What's it like? What do you do there? Do you have guys there? You have guys there, right?"

Lily laughed and slung her arm around her old friend's shoulders as well. They started walking down the street aimlessly. "Well, first of all, there are guys there."

"Oh, good! Meet any cute ones? Any older guys?" Carrie smiled and raised her eyebrows suggestively. Lily laughed and blushed.

"Well, I did have an older boy ask me out this year, but nothing happened!"

"Sure," Carrie said, but she was smiling. "So, what's the name of your school, again? I can't for the life of me remember."

"Oh..." Lily started getting nervous. There was no way Carrie would believe her if she started spouting about Hogwarts and wizards and witches and...no. It was best to skirt around questions or give vague answers as much as possible...without actually lying, because then she'd forget and never stick to the same story. "It's a really long, unpronounceable name, so we just call it 'H'," Lily invented.

" 'H', huh? Interesting...So, what kind of subjects do you study there?"

"Oh...well...exotic plants," Lily said, thinking of Herbology. "Astronomy. Um...shop." That was kind of like Transfiguration, wasn't it? Taking a piece of wood and turning it into a birdhouse, or something... Oh dear, she was lying now... "Exotic creatures. Mythical creatures. History. You have to take a sort of P.E. class in first year. And there's one teacher who thinks she can see the future."

Carrie laughed. "No way! So, does she, like have a crystal ball? What does she teach?"

"Yeah, she has a crystal ball. And she actually teaches...fortune telling."

"Fortune telling?" Carrie laughed again. "Weird school!"

"Yeah, it is, a little bit," Lily agreed.

"So, what other classes do you have?"

"Well...there's this Ancient Runes class, and...a sort of math class, I suppose. Things like that."

"Where is this school?"

"You know, I'm not actually sure. We take a train there, and I never pay much attention to where we're going. It's a big old castle, though. Very pretty. But it's rather drafty during the winter--and there's no electricity!"

Carrie's mouth dropped open. "You have got to be kidding me!"

"Nope," Lily shook her head. "It's really weird! We use lamps and lanterns and torches instead. And there's a fireplace in nearly every room. And there's hundreds of old portraits and tapestries...there's even suits of armor! And dungeons, too. It's a real old castle, all right!"

"Sounds dreadful!" Carrie said, shuddering.

"It's not, really," Lily shrugged. "You get used to it after a while, I suppose. The common room is actually very cozy."

"What's the common room?"

"Oh--well, the school is divided up into four sections. You get sorted into a section and put in a dormitory with other people in your grade. All girls if you're a girl and all boys if you're a boy. And each of these four sections has its own common room. It's very nice."

"That part sounds nice. So, can you like date out of your section?"

"Well, of course you can!" Lily said, laughing. "You just can't get into another section's common room, unless you're Head Boy or Head Girl, and then you have all the passwords. I'm a prefect, actually."

"Really? Lily, that's wonderful!" Carrie squealed, and hugged her. Lily laughed.

"Thank you!"

"So, what are the teachers like?"

Lily shrugged. "Like any other teachers, I suppose. Some of them are nice, and some of them aren't. But there's only one of them per subject, and they're all excellent, even if you don't like them much as people. They're experts on their subjects."

"Cool. So, the castle isn't freezing all the time, I hope? You said it could get a bit drafty."

Lily nodded. "Oh, it does sometimes, but it's usually not too bad, except in the winter. Then the whole castle is pretty chilly--but the dungeons are absolutely freezing!"

"Why do you have to go into the dungeons?" Carrie asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I have a class down there!"

"Oh, really? What class?"

"Oh...cooking."

* * *

Lily saw Carrie several more times that summer and even went out with her and some friends to the local swimming pool.

She did a lot of things with her younger brother and told him all she could about Hogwarts. She received the occasional owl from Melody, which more often than not wasn't an owl, but a large tropical bird of some sort, and more frequent owls from Mimi and Susie.

All too soon she had burned up most of her summer (and parts of her skin), and she had to go to...James's house.

* * *

Lily tugged at her zipper, without success.

"Come _on_, you stupid suitcase, just close!" she yelled at her dark green luggage. Why she wasn't just using her trunk for school, she didn't know.

"Need some help?" came a voice from her door, and Lily turned to see Dean standing in her doorway.

"Yes, come and sit on this, would you?" Lily asked, and Dean complied happily.

Lily finished zipping up her suitcase with ease. "Thank you!" she said, and Dean smiled at her.

"So, are you going to another magical person's house?" Dean asked.

"Yes, I am," Lily replied, looking around her room to make sure she had everything. "A wizard's house, in fact." She got onto her knees and checked under her bed. "From the 22nd to the 29th," she muttered to herself, feeling very annoyed with the thought. It would be a little longer than that, even, because her parents weren't picking her up until the 30th.

"Okay, let's go, pipsqueak!" Lily said, getting up. She picked up her suitcase and her owl's empty cage (Hera had left a couple of days ago—Lily figured she was in Venezuela or something) and brought them downstairs. Dean slid down the banister past her. "Dean!" Lily yelled, but he hadn't crashed into the potted plants again, so she just rolled her eyes and let it go.

Everyone assembled in the front hall, which was quite a feat, considering there were six people and twice as much luggage—even more than that, because Petunia had packed away for a whole year instead of just a week like everyone else.

"Okay, does everybody have everything?" Lily's mom asked, and they all nodded. "Okay. Lily, the Potters will be here to pick you up in a few minutes. Dean, the Martins are right outside. Daisy, we'll be dropping you off, so...I guess this is good-bye, then!" she said, and hugged and kissed Dean and Lily before leaving with Daisy and Petunia.

"Don't be too much trouble, you two," Lily's father said, and hugged both of them before leaving himself.

"We won't, Dad!" Lily called after him.

"Well, pipsqueak, I'll be seeing you in a week, then," Lily said to Dean. He nodded, and she hugged him and smoothed out his hair, laughing as he wriggled away. He walked out the front door with his suitcase, and Lily waved him good-bye from it. She sighed as he drove off with the Martins and closed the door.

She sat down on a small couch in the parlor, which was just off the entrance hall. After a few minutes, she got bored and began walking around the house, making sure all of the doors and windows were locked, which, of course, they were. She plopped down on the couch and waited, both dreading and anticipating their arrival...whoever _they_ would be. Come to think of it, Lily wasn't sure exactly who was picking her up. All she knew was that somebody would be, to take her to James's house.

She was dreading it for the obvious reasons, but she was also reasonably excited. She'd never been to a magical household before, and didn't have any idea what to expect.

Lily glanced at her watch. It had been twenty minutes since her brother had left. Annoyed, she got up and opened the front door, but there weren't any cars on the street. She frowned and shut the door again.

Suddenly there was a large crash in the living room. Lily jumped, and then ran down the hallway to the living room, where she found James Potter sprawled on the floor, a lamp next to him. Before she could open her mouth to yell at him, a little voice squeaked from somewhere behind James, near the fireplace, which caused Lily to jump about a foot into the air.

"Master James!" the voice squeaked, and an ugly little creature with ears that seemed far too big for its head ran out of the fireplace and over to James, helping him up.

"Pinky!" James said, annoyed, frowning at the ugly little creature. "I thought I told you to stay at home!"

"Oh, Pinky is sorry, sir, Pinky is very sorry—but she is thinking—Master James, oh, what if something is happening to you and you is needing me? And Pinky is wanting to be there, sir, to help her master when he is traveling!"

James, noticing Lily, who was watching this display with some degree of amusement, suddenly went quite pink in the face.

"Pinky, go home! I am not in need of your assistance! Go help Panny scrub the floors!"

"Yes, sir!" Pinky said, bowing, and with a sharp _crack!_ she disappeared.

Lily looked with raised eyebrows at James, who was rather embarrassed.

"What was that?" Lily asked.

"House-elf," James mumbled, righting the lamp he'd knocked over. "D'you have your stuff?"

"Yeah—in the front hall—I'll go get it—" Lily said, and turned to walk away, very disappointed to hear James following her.

She picked up her suitcase, and James snatched Hera's cage up before Lily could protest. They walked back to the living room silently, and Lily looked at James questioningly once they returned, feeling quite awkward.

James cleared his throat. "Ever used Floo powder before?"

Lily shook her head, and James nodded, taking a little bag filled with powder out of his pocket. He threw some into the fire that had sprung up upon his entry into the house, and the fire blazed up.

"Step in and yell out your destination. Try not to close your eyes, because you need to see where you're going. When you see me, step out. Got it?"

Lily didn't really get it, but she nodded anyway.

"Let me take your suitcase," James offered. "It's kind of confusing when you travel the first time, and you probably wouldn't be able to hold onto it."

Lily felt a bubble of protest rise up in her throat, but she knew now was not the time to be stupid, because—unfortunately—she felt that James was right. She handed over her suitcase.

"My house is called Potter's Cottage. Just yell it out once you step in the fire—I'll go first so you can see."

Lily nodded and watched him step into the fire, cringing as he did so, but he wasn't burned, and with amazement she watched him call out "Potter's Cottage!" and disappear.

For not the first time in the last five years, she was amazed at the differences between Muggle and wizard life, but didn't allow herself any more time to think about it, because she was sure the effects of the Floo powder would not last long.

She stepped in, her heart fluttering horribly, but the flames didn't burn her, and she sighed with relief, but then wished she hadn't, because she'd gotten ashes logged in her throat, and her eyes were tearing, and she could barely call out, "Potter's Cottage"—and when she did call it out, she wished she hadn't, because it felt like the floor had been yanked out from under her.

Different homes and pubs and even Diagon Alley flashed past her, and all the time she was coughing and sputtering and trying desperately to keep her poor eyes open. Then, suddenly—she saw a flash of black hair and tried to step out, but lost her balance, and smacked into something, and couldn't quite tell where she was or what she was doing until a hand came out of nowhere and yanked her right-side up. Her mind cleared with this yank, too, and all she had to do was cough several times and wipe her eyes before returning back to her normal state.

Lily blinked and looked around, first to see James standing there brushing some soot off of his robes, and then to see a beautifully furnished living room, overlooking some particularly spectacular gardens.

"Potter's Cottage, huh?" Lily asked, taking another look around the large room. "Doesn't look very much like a cottage."

James shrugged and smiled, but they didn't get a chance to say anymore because, at that moment, James's mom came rushing in from the kitchen.

"Oh, Lily!" she said, as excited to see her as if they'd known each other for years. "It's so good to have a guest!" she said, and, taking Lily quite by surprise, she scooped her up into a hug.

"James, why don't you go get her settled in her room? I've got a snack for you when you're done unpacking—of course, if you're hungry, you can eat first—oh, but I do realize that traveling by Floo powder isn't really a horribly long journey, is it? But nontheless—what would you like to do, Lily, dear?"

"Oh...unpack, I guess," Lily said, smiling at Mrs. Potter.

"Okay. Well, James, you show her to her room, then—and I'll just be down here when you're ready." She beamed and then left the room.

James silently led her up a staircase, down a short hallway, and then up another staircase. Both staircases were carpeted in a plush, gold color, and she was impressed by the artwork that hung on the walls, along with the solid oak doors lining the hallways. At the top of the second staircase she saw, through two glass doors, what looked like an indoor greenhouse—or—or a small park! She saw plants, a fountain, benches...and from what she could see of the ceiling, it was glass, too, and you could see straight out into the sky.

"Oh, wow, James," Lily breathed, overtaken by the beauty.

He didn't say anything, but she saw his ears go red.

"Come on," he said at last. "This way."

He led her off to the left, up yet another staircase, and at the end of the hallway she saw a set of double doors, and wondered where they led to—but she didn't have to wonder after a minute, James was opening them—for her!

She gasped when she saw the room. It was absolutely gorgeous, and decorated in all different shades of Lily's favorite color—green.

"Oh, James," she said almost breathlessly. "It's so beautiful!"

James sighed, and Lily suspected that if she had been looking at his face she would have seen him roll his eyes, but she decided to ignore it.

She walked over to the bed and touched the covers lightly—were they made of silk? She was jerked back down to earth by the sound of James's voice.

"This is the closet," he said, opening a door which opened into a walk-in closet. "That's the dresser," he said, pointing to the chest of drawers pushed against the wall. He walked midway across the room and pulled on a cord that opened curtains to reveal a set of French doors leading onto a balcony. "Balcony," he said simply, and then walked over to a corner of the room and opened another door, and said: "Bathroom."

Lily peeked into the bathroom, which was decorated in rosy colors, and smiled. It was beautiful, too, of course. She walked over to the French doors and opened one of them, walking out onto the balcony. It was hot out, but the breeze was refreshing, and she admired the gardens below her with a sigh of appreciation. She felt eyes on her and turned back around to see James standing rather awkwardly at the French doors, staring at her.

"You can find your way back down to the kitchen, can't you?" James said, looking at her rather stonily.

"I...um..." Lily faltered. "Yeah."

James nodded then, and turned away. "See you," he muttered, before walking off. Lily turned back around and bit her lip, wanting to say something to stop the awkwardness. This would not be a fun week at all if they couldn't at least be human around each other.

"James, this is ridiculous!" she called, jogging back through the French doors. James stood, frozen, more than halfway across the room, and Lily froze herself.

"What's ridiculous?" he asked coldly.

"James! You know what I'm talking about!"

"What do you want me to do about it?"

Lily paused for a moment, but never once did she take her eyes off his face. She couldn't think of anything to say.

"In case you don't remember, you were the one who slapped me," James said finally.

Lily finally tore her eyes away from her face and stared at the ground. "I know," she said softly, unable to think of anything else.

"So why is it ridiculous?" James asked. "You're the one who started it."

Lily opened her mouth to argue back, but the comment was just too childish, so she closed it again.

James shook his head, breaking the semi-trance they had both been in. He turned and began to walk again, and Lily felt her feet carry her across the room.

"James, please!" she said, grabbing his arm and turning him towards her. "Jus--"

But she couldn't finish, because, quite suddenly, his lips were on hers, and her head was spinning quite wonderfully. She lost herself after a moment and let her arms creep up to his shoulders, kissing him back, and let him slip his arms around her waist, and she felt quite detached from herself, as if she were floating instead of standing; and presently she became acutely aware of everything having to do with James—the way he smelled, the way he kissed, the way his hand put a slight pressure on her back while the other one stroked her cheek lightly, and that moment lasted an eternity, or so it seemed—and then he pulled away slightly, but not too much—their lips were still touching, and Lily moaned softly, and that feeling of half-torture, half-pleasure lasted an eternity too. James pulled her closer and kissed her more deeply, and Lily's head was spinning more crazily than ever, and she couldn't quite remember where she was or what she was doing, but it didn't matter—nothing else really mattered, except that she was kissing James.

He pulled away, fully this time, and they both still had their eyes closed, breathing hard, their hearts pounding rapidly. Lily's head was still floating up in the clouds somewhere, and it only started to drift down when James started to move his head back toward hers for another kiss—but then gravity kicked in, and Lily's senses returned to her just as his lips started to brush hers, and she pushed him away, disentangling herself from the embrace, and, confused and slightly hurt, she slapped him across the face, grounding both of them once and for all.

"LILY EVANS, MAKE UP YOUR MIND!" James yelled, and she could hardly blame the poor boy, but all the same—_he_ had kissed _her_!

Lily was still breathing hard, and she looked at him with confusion in her deep green eyes.

"All I wanted for us was to maybe be friends! Why'd you have to go and kiss me?" she cried.

"I don't know!" James yelled, just as confused as she was.

"You just ruined it all!" Lily fumed.

"I haven't screwed things up any worse than you have!"

Lily stomped her foot but didn't have anything to throw at him. "It's all your fault! Why can't you just stop kissing me?"

"Well maybe I'd have an easier time at it if YOU'D STOP KISSING ME BACK!"

Lily didn't have anything to say, so she just turned and ran out onto the balcony, slamming the French doors shut behind her. James followed suit, but he ran the opposite direction, out of the bedroom, and slammed that door behind him.

"I hate him!" Lily yelled from the balcony, crossing her arms and fuming, glaring at the happy little birds that flitted from tree to tree below her, her mind still reeling from stupid boys and stupid vacation and stupid, stupid kisses.

* * *

After calming herself down a bit, Lily went downstairs and chatted with James's mom, who gave her a snack and then a tour of the house. The house had nearly fifty rooms, including ten bedrooms and nearly as many bathrooms; a living room, kitchen, dining room, ballroom, private study ("James's dad just disappears in there for hours at a time!"), the indoor gardens, library, trophy room ("We're some of the last remaining descendants of Godric Gryffindor, you know!" –and no, Lily hadn't known), an indoor gymnasium with multiple purposes, several beautifully furnished tower rooms that reminded Lily of the Ravenclaw common room, an "astronomy room" with star charts and several fine telescopes—and that was just the inside of the house! Outside were more beautiful gardens, including a large hedge maze; a Quidditch pitch; and stables, which held not only horses, but more exotic animals, such as several fine hippogriffs. Mrs. Potter informed Lily that they had once had a unicorn, but it was too sad being held in captivity so they let it go, and now they sometimes saw unicorns roaming around the property.

She also added—though she noted it was just her personal observations—that "...the unicorns somehow always appear when people are falling in love. I know I saw the unicorns for the first time when I was kissing James's father!" she said, winking at Lily, and they both giggled, Lily wondering in the back of her mind if she'd see a unicorn while she was there...

* * *

Lily spent the rest of the day unpacking and walking around the most unsuitably named "Potter's Cottage". Her favorite part of it by far was the indoor gardens. It had everything from palm trees to cactus plants, and some of her favorites in between were the cherry blossom trees and towering evergreens. Never before had she encountered a place this magical outside of Hogwarts, with possibly the exceptions of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.

There were sparkling, shining, glowing fairies in parts of the gardens that didn't seem to notice Lily walking among them. In one part of the gardens, Lily spotted a beehive high up in a tree and hurried away from it, being careful not to go near it again. She hated bees. Other than the bees, however, the rest of the animals were quite pleasant. Little jewel-like hummingbirds flitted all around, and all kinds of birds, exotic and normal, could be seen flying around as well. She spotted several sleeping owls in some evergreen trees and wondered if they were used to deliver the Potters' mail at all.

Though all parts of the gardens were beautiful, she didn't especially like the desert area or the area with the bees. One of the best spots was a clearing in the middle of a grove of some particularly fine evergreens. She laid down on a plush carpet of grass and stared straight up at the sky—the ceiling, which was made of glass, was so clear that it didn't really seem to be there at all.

Another lovely area was where all of the cherry blossom trees were. As she was walking through a row of them, a hummingbird had come by, picked one of the blossoms off, and given it to her. Lily was so pleased she didn't know what to do, but she didn't have time to say anything before the hummingbird had gone again. Smiling, she had tucked it into her hair and gone on walking, hardly noticing that the scenery had changed.

She found herself standing in the shadow of a clump of palm trees, suddenly very warm, and realized that she was standing on the sand, a real beach stretching out before her. She slipped off her sandals and walked along the water, picking up seashells, admiring colorful starfish, and avoiding crabs as they scuttled about. The water was crystal-clear, and she could see colorful fish swimming lazily among a coral reef, where sea anemones shared their space with little red-and-white clown fish and sponges swayed lazily, as though there were a breeze under the water.

She sat on the beach for what seemed like forever, with her head on her knees, staring into the water, thinking. She had just begun to notice that the sky was darkening when a little house-elf scurried up to her and informed her that it was time for dinner. And it was at dinner that Lily Evans received one of the biggest shocks of her life.

* * *

Sirius Black was in big trouble. Of course, he was also as happy as he'd ever been, in only a way that a Marauder could be after doing something completely dangerous, nearly illegal, and of course against all of his mother's rules.

He had bought a flying motorcycle.

He sat at the table, smiling stupidly, while his mother ranted and raved, yelling at a sound level that, he imagined, could outstrip a Howler.

"-YOU WIPE THAT SMILE OFF YOUR FACE, YOUNG MAN, OR I WILL MAKE SURE YOU NEVER HAVE ANYTHING TO SMILE ABOUT—EVER—AGAIN! DO YOU HEAR ME? SIRIUS? SIRIUS? ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? LOOK AT ME, SIRIUS! SIRIUS HUBERT BLACK! WOULD YOU LOOK AT ME!"

"Aw, mum--don't use that name!" Sirius said, wincing at the sound of his middle name.

"OH, YOU'RE LISTENING NOW, ARE YOU? NOW THAT I'VE MENTIONED YOUR POOR GREAT-GRANDFATHER'S NAME? YOU'LL RESPECT THAT NAME, SIRIUS, AND YOU'LL LIKE IT, OR ELSE—"

"Oh, come off it, mum! We're not even s'posed to be talking about him anyway! Don't you want to get back to the motorcycle?" Sirius, even though he hated his mother's yelling, would prefer her to talk about his motorcycle instead of his Great-Grandfather Hubert. First, because conversations about Great-Grandfather Hubert were never fun—they often involved talk about his death, and the Headless Hunt, which Sirius had been forced to attend more times than he cared to count—and then forced to tell Nearly Headless Nick every detail thereof—and, worst of all, Sirius was actually expected to participate in the conversation, and he much preferred just sitting and tuning out his mother's endless rants. Plus, hearing about his motorcycle just proved that he'd actually gone out and bought it, and that it was really, finally, sitting there in the driveway, and that he could get on it and fly anywhere he wanted—

"Sirius, I really don't know what to do with you," his mother said, sighing. She had given up yelling, and her voice was rather hoarse.

Uh-oh.

It was okay when she was yelling and ranting and red in the face, but when she got quiet—when she got quiet—well, that was when Sirius was in trouble. She was looking very tired now, and her face got all sad and deflated, just like it did when she was about to cry, and that was the worst punishment she could give him. He couldn't stand making his mum cry.

"Sirius, all I ask is that you just—follow—the—(sniff)—rules! Is that—(sniff)—so much to ask?"

"Aw, mum."

"No, Sirius, don't apologize, don't you even try! You've just gone too far this time, too far! Just keep the bike, see if I care! I don't know what will become of you, Sirius, I really don't! I just don't know…" she said, trailing off, and left the kitchen, with a handkerchief to her nose.

Sirius sighed. Well, his mom was horribly mad at him, and he'd made her cry, and he couldn't remember ever feeling worse.

On the upside, however….

* * *

Whoever it was that Lily expected James's father to be, it wasn't who he turned out to be. She knew that James was proud of him, and she knew that he put a lot of pressure on James, but she'd never actually put two and two together. As smart as she was, Lily, upon sitting down at dinner that night, nearly dropped the bowl of vegetables when she realized just who James's father was, felt like a complete dunderhead.

The worst part was, she'd known all along. Of course—how could she not have seen it—how stupid she was! His last name was, after all, Potter, but still—was Potter such an uncommon name? But how—_how_—could Lily not have realized? He looked just like him!

Lily would continue to beat herself up about this for years afterward, on how she hadn't realized, on how stupid she'd been—

Because James's father was, of course, the Minister of Magic.

* * *

"James!" Lily hissed as she passed him the potatoes, eyes bulging. "You didn't tell me your father was the Minister of Magic!"

James shrugged. "You didn't ask."

Lily glared at him.

"Well, it wasn't really that hard to figure out, was it?"

Lily decided not to look at him for the rest of the meal.

"So...Lily, is it?" the Minister asked. Lily nodded. For some reason, she just couldn't come to think of him as Mr. Potter, and this made it excessively hard to eat with him. She felt as though she were at a formal dinner, and found herself sitting up straight, keeping her elbows off the table, and eating as politely as she could. James saw this at once and rolled his eyes at her, but she wasn't paying him any attention.

"Do you do well in school?"

"Yes."

"Are you a Prefect, then?"

"Yes." Lily wished she could say something a bit more interesting.

"So is James! Well, you already knew that, didn't you? He'll be trying for the Head Boy badge next year, won't you, James?"

James mumbled what sounded like a "yes".

"Don't mumble, James. Sit up straight in your chair," His mother said, scowling at him. "Do try to make yourself a little more presentable." Then, in a hushed voice, which Lily could hear nonetheless: "We do have company, you know." Lily found herself blushing.

"Will you be trying for Head Girl?" the Minister asked, resuming conversation.

"Um...well...I'm not really sure, I—"

"Oh, come off it, Lily!" James said impatiently. "She's had it in the bag for years," he explained to his parents. Lily blushed, and the conversation came to a rather awkward halt.

After a few moments the Minister cleared his throat and spoke. "I'll be leaving on Wednesday. There's to be a conference in Morocco."

"Oh, not again, dear?" Mrs. Potter said, sounding rather distressed.

He nodded. "I'm afraid so. But these are dark times, my dear, and all of this Voldemort business is getting rather dangerous."

Lily felt a prickle of fear in the back of her mind, as she was starting to do every time she heard the name "Voldemort." Most people had started referring to him as "You-Know-Who", or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named", or something of the sort, and she wasn't really sure if saying "Voldemort" was any better or worse than avoiding the name altogether.

"When are you going to be back?" James asked, with no particular tone in his voice. Lily couldn't quite read his face, but he looked rather…depressed. And a little bit angry.

"Next Saturday."

Now James looked really angry. His fork clattered, with a resounding ding, to his plate, and he got up so quickly that his chair banged into the wall behind it before falling all the way over onto the floor. Lily watched him in shock as he stalked out of the room.

Lily looked at Mr. and Mrs. Potter, and they looked just as shocked as she felt, although Mr. Potter looked a great deal angrier than his wife.

"Is it okay if I…?" Lily asked awkwardly, intending to follow James.

"Go on, dear," Mrs. Potter said, waving her away, and Lily got up and ran after him.

The first floor (and the whole house, for that matter) was so big she really had no hope of finding him, but luckily she ran into a house-elf in the living room, and called to her before she scurried out.

"Excuse me," she said. "Do you know where James is?"

"Master James?" the house-elf squeaked. "He is just going outside, miss. I is seeing him go toward the fountain gardens, miss."

"Thank you," Lily said. The house-elf bowed, and they both hurried out.

Lily ran out the back door and tried to remember where the fountain gardens were. To the right were the rose gardens, ahead and slightly to the right was the hedge maze, ahead and to the left was the path to the stables, which was lined with lampposts and bushes with little pink flowers on them, and to the left...she supposed those were the fountain gardens.

The fountain gardens were composed of six magnificent fountains separated by tall hedges sporting different-colored flowers, and connected by marble paths. Lily went through the first three fountain areas without much success, but as she hurried through the fourth, she heard someone shouting. It sounded like James, though she couldn't make out the words.

She peeked slowly around the hedge into the fifth fountain garden and saw James sitting on one of the benches, much quieter now, with the heels of his hands pressed to his forehead.

She hovered in the entrance for a minute before speaking.

"James?" she called out, very softly, and James jerked, hastily wiping off his face and turning away from her, but not quickly enough to conceal the wet spots on his cheeks that were, most distinctly, tears.

"Go away, Lily," he said coldly, without a tremble, break, or crack in his voice, but Lily's heart went out to him, because she was sure he was still crying anyway.

He stood, his back to her, and started walking away.

"James, wait!" she cried, but he didn't listen to her, just walked into the next garden, and Lily was forced to chase after him. She entered the next garden, close behind him, and grabbed his arm, trying to spin him around so she could see his face, but he just shrugged her off and turned his back to her again. He didn't run this time, though. He just stood there.

Lily stood behind him uncertainly, unsure of what to do. After a moment, though, James spoke.

"He always forgets," he said bitterly, scuffing the ground with his shoe. "He forgot last year, too, I know it. He said he remembered, but I bet mum had to send him an owl while he was away to remind him. He just doesn't care!"

Lily wasn't at all sure what James was talking about, but she knew it had something to do with his father. "James…" she said softly, tentatively reaching out a hand, but he spun on her before she could touch him.

"Why do you even care?" he spat at her furiously, but his eyes were unusually bright.

"I…" Lily looked down at her hands, playing with her fingernails, feeling her face get hot. James didn't say anything, which made the silence all the more awkward. After a few moments the silence became unbearable, and Lily wasn't sure whether to look up and try to say something or turn and run.

Then she felt, rather than heard, him leave, and nothing more could be done about it. She sighed and, finally looking up, found herself staring at the fountain. It was made of white marble and it was carved into the shape of five dolphins, each spouting water out of either its mouth or blowhole. They were all riding the same wave, it appeared, and looked rather tangled but happy nonetheless.

Lily sighed and started walking, but hesitated after a few steps, unsure whether she wanted to stay or go. The fountain sounded soothing, and she desperately needed to think, because she was very confused, but she also wanted to know why James had been so upset. There was no way she'd be able to get it out of him, but maybe if she asked his mother about it she'd have some idea of what was going on.

She hurried out of the gardens without giving herself time to think it over.

Walking back to the dining room, she heard agitated voices, and once she reached the doorway and saw James's parents yelling about something, she hovered there awkwardly, not wanting to invade, but not wanting to give up, either.

"—has every right to be mad at you!" James's mother was saying.

The minister, furious and red-faced, looked very annoyed. "Maybe I would understand why he's so upset if you or he would just tell me what I've done wrong this time!"

"Christopher, if you don't know—"

"Bloody hell, I've already told you I don't! And whatever it is—whatever little Quidditch match or—or—whatever it is he and Sirius have cooked up—it's not as important as an international summit of magical leaders, and he should kn—"

But he stopped right there, because his wife had suddenly burst into tears.

"Oh, Christopher, if you don't know—" she said, bringing a cloth napkin to her eyes. "He knows what's important! He knows! Honestly, it's not like he's six anymore! He's fifteen years old, for Christ's sake! If you can't realize how grown up he's become and you can't figure out what he's so upset about, then maybe you should just stay at work all the time, for all the difference it would make to our family!"

She dashed out of the room, crying. The Minister paced and muttered to himself for a few moments before noticing Lily, who was still standing, frozen, in the doorway. He turned, if possible, rather redder.

"Did you see—?"

"Oh," Lily blushed. "Um, I saw…um…a little. I'm s-"

"Oh, don't worry," he said, waving away her apology. "I'm just sorry you had to see it. But these things happen, you know," he said, hands clasped behind his back.

Lily, though still rather intimidated by his demeanor and—well, the fact that he was the minister, felt that he was the sort of person you could talk to, because behind his commanding air, he seemed very friendly—which, she supposed, was a good quality to have if you were involved in foreign relations.

The minister nodded then, and moved to leave the room, but paused and looked at Lily. "By the way—you wouldn't happen to have any idea what they're talking about, would you?"

Lily shook her head. "I was trying to find out, but…" she shrugged.

He nodded. "Well...if you do happen to find out, would you let me know?"

Lily smiled. "Sure."

The minister nodded and then walked off to his study, muttering. James's mother came back into the living room suddenly, and Lily jumped.

"Oh, hello, dear. That was quite a scene at dinner, wasn't it? Well, I'm terribly sorry for it; I hope we haven't scared you off already," she said, smiling warmly, although her eyes still looked sad.

"No!" Lily said, shaking her head. "Of course not! But…what was James so upset about?"

"Oh, dear…well, his birthday's next Friday. And his father was gone last year, too. And It's not that his father doesn't care, but...well, you see how he's forgotten!" she said, shaking her head.

Lily blinked and her mouth fell open slightly as she finally understood what all this was about, and what James had been ranting about in the gardens. "Oh!" she said, gasping quietly.

"Well, that's it for tonight then, I suppose," Mrs. Potter sighed. "They've both retreated to their favorite places—Christopher to his study and James to his bedroom."

She sighed again and looked at Lily. "Would you like anything else, dear? Dinner got cleared rather quickly, and you didn't get a chance to eat much. Or you could have some strawberry cheesecake...the house-elves fixed it up ever so nicely, too, but I'm afraid no one has had any."

"Cheesecake sounds good!" Lily said eagerly. Cheesecake was her world.

Several house-elves appeared suddenly, as though they had been listening through the kitchen door, carrying a silver platter with a large strawberry cheesecake on it and two sets of dessert silverware.

"That looks delicious," Lily said, mouth watering. The house-elves, looking pleased, bowed out, and Lily and Mrs. Potter sat down and had some cheesecake.

Lily practically swooned, the cheesecake was so good. "I bow to the cheesecake gods!" she declared.

Mrs. Potter smiled and nodded in agreement. "They've really outdone themselves this time."

"Oh, but it's so rich! I think I'm gonna need some milk."

As soon as she finished saying the words, a house-elf scurried over with a large glass of milk.

"This is wonderful," Lily said. "I need some house-elves!"

Mrs. Potter smiled. "They are very nice to have around," she agreed.

They finished their cheesecake in silence, and, as they were eating, an idea bubbled up in the back of Lily's mind. As soon as she had finished, she hurriedly excused herself and ran to the Minster's study. She knocked on the door.

* * *

James, who was still angry, was pacing around his room, unsure what to do. After a while he gave up and flopped down on his bed, staring at his ceiling, which was enchanted to look like the night sky. After lamely watching a comet slowly streak across the ceiling for several minutes, he heard a strange roaring outside that sounded vaguely like a—

He didn't get a chance to complete the thought, however, because suddenly something burst through the French doors that led out to his balcony. He sat up, startled, to see his best friend, Sirius Black, suddenly standing in his bedroom. But this was not what caused James to topple off of his bed next. It was the enormous motorcycle Sirius was standing next to.

"When—where–_how_—did you get _that_?"

* * *

"Oh, just let him stay there until I can tell his father, then. I still can't believe he went out and bought it, but honestly, if he's managed to save up all that money and buy it himself, then at least he's determined about _something_, and he won't fall to complete ruins as an adult."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, mum," Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

His mother's head was currently in the Potters' living room fireplace, and Mrs. Potter had just been talking to her about what to do with Sirius.

"I'll owl you when I've told him, then," Mrs. Black said. Mrs. Potter nodded, and Mrs. Black's head disappeared from the flames.

"Well, I guess that's just one more guest we'll be having this week," Mrs. Potter said, smiling. "You can take the spare bedroom right next to James's."

"One _more_ guest, did you say?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Well, yes. James didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Oh, well, we have Lily Evans staying here too."

Sirius got an evil glint in his eye. "Really? Oh, _James_!" He yelled, running up the stairs to James's room. He was still asleep when Sirius burst into his bedroom, but that didn't matter. He shoved James onto the floor, and he woke up quickly after that.

"Wha—who—Sirius, are you insane?" James mumbled, rubbing his arm where he had landed on it.

"Why didn't you tell me Lily was here?"

James shrugged. "Do you have a crush on her?"

"No, but you do."

"Do not," James mumbled, but he didn't sound remotely convincing.

"Really? And how many times have you kissed her since she got here?"

"I haven't," James lied, mumbling again, but his cheeks grew hot.

Sirius fell over onto James's bed, laughing. "So that would be what, twice?"

"It was only once!"

Sirius laughed harder. Then he got an evil idea, stopped laughing, and sat up. "We should go wake Lily-bean up."

"Lily-bean? Since when is she Lily-bean?"

But Sirius wasn't listening. "We should go ask her how she felt about the kiss."

"Sirius!"

"I wonder what kind of pajamas Lily-bean wears?" Sirius asked evilly as he rose and started walking to the door.

"Sirius!"

"Bye, James!" Sirius said in the doorway, and went dashing up the hallway.

"SIRIUS!" James yelled, dashing after him, forgetting that he wasn't wearing anything besides his boxers.

"You don't even know where her room is!" James yelled as they reached the indoor gardens.

"Good point!" Sirius yelled over his shoulder. "But," he added as he dashed up the left staircase (which was the right way to Lily's room) "I bet I can figure it out!"

He ran to the end of the hallway to the double doors and quietly opened one of them. He smiled as he saw a person with curly red hair shift slightly under the covers.

"Oh, James!" he called back softly to James, who was by now easily within hearing distance. "I've found Lily-bean!" He tiptoed into her room and James followed him, trying to tug him back, but it didn't work.

Partly because Sirius was very insistent on waking her up, but also because James was curious as to what her pajamas looked like, after much silent fighting, Sirius made it over to the bed and threw the covers off of Lily, yelling:

"Rise and sh— "

But he never did get to finish the "shine", because Lily was wearing very interesting pajamas, which consisted of a lime-green bra and a pair of pajama pants. She shrank up when the covers were taken off her, and slowly woke up. She blinked her eyes open in confusion, and suddenly—

"Aaaaah!" she screamed, and rolled off the bed onto the opposite side of the floor and quickly retrieved her covers, wrapping them tightly around her as she stood up. She didn't say anything, but stood there and stared at them both in shock for several moments, and it took a while for James to realize that she wasn't really staring at both of them so much as she was staring at him, and it was at this point that he realized he wasn't wearing anything besides his boxer shorts.

He went very red and crossed his arms uncertainly, looking away and feeling very unsure about what to do next.

"Could one of you please explain to me exactly what it is you are doing here?" Lily demanded of them furiously.

"Just—um—coming to say good morning, Lily-bean." Sirius said weakly.

"Lily-bean? Since when am I Lily-bean?"

Sirius almost laughed at this, but then decided better of it and didn't. "We were just coming to ask you about the kiss that you and Ja—"

James couldn't take it anymore, so he tackled his best friend and covered up Sirius's mouth with his hand.

"Oooh, both of you get out!" Lily said furiously, and she threw her pillows at them. "Out! Out! Out!"

They retreated, and Lily locked the door firmly behind them.

* * *

After breakfast, Lily thought about the plan that she had come up with last night, and decided that she was going to need a little help from Sirius, but the biggest problem was how to get him away from James.

So, naturally, she lied.

* * *

"So, what did you want to talk about Melody with me for, anyway?"

"I didn't. I just wanted to get you away from James."

"Why? Are we going to have an affair?"

Lily glared at him, but her cheeks went slightly pink. "Sirius, we can't have an affair. We're both single."

"Oh, darn."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I need your help."

* * *

James's week slowly went from bad to worse. It was bad enough having Lily here and fighting with her, and worse having his father just go and forget his birthday again, but to have his best friend running off to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what with Lily was just too much.

After Sirius and Lily disappeared for the third time that week, he furiously went stomping after them. He even employed a couple of house-elves to go find where they were.

"In the library, sir," a house-elf informed him. "In the far corner, sir."

James hurried off to the library and, hiding behind a large bookshelf, was able to hear their conversation without them knowing he was there. They were laughing at first, but then they stopped and started speaking.

"We better get back, or else James will get suspicious," Lily was saying.

"I think he already is," Sirius said glumly.

"But you don't think he knows, do you?" There was a small note of panic in her voice.

"I haven't told him!"

"You don't think his mom would—or his dad—?"

"Don't worry, Lily, they won't tell."

Lily sighed. "We just can't have him finding out. It would completely ruin—well, everything."

"I know, Lily, I'm not stupid!"

"Yeah, I know."

"So when are we going to do this again?"

"I'm not sure, but I'll let you know. We can't do this too often, or else James might follow us, and then..."

"I get the point."

Then silence. James couldn't hear anything but the rustling of papers, and he heard Sirius walking away. He walked slowly out of the library, dragging his feet, utterly depressed.

So that was it, then.

Sirius and Lily were going out, and everybody knew about it except him.

* * *

James really wasn't very much fun after that. Sirius tried to cheer him up, but James was filled with bitter anger every time he saw his so-called 'best friend'. And seeing Lily was even worse! She carried on as if nothing was happening, as if she didn't know—

But then, James would remind himself, you don't really like her after all. You never liked her. You never liked the way she flipped her hair, or the way she would smile at you when you were actually getting along, or the way she would kiss you just before she...slapped you.

Then James would let his head drop, and sigh, and quietly admit to himself that he had liked Lily, and then he would feel so utterly depressed he didn't know what to do with himself.

He gave up trying to spy on them, but then, just a couple of days before Lily had to go home, he heard them talking as he passed by a room on the third floor.

"Maybe we should tell him, Sirius!" Lily's voice was panicked.

"No! We can't tell him, Lil, that'd spoil everything!"

"Have you seen him lately? I've never seen him look so terrible!"

"Yes, I've seen him, and I think he's got the complete wrong idea about us—"

"Do you think we could just tell him that, at least? Because I don't want to hurt him, I really don't, I just—"

"I know! I don't either! But he'd want to know what we're doing, and then what would he tell him?"

Silence for a moment. Then:

"I don't know."

"Look, he'll just be all the more pleased when he finds out what this is all about."

"Yeah, if he doesn't commit suicide before then."

"He's not going to commit suicide."

"Will you at least let me talk to him?"

"You're the ringleader! I don't care. But if you spoil everything, you can't blame me!"

James stalked off, so mad he was practically seeing spots. They thought he'd be pleased to find out that they were dating behind his back? Were they delusional?

He soon found himself walking around the indoor gardens, which was his favorite place in the house, but the whole place was immediately spoiled as soon as Lily found him.

"James?"

"I HATE YOU!" James yelled at her fiercely. Lily jumped and took several steps back, looking genuinely hurt. James's whole stomach rolled over with guilt, but he couldn't stand it anymore. He hated caring about her without her giving a damn about him!

"James, I think you—"

"You think I what? That I'm stupid? That I haven't noticed you and Sirius sneaking off to do—whatever it is you do?"

"James, you have the wrong idea!" Lily said desperately.

"Oh, really? How would you know what my idea is?"

"I…I don't, but James, I think—"

"DON'T THINK!"

Lily winced and shrank back slightly. "James, this isn't you," she said softly.

"Well this isn't you either! Why aren't you yelling at me like you usually do?"

"Because this isn't something to yell about!" she finally yelled, giving in and making a complete fool of herself. Of course, James was being so irrational he really didn't care.

"LIKE HELL IT ISN'T!"

"IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!"

"We've been over that point!"

"Your mind hasn't been changed, has it?"

"No," James said sulkily.

"James, stop acting like a little kid."

"I'm not!"

"Well, if you're not acting like a little kid, at least stop jumping to conclusions!"

"What conclusions have I jumped to?"

"I know what you've been thinking!"

"Oh, do you?"

"Yes!"

"And what are you, a mind reader?"

"No, but I'm not an idiot either!"

"WELL NEITHER AM I!"

"I knew I shouldn't have talked to you! The whole thing is pointless!" She turned and began to stalk off, but James's words froze her in her tracks.

"Yes, Sirius was right, wasn't he? He may be a backstabbing good-for- nothing, but he was once my best friend," James said darkly.

"Have you been spying on us?" Lily demanded, whirling around.

"Maybe."

"How much did you hear?"

"Enough."

"HOW MUCH DID YOU HEAR?"

"ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT YOU TWO ARE GOING OUT BEHIND MY BACK!"

He couldn't really read the expression on Lily's face. It looked partly like relief—partly guilt—anxiety—anger—confusion—

"It's not that. You have completely the wrong idea."

"Then tell me otherwise! If it's not that, then what are you really doing?"

"I can't tell you!"

"Then I guess I'm right after all!"

Lily looked like she was about to yell at him again, but she froze. James glared at her, trying to figure out what was going on, and followed her now-terrified gaze to the gigantic honeybee resting on her palm. James rolled his eyes.

"Oh, honestly, what are you so terrified about? It's just a stupid old honeybee."

"I-am-terrified-of-bees!" Lily whispered, her voice rising in panic with each new word.

"It's not going to sting you!" James said.

"Yes—it—_will_!"

James rolled his eyes and walked over to her. He lifted up her hand and examined the bee. "It's just Bella," he said calmly, as if this were nothing new. "And look, you have nothing to be terrified about---she's just leaving you a present."

"You give the bees _names_?" Lily asked in horror.

James rolled his eyes again as the bee flew off, leaving a perfect honeycomb in Lily's hand. "Look, she's given you some honey."

Lily looked at her palm, bewildered. "There are such things as magical honeybees?"

"Yeah."

"But—why aren't they mentioned in—"

"'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'? They're not really fantastic beasts, are they? Just honeybees, with personalities and feelings and the finest honey-making abilities in the world. Go on, try it."

Lily tentatively took a bite of the honeycomb and nearly swooned. It was just about as good as the strawberry cheesecake. "That is delicious."

"See? Nothing to be afraid of."

Lily looked at him, and for a moment he wasn't angry, or exasperated, or depressed. He was just James, and quite suddenly she liked him very much. For no reason at all, she leaned over and hugged him.

Then she hurried away, blushing, leaving James utterly confused.

And for a moment he couldn't remember whether or not he hated the girl.

* * *

The week was almost over. Lily leaned over her balcony and looked down at the rose gardens. She desperately loved Potter's Cottage, if not so much a particular one of its inhabitants, and knew she'd be very sad to leave. Sirius had gone home yesterday, but he'd be back tomorrow, which was Friday, and then on Saturday morning her parents were coming to pick her up.

She'd gotten a letter from Hera yesterday. It had been from Remus, asking if she'd found a place to stay after all and that he'd just gotten back from his great-aunt's. She'd written him back, told him about being stuck at James's house, and asked him to come over and save her from the insanity.

She'd also gotten a letter from Melody, carried by a huge tropical bird of some sort, with a lot of excited talk about how much fun she was having, how great her tan looked, and all about Angel Falls and all kinds of parties, and then there was a lot of babble in Spanish that she really couldn't understand but that Melody promised to translate for her later. Lily had laughed at all of it and written a letter back about her stay at James's house, noting how boring it seemed compared to her summer.

And now her stay was almost over, and she was rather sad. She'd miss all of it—Mrs. Potter, the house-elves, her enormous bedroom, the indoor gardens, the outdoor gardens, the amazing library...

And, well...she supposed she might miss James.

"What a lousy birthday," James muttered to himself. His mother had magically blocked off the dining room, kitchen, and living room to work on some sort of "special project", Lily had disappeared to somewhere, Sirius had gone home yesterday, Remus was back from his "great-aunt's", but he hadn't returned James's owl yet, his father was, of course, in Morocco, and James didn't have anything to do except talk to the house-elves, which was really very boring indeed.

So he spent the worst birthday of his life wandering around the gardens and the spiral maze, taking a hippogriff out for a ride, and hoping that his mom's "special project" had something to do with a birthday cake.

At around seven o'clock, when he was sitting on a bench in the rose gardens and watching the sun just begin to set, his mom came out and found him.

"Hey, James," she said, putting an arm around his shoulders. "How are you?"

"Horrible."

"Why?"

"No one else remembered, why should you?"

His mom didn't say anything. "Do you want to see my special project?"

James sighed. "Sure, why not?"

He got up and trudged into the house behind her. She led him to the living room, where her magical wards still prevented him from seeing what was inside.

"Now, you just stay out here for a minute, and I'll slip inside and remove the spell." James nodded and shrugged, and his mother slipped in, looking overly excited about something.

All at once the magical wards slipped off, and he was met with a loud, booming:

"SURPRISE!"

James blinked. His mom, Sirius, Remus, Lily, and...his father...were all standing under a banner flashing "Happy Birthday James!" and were clustered around a large, chocolate birthday cake.

And, even though he was shocked to see his father, the one person he couldn't keep his eyes off of was Lily. She was smiling wider than he'd ever seen anybody smile, and he was instantly sure that she was the person who had arranged it all. All at once, it clicked in his mind that this was what she and Sirius had been so secretive about, and immediately felt horrible for treating them both the way he had.

But in a minute, all of it was okay, because Lily ran up to him and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him on the cheek, laughing, and blushing. He slipped an arm around her waist.

"You did all of this, didn't you?"

She nodded, still smiling from ear to ear. "Sorry I couldn't get more people to come."

But James shook his head. "It's fine. You got all the most important people to come."

Then he kissed her lightly on the lips, and they both blushed harder than they ever had in their lives at all the howling from Sirius and Remus.

After hiding her face for a bit, Lily whispered into James's ear:

"That reminds me. Your birthday present."

"You got me a present?" James asked, smiling.

"Well, not quite...but…"

"What is it?"

She whispered it into his ear, and they both came away blushing furiously.

"Okay, that's enough from you two!" Remus yelled. "Let's have some cake!"

"Amen!" Sirius agreed, and James and Lily were more than happy to comply.

* * *

Several hours later, after night had fallen, James had received all his presents, and they were all ridiculously full on chocolate cake, James leaned over and whispered something into Lily's ear. They both disappeared, and Remus and Sirius rushed to a window and watched them as they walked past the gardens.

"Darn!" Sirius said. "They're going over by the stables."

"Probably so you can't see!" Mrs. Potter called. "Would you two come back here?"

They grumbled and complied.

* * *

"Exactly how far are we going, James?" Lily asked.

"Far enough so Sirius and Remus can't spy on us."

Lily giggled. She was incredibly nervous. In fact, she couldn't remember ever being more nervous.

"So," James said, coming to a halt.

"So?"

"Do you really mean it? You're not going to back out on me?"

"Yeah," Lily said, blushing and nodding. "It's your birthday present, and you more than deserve it for all I've put you through."

"I know that," James said, laughing shortly, and, if Lily heard right, rather nervously. Then he looked into her eyes. "But do you really want to, or do you just feel sorry for me?" he asked, taking her hands into his.

Lily looked at him with something wonderful in her eyes, something James couldn't quite decipher. "I want to."

James smiled.

"But remember, this is a one-time thing," Lily said, slipping her hands out of his and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Right," James said, but he didn't make a move to do anything.

After a few moments, Lily cocked her head. "James, what are you doing?"

"Standing," he shrugged. She gave him a Look. He averted his gaze and looked up at the sky.

"The stars are lovely, don't you th—"

Lily cut him off by jerking his head down and kissing him. She pulled away quickly and looked at him, blushing slightly. "Now would you stop being a jerk and just kiss me?" she demanded. "This is your birthday present, you know."

James had stars in his eyes, and she had a feeling he wasn't even listening to her. But that was all right, because he did kiss her, and she closed her eyes and let her head spin and her body tingle and her knees wobble, and let herself melt away into nothing.

After what seemed like an eternity, James finally pulled away, and slowly Lily felt her mind return to the present, and slowly she opened her eyes, and slowly her breathing and her heart slowed, and slowly she looked up at James and wondered what was happening to her. Over his shoulder she saw a glint of something silver coming from the forest, and a brilliant creature emerged. She gasped.

"James, look!" she said, pointing. He turned to look, not taking his arm from her waist.

"It's a unicorn," he said, and turned back to her.

"James, have you heard the story about—?" she asked tentatively.

"Yeah," James said. "My mom's told it to me about a million times."

And suddenly they let go of each other and turned away, their faces on fire.

* * *

Lily's parents came to pick her up the next day, and they stayed to talk for about an hour, receiving a tour of the house while Lily, James, Sirius, and Remus hung out in her bedroom.

"I can't believe it's almost time for school to start again," Lily groaned, flopping onto the bed on her stomach.

"You? Groaning? About school? I'm shocked!" James said, and pretended to faint.

"Oh, shut up!" Lily said, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at him.

"It won't be that bad, old chap!" said Sirius, who was in a very good mood for some odd reason. (Possibly all the chocolate cake he had had for breakfast.) "And don't forget, Melody will be back from Venezuela! She'll probably have some wonderful new joke products to bring back!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Sirius, all you really want to see is her."

Remus and James laughed at this, and Sirius chased Lily around the room, threatening her with a Dungbomb.

"Well, speaking of joke products," Remus said, "we'll always have plenty of time to pull some wonderful pranks on Snape."

"Possibly with Lily-bean's help," James amended as Lily stole the Dungbomb from Sirius and threw it over her balcony.

"Would you please stop calling me Lily-bean?" Lily said, as less of a request than a command.

"Whatever you say, Lily-bean!" Sirius said happily.

Just then Lily's parents came to get her, and they were all saved from whatever it was she had been about to say.

"See you on September first then!" James said, waving good-bye.

"September first," Lily agreed, and she walked out of the double doors with her parents, turning back to give just one last wave before disappearing down the hallway.

* * *

**End fifth year**


	5. Melodia

Chapter Five

_Melodia _

"_Hola, mis amigos! Como estan_?"

"Excuse me?"

"_Yo tuve un verano buenismo! Comparados con otros, este fue el mejor_!"

"Come again?"

"_Ustedes tienen Chicles? Ya tengo hambre. Pues, Chicles no llenan, pero ya tengo hambre de todas formas_."

"Well, that proves my theory. She really is insane."

"Yep."

"Yeah."

"No kidding."

"I agree."

Melody Cauldwell glared. "Oh, come on! I'm not that bad, am I?"

Lily and the Marauders looked at each other and considered. "Yeah," they said in unison.

She proceeded to roll her eyes at them before taking a look around Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. It was packed, as usual, with students running around trying to drag their trunks onto the train single-handedly, chatting with friends, and searching for lost pets; parents yelling over all the noise to remember to write or to brush their teeth; families looking around in awe, providing they were Muggles.

Lily Evans, Remus Lupin, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew were standing in a small cluster next to Melody, trying to get all of their things sorted out because, as Melody had rushed over to greet them, she had also inadvertently knocked over Peter's and James's trunks and they had both spilled open.

"I think those belong to James-" [holding up bright orange socks

"Don't be daft, Remus, they've got Peter's name embroidered on them-" [snatching them away

"Cute boxers, James, I love the little snitches-" [holding up a pair and wiggling eyebrows suggestively

"Oh, shut up, Lily, and give me those-" [going quite red

"That's my book, there-" [pointing

"'Love Potions of the Eighteen Hund-'" [examining the cover

"Do shut up, Sirius-" [Peter, red in the face

"Is this a scented letter? 'Dear Jamsie'-oh, how cute James, can I call you Jamsie too, or mmpff-" [voice muffled as James jumps onto his back

"'Dear Jamsie'? Remus, you give me that letter right now-" [Lily, snatching the letter away and beginning to read it quite sourly

"Oh, Lily, don't read that, please-" [pleadingly

"_I had fun at the water park_? James-"

"Oh, come on, Lily, give it back, please-"

"Oh sure, you'll tackle me but you can't tackle her-" [ annoyed

"Precisely! Now, Lily-bean, don't-"

"Stop calling me Lily-bean! Aaack! _You kiss like an angel_? What in the bloody-"

"Lily, please-"

"Oh, don't you even-"

At this point, the rest of Peter's and James's stuff had been put in their proper places, and everyone was avidly watching the show.

"Does anybody have some popcorn?" Sirius asked as Lily and James went off at each other like fireworks.

"No," everybody else said.

"Oh, wait a minute!" Melody said, smacking a hand to her forehead. "I have some _caramelos de todos los sabores_ with me! I completely forgot! I can't believe I was asking you all for Chiclets earlier, when I had this whole-" she dug through her pockets and produced a very colorful box proclaiming: _caramelos de todos los sabores_! on the front.

"Oh, is that what you were babbling about?" Remus asked. "I could have sworn you were asking for a flying motorcycle..."

"What in the world is a _caramelos de todos los sabores_?" Sirius asked as Melody passed the box to him.

"It's _caramelo_, if you're talking singular,"-he rolled his eyes-"and they're Every Flavor Beans," Melody informed him. "It's written in Spanish."

"Apparently," Sirius said, popping a bean in his mouth, but he spit it right back out again. "Eew...it's tar!"

* * *

Lily refused to talk to James for the whole of the train ride, and kept shooting him evil glances, but apparently they had made up by the time they got to school because Sirius and Melody caught them kissing just before they entered the Great Hall.

The Sorting Ceremony was rather boring, as usual, and the feast was quite chatty—two first years had sat down on Lily's left and had dozens of questions—but all in all Lily was quite tired and very relieved when the desserts had finally vanished off their plates and Dumbledore rose to make his start-of-term announcements.

"First of all, I would like to say welcome, welcome, welcome to all of the first years. We're looking forward to a wonderful year at Hogwarts.

"Second, it would do well for all of the first years—and some of the older students as well—to know and remember that the Forbidden Forest is out-of-bounds to all students, and that the Whomping Willow Tree is a rather dangerous plant, so if, by chance, any of you try to make a game out of touching its trunk, you should be prepared for some time with Madam Pomfrey in the infirmary and Mr. Filch in detention.

"Now, with that out of the way, let us sing the school song and then it's off to bed!"

Lily rather halfheartedly sang the school song, choosing a fast tune so she could get it over with quickly, and soon everyone was done except for five rather annoying Gryffindors, who were singing along to a breezy reggae rhythm and pounding on the table with their silverware as though it were a xylophone or bongo drums.

"Oh, ya man, learnin', learnin' till our brains...all rot!"

Dumbledore applauded cheerily, and then waved them off to bed.

Lily led the first years rather sleepily behind her, answered the query from the entrance to their common room (to the great awe of the gaggle of eleven-year-olds standing behind her), directed the first years to their dormitories, and then gladly trudged to her own and collapsed onto her four-poster, dead to the world.

* * *

They got schedules the next morning at breakfast. There was nothing groundbreaking, except that the Gryffindors now had Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins instead of with the Ravenclaws, and Ravenclaw and Gryffindor now shared Potions.

The only other point of interest that morning was the fact that, in the middle of breakfast, James and Sirius managed to make all of the seats of the chairs at the Gryffindor table suddenly disappear, causing everyone to fall to the floor and the two Marauders to get a detention apiece.

* * *

"So now that you're dating James, are you going to be all obsessed with him and neglectful of your school work and stuff?" Mimi asked, plopping down in a bean bag chair next to Lily.

Lily hid her red face behind her Potions book. "We are not dating!"

Mimi rolled her eyes and smiled. Lily glared over the tattered cover.

"And," she added, rather hotly, "judging by this book in front of my nose, I don't think my studies will be suffering too much from my non-dating-James status."

Mimi rolled her eyes again. "Right, Lily, whatever you s-"

"Lily! _Ayuda! Ayuda! Necesito tu ayuda! Los Merodeadores me estan volviendo loca! No puedo saber que esta pasando! Estan planeando algo, sin mi, y—_"

"Whoa! Melody! SLOW. DOWN."

Lily and Mimi were both staring at Melody, who had burst into the Ravenclaw Common Room, babbling hysterically in Spanish. Melody glared at them.

"_No es_ 'Melody'_. Es 'Melodia'_!" Melody declared.

Lily and Mimi gave her looks. "Melody," they said.

"_Melodia_!" Melody insisted.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Whatever, just shut up, sit down, and start speaking English!"

"Sorry," Melody said. She plopped down on a bean bag chair. "It's just...you know that the Marauders were leaving me out of something last year, right?"

Lily and Mimi nodded.

"Well, they're doing it again!"

"Good!" Lily said. "You won't be blowing up the school again!"

"Li-ly!" Melody whined.

"Wha-at?" Lily whined back, mocking her.

"You have to help me!" she whined some more.

"Help you do what?" Mimi jumped in.

"Sabotage them!"

"Uh…no," Lily said.

"Well, we at least have to find out what they're doing!"

"No, we don't _have_ to find out anything. Melody, don't you—"

Melody ignored Lily and interrupted her. "Yes, we do! It's a matter of life and death!"

"Sounds more like a matter of sanity and insanity to me," Mimi said, looking at the crazed look on Melody's face.

Lily giggled, and Melody glared at her.

"Come on, you guys! Don't you want to get back at the Gryffindors for that snowball fight last year?"

There was a spark in Lily's eyes, but it died out rather quickly. "That includes you, beanhead," Lily reminded her, poking Melody on the arm.

"Oh yeah."

Mimi and Lily giggled.

"Well, Lily, couldn't you just sweet-talk it out of James or something? I mean, he is your boyfriend, and—"

"JAMES IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" Lily yelled, a shadow passing over her face. She stalked off to her dormitory, but Mimi and Melody followed her.

"Can't you ever give me two moments of peace?" Lily asked, drawing the curtains around her four-poster and burying her face into a pillow.

"No," they answered back.

"Look, Lily, boyfriend or not—" Mimi began, but Melody cut her off.

"Oh, please, he is too her boyfriend, they just refuse to admit it."

"HE IS NOT!" Lily yelled, her voice muffled. She could envision Melody rolling her eyes.

"Come on, Lily, you couldn't go half a week without kissing him!"

"I could too! Besides, I don't kiss him—he kisses me!"

"Yeah? Well you don't seem to protest too much."

Lily felt her face getting hot. "I slap him sometimes!"

Her friends giggled.

"Lily, why don't you just try and ask him?" Mimi suggested. "It couldn't hurt, and besides, maybe then Melody would stop speaking in Spanish so much."  
_  
_"_Estoy ofendida_," Melody declared, and Lily heard her start to leave. She tried to figure out what Melody had just said, but shrugged and gave up. She turned over and called out, before Melody got to the door:

"Fine, I'll ask him!"

"Really?" Melody called.

"Oh, sure, why not?"

"Yay!" she squealed. "Thank you!"

Lily heard her skip out of the dormitory and rolled her eyes.

Mimi poked her head around Lily's curtains. "He's still your boyfriend," she said, before turning and running out of the dormitory. Lily's face got red and she sat up.

"He is not!" she called after her friend.

But she fell back on the pillows, and smiled.

* * *

Blue bubbles floated in front of James's eyes, and he turned to see Lily smirking at him.

"Lily-bean!" he exclaimed, his eyes lighting up.

"I am not Lily-bean," she said, poking him in the back with her wand. James smiled and kissed her on the nose.

He had been walking down to the lake where Remus and Peter were terrorizing the giant squid, hoping to join in on the fun and trying to find out where Sirius had disappeared to.

"Hey, do you know where Sirius is?" he asked. Lily shrugged and eased herself into his arm, which automatically wrapped itself around her waist.

"Probably off terrorizing some poor Slytherin first-years."

"First years? Probably seventh years, if they're Slytherins. There's not much difference, really."

Lily laughed and tugged at his ear, turning his head towards hers. "That's mean."

James rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you're defending them now!"

Lily wrinkled her nose. "Severus Snape? Never!"

"So, Lily-bean,"—Lily glared—"what's up?"

She looked up. "The sky."

"Thanks."

"Sure! Anytime."

"Lily-bean, I am not as stupid as you look, so if you don't tell me why you came out here I will be forced to bombard you with blue bubbles for all eternity, bwa-ha-ha!"

"Don't make me slap you, James."

"You wouldn't slap me!"

"Oh no? I've done it before!"

"Only when I kiss you."

"Well kiss me and then I'll have an excuse."

James raised an eyebrow. "Are you begging?"

Lily blushed. "No."

"Do you want me, Lily Evans?"

Lily's face went about ten shades redder. "Aack! No!" She covered her face with her hands.

James laughed and removed her hands from her face, then kissed her. Lily flushed more, if that was possible. James pulled back and studied her.

"Your face is as red as your hair," he told her.

"Augh!" Lily buried her face into his shoulder, letting her hair fall over it and taking in his smell. James smiled.

"You smell good," Lily said, falling into a sort of trance.

"Um...thanks? I did shower this morning."

"It's not that. I mean, besides the soap. It's just...you. It smells like..."

"Like what?"

Lily couldn't quite place a finger on it. It wasn't really one distinct smell, or even two or three distinct smells. It just smelled like...

"Home," she said softly.

"Excuse me?"

"Home," she repeated, a little confused herself. "You smell like home." She slipped back into her trance. "When I get married, I want…I want our house to smell just like this."

James froze. Lily suddenly snapped out of her trance, eyes wide open. "Oh _bollocks_," she breathed. She pulled away and looked at him, both hands over her mouth. Her face flushed again, and she ran past him, back up to the school.

"Lily..." James called rather weakly after her, but even as he did so, he wasn't really sure what he wanted to say.

He was very, very confused.

* * *

"You, Sirius Black, are going to tell me what is going on!" Melody declared, crossing her arms and looking at him menacingly.

She had him cornered. They were in a corridor somewhere in one of the farthest wings of the school. Sirius was backed against a wall, looking rather nervous and actually starting to sweat under Melody's withering glare.

She was several inches shorter than him, and had to look up to glare at him, especially when they were standing close together, like right now. It wasn't that Melody was short; Sirius was just tall. Melody was actually tall by girl standards, but Sirius was over six feet and had a heck of an advantage.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sirius lied, only half-convincingly.

"You know perfectly well what I am talking about! You and the Marauders have been sneaking around without me!" Melody accused, getting—if possible—closer, and poking her finger into Sirius's chest. She stood on tiptoe to get closer to eye level with him. "And you," she informed him, "are going to tell me exactly what has been going on!"

"Nothing has been going—" Sirius began, but with another menacing glare from Melody he stopped and sighed. "Okay, fine, something has been going on, but I'm not allowed to tell you what it is, and under no circumstances would I break the Marauder Code of Honor." He slapped his hand to his chest rather dramatically, nearly jamming Melody's finger.

"Ow!" Melody yanked her finger away. "Thanks a lot, Sirius," she said, massaging her finger and glaring at him.

Sirius shrugged. "Sorry! It's a rule."

"I bet Peter, that scab-faced little wart-head is in on this, isn't he?"

Sirius shrugged helplessly.

Melody stomped her foot, which was very dangerous, as she was still standing rather uncomfortably close to Sirius and her foot nearly landed on his. "This isn't fair! Don't you people trust me? I mmpff-" Sirius covered her mouth with his hand. Melody licked it. His hand went away.

"Eew! Melody, that's disgusting!" Sirius said, wiping his hand on his robes. "I can't believe you just did that!"

"Well then don't put your hand over my mouth!"

"I won't, believe me!"

As soon as Sirius had gotten over it, Melody grabbed the front of his robes and yanked his face down to hers. "Sirius, just tell me what's going on! I can't stand it anymore!"

Sirius winced. "You don't have to be so violent!" He detached Melody's hand from his robes.

Melody sighed, looking defeated. Uh-oh. Here came the part Sirius hated the most. Whenever he fought with a girl, she would wear herself down enough that she just deflated into nothing. And then Sirius would lose the fight.

"Fine!" she said, regaining her rather murderous attitude. "Then I'll just come back and squeeze it out of you later!"

Sirius smiled. Melody wasn't really like other girls.

"What are you smiling about?" Melody demanded, narrowing her eyes.

"You don't always have to be so tough, you know," Sirius told her, putting a hand on her waist.

Melody blinked. "Well sure I do!" she said, trying to sound like her normal, violent self, but it came out a little high pitched.

Sirius smiled. Melody's heart skipped a beat and started pounding faster. "If I wasn't tough, then I'd have guys hitting on me all the time, and I'd have to kick their asses." She slipped her arms around his neck. "It saves me a lot of time this way."

Sirius kissed her once, very softly, on the lips. Melody closed her eyes and considered for a moment, then very hesitantly kissed him back.

* * *

James was very, very confused. He was sitting on the lawn next to the lake while Peter tickled the giant squid, trying to explain things to Remus.

"She was talking about how I smelled," James said, shaking his head. "It seems really weird now, but at the time it was...I dunno, sweet or something."

"So then what?" Remus asked, watching Peter run away from a very agitated giant squid who was tired of having its tentacles played with.

"Then she was talking about getting married! I can't figure her out! She's insane, Moony! Insane!"

Remus smiled at the nickname. "I don't know what to tell you, Prongs. You're probably right, though."

"I am?"

"Yeah. She's insane."

* * *

Lily was crying, rather irrationally. "Mimi! I-don't-know-what-to-do!"

Mimi was trying to comfort her, but it wasn't really working. "Oh, come on, Lily, it couldn't have been that bad!" she soothed. "Just let things cool down for a couple of days! It'll be okay!"

"But-it's-not-that! We didn't—_sob_—have a—_sob_—fight or anything! We just—" She broke down and started crying again.

"Oh, Lily!" Mimi hugged her and grabbed a tissue, which Lily gratefully accepted and blew her nose with.

"Now, calm down and tell me what happened."

Lily nodded and told her about it as best she could, and then started crying again. "I made a complete fool out of myself!" Her cheeks flushed just thinking about it. "He'll never be able to look at me again without thinking about how much of a complete _idiot_ I am!"

"Oh, come on, Lily, it's not as bad as all that! Just avoid him for now, and things will get better. I promise you." Mimi smiled at her hopefully, and Lily nodded, although she didn't look like she quite believed her.

* * *

With classes in session again, things started to move very fast for the sixth years. They didn't have any exams to study for, excepting those at the end of the year, because O.W.L.'s were out of the way, and N.E.W.T.'s weren't until next year, but the teachers seemed to enjoy pushing them anyway.

"You need to learn absolutely as much as you can this year!" McGonagall had announced in one class period. "The things you learn this year will be absolutely crucial, as next year some of you may miss proper lessons!"

Everyone knew what she was talking about, of course. Seventh years who were interested in Auror positions had chances to take a three-month Auror "internship" or "training session" for three months during seventh year, which began in late January and ended in early May. You had to be a Prefect, at least, to qualify for a spot. The Head Boy and Head Girl almost always went, even if they weren't serious about becoming Aurors.

Lily herself was planning to go—unless, of course, James was, in which case she'd stay at school, because she was sure she'd never get over her humiliation.

That is, until October 2nd.

* * *

Lily and James had barely spoken a word to each other for nearly a month, so when she got his owl, she was rather surprised.

_Meet me by the lake at 8 o'clock.  
-James_

"Well, that's not very specific, is it?" Lily murmured, but she folded up the note and went out to the lake at eight o'clock just the same.

He wasn't very hard to find; he was standing there, all alone, with his back turned to her. She walked up behind him quietly, and he turned before she got a chance to say anything. She smiled just at the sight of him. She felt like she hadn't seen him for centuries, and it felt good just to be near him again.

He handed her a single flower—a rose, in full bloom. It was exquisite. The petals were blue and the stem was silver, no doubt a simple Coloring Charm, but it didn't matter to her.

"It's beautiful," she said softly, holding it delicately in her hand and minding the thorns.

"It won't last very long," James said, almost apologetically. "It's just a regular rose. And the thorns-" he seemed in a rush to apologize for it, but Lily took his hand and he stopped.

"It's beautiful," she repeated, and looked into his eyes, smiling softly, if that was even a way you could describe a smile. He kissed her, and then spoke.

"Whatever that was, at the beginning of the year—" he began, and Lily's face burned. She looked at the ground fiercely.

"Let's just forget it ever happened," he said. Lily looked back up at him, her face cooling down.

"Deal," she said, and she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

* * *

"Melody, for the last time, you do not need to know what is going on with the Marauders!"

"But I do! And you promised you'd ask James, remember, Lil?"

"Lil? Since when do you call me Lil?"

Melody slammed her hand into the table. "Since right now! Please, Lily? Come on! Sirius wouldn't tell me, but James likes you a lot more than Sirius likes me-"

At this Lily snorted and rolled her eyes.

"What?" Melody demanded.

"Please," Lily said. "You act as if you two aren't head-over-heels in love with each other."

"Yeah? Well, you and James act as if you don't spend all of Potions class staring at each other with googly eyes!"

Lily's mouth fell open. "We do not!" she sputtered, spots of color appearing in her cheeks.

Melody smiled. "Oh, you don't think so? Honestly, I think Professor Thorne's ready to hang himself!"

"Oh, shut it!"

"Not until you ask him!"

"I'm not going to—"

"Ladies!" a shrill voice interrupted their not-so-quiet argument, and, with a start, they realized they were both in the library and that a great many people were staring at them.

"S-sorry, Madam Pince," Lily stammered.

"Sorry, indeed! Now would you kindly get out of my library and not come back for a week, or I will be forced to take extravagant amounts of points from both of your houses!"

"But Madam—" Lily began, trying to explain that she needed a particular book to study from, but Madam Pince wouldn't have it.

"No 'buts', young lady, now GET OUT!"

Lily quickly gathered up her things and left, cheeks flushed, followed by a rather unaffected Melody. At the entrance to the library, the girls saw James and Sirius, both of them looking rather amused, and Lily glared at James and kicked his shins on the way out.

"Ow!" James said, and then he had to follow her, and taunt her, and she had to keep kicking his shins.

"Spotted raincoats!" Sirius exclaimed suddenly, in the middle of all this shin-kicking and _'ow'_-ing, and the other three had to turn and look at him quite strangely to make sure he was really all there.

"What?" Sirius asked, eyeing them all strangely. "You're all looking at me as though I were a three-eyed, pigeon-toed, hairless poodle with a big blue hairy tongue!"

"Well, that's a disturbing mental picture," Melody said, looking quite scarred. "For some reason I keep imagining it with my baby cousin's head on it..."

"Your baby cousin is a hairless poodle?" James asked in disgust.

"You're not talking about Steve, are you?" Lily asked, as she had seen pictures and heard lengthy descriptions of all Melody's relatives.

"No, no, I'm thinking of John..."

"If a peacock laid a rooster's egg and you put a rat on top of it, what kind of animal do you think would come out?" Sirius wondered, staring at the ceiling.

"Roosters can't lay eggs!" James exclaimed. "How daft can you be?"

"Sirius, they didn't put some special mushrooms in with the scrambled eggs this morning, did they?" Lily asked, rather nervously.

"No, but there was this fantastic boysenberry jam..."

"They make boysenberry jam?" Lily asked.

"Are you sure it wasn't blackberry?" James asked. "I love blackberry jam!"

"Aren't boysenberries poisonous?" Melody asked.

"No, that's mulberries!" Lily corrected her, rolling her eyes.

"Neither of them are poisonous, nitwits!" James informed them.

"We are not nitwits!" Lily snapped, and she kicked him in the shins again.

"Ow!"

"Maybe both of them are poisonous...?" Melody wondered, and all three of them ignored Sirius, who was now going on about dancing walruses.

Suddenly someone came tumbling out of a hidden passageway and rammed right into Lily and James, who ended up tangled on the floor. All three of them started struggling, which only caused them to get more tangled up with each other, and Sirius helped the third person to detangle himself, and it was, of course, Remus.

Sirius, Remus, and Melody stood watching Lily and James, who didn't seem to notice that there was no more third person and that they could now easily untangle themselves. Instead, they were arguing, and hurting each other, both intentionally and un-intentionally.

"Ow! You kicked my shin again!"

"Oh I did not! But you-ow-you just poked my eye!"

"Oh sorry."

"You are not!"

"Sure I—_OW_—am."

"Get your hand off my-"

"It's off! It's off!" [before she could kick him again

"Are we untangled yet?"

"Well apparently not, and no one else is being much help-"

"Wasn't there another person in here somewhere just a moment ago--?"

They both looked up to see Sirius, Remus, and Melody laughing at them, and untangled themselves as quickly as possible, their faces red.

Lily glared at James. "That was your fault."

James's mouth dropped open. "It was not!" he insisted, flabbergasted. "It was his fault!" he sad, pointing at Remus, who smiled cheekily.

"Oh, come on, Prongs, you can't blame it all on innocent little me!"

"A-ha!" Melody said suddenly, jumping in and pointing a finger accusingly at Remus. "That's it! It's those nicknames again! What is with those stupid _nicknames_?"

The Marauders all shrugged. "Nothing," they lied.

Melody narrowed her eyes at them, and then spun to look at Lily. "You!" she said, just as accusingly.

"Me!" Lily shot back.

"You promised you would mmpff—" Remembering what she had promised, Lily covered Melody's mouth with her hand, spots of color appearing in her cheeks.

"Yeah, yeah, later!"

"Oh, Lily, I wouldn't do that if I were you," Sirius advised her.

"Do wha—_eew_!" Lily said, removing her hand from Melody's mouth and discovering what Sirius had been talking about. She wiped her hand on her robes and Melody shrugged.

"Hey, it works!" she said.

They heard footsteps pounding down the hallway and all turned to look at the same time. It was Mimi.

"Did you really get kicked out of the library for a week?" she asked Lily, her eyes shining in excitement over the new gossip.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes," she said. "And it's all darling"—she poked Melody—"here's fault."

"It is not!" Melody protested. "Besides, you should be grateful! I'd _love_ to have an excuse not to have to go to the library again for a week!"

"You do, pinhead. You got kicked out too," Lily reminded her, rolling her eyes. "And this is bad. This means you can't do your homework."

Melody's eyes lit up at the prospect. "Yay!" she shouted, throwing her hands into the air, and started jumping around the corridor, forgetting that they were all only a few yards from the library and that Madam Pince could hear her perfectly well from inside it.

Sure enough, a few moments later, Madam Pince stuck her head out of the library doors and glared at the group down the hallway.

"Ten points from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor! Now get out of this corridor, or there will be more!" She ducked back inside the library and closed the doors with a decisive BANG!

The group of teenagers looked at each other and shrugged, and then carried on down the corridor in their usual fashion. After a few minutes, they somehow had themselves lined up in pairs, making a rather interesting procession going up and down the stairs, going absolutely nowhere before ending up back in the library corridor, but nobody was really paying attention, so they just kept going again.

Sirius was in the front, which was probably the reason for them all going around in circles, and he was talking to Melody, who was still demanding to know the Marauders' secret.

Lily and James were next, squabbling as usual over absolutely nothing, but they both looked very happy to be doing so, for some odd reason.

Mimi and Remus brought up the rear, and were chatting quite happily about anything they could think of. They appeared to be the only two people not fighting, but for some reason didn't look any happier than the two couples preceding them, just...calmer.

After a while—that is, after they had all talked and argued to their heart's content and none of them had gotten what they really wanted—they all returned to their respective common rooms and did a great amount of nothing.

* * *

Melody couldn't sleep. She was in the girls' dormitory, looking out the window, undoubtedly the only person still awake at this hour of the night...or maybe it was morning; whether midnight had passed or not, Melody wasn't really sure. The full moon was lovely, at any rate, and for the past hour or so she had sat staring at it, trying desperately to figure out what was going on, what she had missed.

She wasn't so sure why she thought that this was something she could figure out on her own, or even really what she was trying to figure out, but she felt as though someone had stuck a book right in front of her face, its pages blank, but only to her—it was a book everyone else could read (or at least, the Marauders could), but she couldn't, and she felt that maybe she just had to tickle it in the right place, or poke its spine for the words to appear, but no matter what she did, its pages were still blank, and so was her mind.

Remus was sick again, she had noted. He seemed to get sick a lot. About once a month, in fact. It was so odd...it almost seemed like he got sick on a regular basis, and then when he did get sick, he refused to tell anybody what he had been sick with. And besides that, an awful lot of Remus's relatives seemed to die during the year, a lot more than most people would ever get the chance to meet, and Remus had to be yanked out of school for every single one of their funerals, which all somehow lasted for days at a time. Either his parents had both had a phenomenal amount of aunts and uncles, or there was something fishy going on here.

And it seemed to Melody that Remus's strange illnesses and funerals had to tie in with the Marauders' secret somehow. She didn't know how they did, but she knew they had to. Of course, she realized that she could just be completely daft and overreacting, but both things were just so strange she couldn't help feeling that one had something to do with the other.

She sighed and averted her gaze from the moon to the grounds, which were bathed in an eerie silver light and looked perfectly still. There was no wind tonight, which for some reason made the outdoors look less welcoming, not more. Suddenly she saw a large, lumpy shadow out of the corner of her eye, and shifted so that she could see it more clearly.

At first she couldn't tell if it was many people or just one, large disfigured person, and then she saw that it wasn't a person at all...it was some horrible animal, a huge beast—but as they drew nearer her window, she saw that it was, in fact, three animals—a magnificent stag, a large, rather ferocious-looking dog, and there, in the middle-good God, was that a werewolf? Melody's eyes grew wide, and she shrank away from the window, somehow feeling that if the creatures took care to look up that they would see her, and somehow get into the castle and attack her.

A million thoughts were racing through her head, all jumbled together so that they didn't begin to make a piece of sense, but one thought finally jumped away from all the others and made itself clear and present in her mind.  
_  
Go get the Marauders_.

She wasn't sure why this thought felt so comforting, or why she felt the urge to listen to the thought, but it seemed like the best, most logical thing to do, for no reason at all. The Marauders all took Care of Magical Creatures, yes, but that really didn't give her the right to go barging into the boys' dormitory at who-knew-when in the morning (or was that possibly night?) and wake all of them up just to see some creatures that might not be there when they all finally got to a window. Still, she threw on a blue bathrobe and hurried down the steps of the girls' dormitory, then took the steps two at a time up to the boys'.

She opened the door as quietly as she could, and, to her relief, when she crept in the only sound she could hear was snoring. Quite an awful lot of snoring, too. And loud. Good gracious, how could they sleep with all this noise? Well, she supposed they all just drowned each other out, or...something.

She had absolutely no idea which beds belonged to the Marauders, so she just started poking through all of them. The first three beds were occupied, but not with the Marauders, and the last four were...empty.

The Marauders' beds were all completely empty.

* * *

Melody was waiting in the common room when the Marauders all finally tumbled out of bed the next morning. Quite late they were, too, as it was a Saturday and they didn't have any classes to go to.

"You!" Melody said, jumping up as soon as she saw them and pointing a finger at all of them accusingly.

"What?" Sirius asked, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He was still in his pajamas, too, and Melody couldn't help but notice that he looked rather cute. But darn her for noticing that now! That was not important right now!

"All of you!" Melody said. "I need to talk to you."

James groaned and rolled his eyes. "Come on, Melody! We all know what you're going to ask us, and we're not going to tell you, so just sto—"

"No, that's not it!" Melody interrupted, fixing them all (except Peter, whom she was ignoring) with piercing stares. "_I_ _saw_ _you_," she hissed, with as much meaning in her voice as she could, and the Marauders' eyes all widened, for they all knew exactly what she had seen.

"Well, that's it, then!" James said, sighing, rather defeated. "You've figured us out."


	6. Secrets and Love Letters

Chapter Six

Secrets and Love Letters

"Potato," Sirius said. "Po-ta-to. Potato! Potato potato potato potato potato! I love potatoes! If I had a potato! Boy, I'd skin that po-ta-to, and then I'd boil that po-ta-to, and then I'd chop that po-ta-to, and I'd mash that potato, and I'd salt and pepper and butter that po-ta-to, and then, boy, would I eat that potato, in all its mashed, potatoey goodness!"

"O...kay." Melody blinked at him, thinking, once more, that he had gone quite insane.

"What's with the sudden fixation on potatoes?" James asked, plopping down into a chair.

"Sudden? It's not sudden! Potatoes are my love! My life! My passion! Oh, my Potato Princess will come to me one day and then we'll ride off to Potatoland together and...well, I'll probably actually eat my Potato Princess, but as the remaining ruler of Potatoland I will treat my subjects well—"

"Before you eat them," Melody interjected.

"—yes, before I eat them, and—"

"I think that's enough potatoes, Sirius," Remus interrupted him, laughing.

"Oh, but I am not done speaking of my potatoes yet!" Sirius cried passionately, jumping up onto a chair. "First, I must speak of my love for them! Next, I must speak of their deliciousness! Then, I must show you all the glorious Potato Dance!"

Melody began giggling uncontrollably. "There's a Potato Dance?" she asked.

"Well, of COURSE there's a Potato Dance!" Sirius cried, sounding shocked. "Have you never heard of the  
Dance of the Potatoes? The Potato Dance? The Yam Waltz? The Spud Tango?" He jumped off his chair and seized Melody, forcing her into a ridiculous sort of non-dance that involved a lot of jumping and spinning and arm-waving.

Outside of the Potato Dance circle, Peter edged over to Remus.

"Does a yam technically qualify as a potato?" He whispered, as quietly as he could, but somehow Sirius (no doubt with enhanced Potato Hearing) heard him.

"Of course they do!" he yelled. "They're Sweet Potatoes! You must keep your vegetables straight, Wormtail!"

"Okay, that's enough Potato Dancing!" Melody declared, wiggling away from Sirius.

"I think that's enough potatoes!" James added, smiling and shaking his head. "Back to the matter at hand."

"But the po—" Sirius began.

"The potatoes can wait!" Remus said. Sirius crossed his arms and started pouting.

"Good doggy!" Melody said, patting him on the head. For some reason they all found this hilarious, and the room turned to a state of commotion as they laughed and Sirius chased Melody around it.

Once they had calmed down enough for order (which would not fit a normal person's definition of order at all, but rather the Marauder definition of order that involved a lot of poking, toe-stepping, hair-tugging, tongue-sticking, and many rather unnecessary invasions of personal space, and caused the room to function at a sound level normally reserved for space shuttle launches), James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter set about teaching Melody everything there was to know about being an Animagus. (Or at least, all _they_ knew about being Animagi.)

Once they had successfully blown up a chamber pot, and once Melody had successfully transfigured James's foot into a fuzzy pink bunny slipper, they decided to call it quits for the day.

* * *

Lily Evans waited, rather impatiently, outside of the library for Mimi Ramirez, who was checking out some books for her. She looked down the hallway and saw, to her disgust, one of her least favorite people in the world—Severus Snape.

"Well, if it isn't Lily Evans," he sneered as he approached her.

"If it isn't the greasy-haired little slimeball himself," Lily said, glaring. Was she spending too much time around James?

He sneered further. "Been spending too much time around your little boyfriend, I see."

Lily felt her face flush. What, was he a mind reader? "I don't have a boyfriend," she said stiffly, preventing herself from bursting out something stupid, like: 'James is not my boyfriend!' and completely giving herself away. Not to say that she..._liked_...James or anything.

Snape looked at her for a moment. "Not the best liar, are we, Evans?"

Lily whipped out her wand and pointed it at him. "You had better wa—"

"Lily! Come help me with these books! They weigh a ton!" Mimi called, coming out of the library, loaded down with books, and inadvertently saving Lily from making a fool out of herself.

Lily put her wand away and ignored the fact that Snape was still there, taking half of the pile of books from Mimi's arms and walking distinctly _away _from him.

Mimi spotted Snape before following Lily, and said, "Eurgh. What's _he_ doing here? He shouldn't be studying, he should be washing his hair!"

Lily giggled. "He was just being his evil, slimy self. And asking me about my..._ugh_...boyfriend. What boyfriend? I don't have a boyfriend!"

Mimi shook her head. "But you do, Lily. And I don't care if it's official or not! You and James are just...ugh. All over each other!"

"We are not!" Lily insisted, her cheeks flushing again. "Anyway, thank you for getting these books for me," she said, changing the subject so she wouldn't have to talk about James anymore.

"No problem!" Mimi said, and then giggled. "I still can't believe you got kicked out of the library!"

"I blame it all on Melody!" Lily declared, and she giggled too. "Actually, speaking of...have you seen her anywhere? I haven't talked to her in ages!"

"I have no idea. I haven't seen her since the last Potions class," Mimi replied, as they reached the entrance to the Ravenclaw Common Room. They answered the riddle, Lily followed Mimi in, and, setting her books down on a table, sighed.

"I'll have to find her," she said. "I'm worried she's conspiring with the Marauders again—if the school weren't so well-protected I swear they'd blow it up." Lily shook her head, and Mimi giggled.

"I might as well go with you," Mimi decided. "Where Melody is, there might also be a Remus."

"_Oooh_," Lily said interestedly, wiggling her eyebrows.

Mimi laughed and blushed. "Hey, at least I'm not in denial!"

Lily stuck out her tongue, and was just about to suggest looking for Melody right now, when the dear girl saved her the trouble by bouncing in through the common room entrance.

"You!" Lily said, pointing a finger.

"Me!" Melody said, looking very happy about something.

"You look happy. What happened?"

"Aren't I just allowed to be happy?" Melody asked, plopping down into a bean bag chair. Lily rolled her eyes.

"What have you been doing? I haven't seen you for two days!" Lily plopped down next to her.

Melody shrugged. "I've been busy."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "With what? You're never busy. You don't do your homework until like ten minutes before class! What could you have possibly been busy with?"

"What, I'm not allowed to be busy?" Melody asked, sounding ever more defensive.

"No, but you're up to something! What are you doing this time?"

Melody rolled her eyes. "_Nothing_. I just told you."

"Well then have you been going on secret dates with Sirius or something? What is it?"

"What is _what_? Lily, I've just been busy! Why can't you accept that?" Melody asked, now most definitely hiding something.

"Because—you're _lying_ to me!" Lily cried angrily.

"I am not lying!" Melody hissed furiously.

"I am your best friend, I think I can tell!" Lily said testily, crossing her arms.

"And who said you're my best friend?" Melody replied coldly. "Stop being so nosy."

Lily felt like she had been slapped. It had just been one stupid simple question! She jumped up out of the bean bag chair and ran up to her dormitory, hearing Melody's footsteps run in the opposite direction, and Mimi was left standing in the common room, very confused.

* * *

"...was just SO stupid, and she wouldn't leave me alone, and I know she was right, but I'm sick of her always bugging me about stuff, and don't do this, don't do that, no, not if the Marauders are involved, and blah de blah de blah de blah! God! You'd think she was my mother!" Melody fumed to Sirius, pacing around MHQ and flinging her hands in all different directions to emphasize her anger. "If she would just let it go, we—but no, of course she can't let it go, she's Miss Perfect Lily, and she can't afford to let anything go, she must obsess over it and pick it to pieces, and—"

"Melody!" Sirius yelled, interrupting her. Melody stopped abruptly and stared at him. He placed his hands on her shoulders. "Calm. Down."

Melody sighed. "Calm down. Calm down. Right! I can do that! Really, I can. I...really, I can! Calm down. Whooo. I can do that."

Sirius shook his head and smiled. "Sit," he commanded, pulling out a chair. Melody, who was not in a frame of mind to argue with his orders, sat. Sirius pulled out another chair and sat across from her. He stroked his chin, mostly because he had stubble growing there, which he was very proud of.

"...and I just would like her to lay off for a while. Some days I wonder why I'm friends with her, and I know, I know—that's so mean, but really...I mean, I don't tell her _one thing_ and she gets all titchy about it!"

Sirius blinked, realizing that Melody had started talking again and he hadn't paid any attention. Damn. _Way to impress the girl, Sirius,_ he chided himself.

"Calm down again," he advised. He waited for Melody to calm herself a bit, and then spoke again. "What exactly happened?"

Melody sighed. "Lily. She got really nosy about our...this whole Animagi thing. Not that she knows we're Animagi," she added hastily, seeing the expression on Sirius's face. "Well, I mean, I know _I'm_ not exactly one yet, but I will be!"

Sirius didn't quite know what to say. He looked around the room for a moment, considering. He wanted to be cool, but around Melody all efforts just seemed...lost. She was so pretty, and so elegant, and so...perfect. What in the world was he supposed to do?

Well, you could always be Sirius, he reminded himself. And with that, he said:

"You could always just give her a potato."

* * *

"You! This is all! Your! Fault!"

James Potter froze. Was that McGonagall again? But no, it couldn't be; she always used complete sentences. He turned slowly, thinking it sounded much more like...

"Lily!" he said, smiling tightly, and not meeting her eyes, because she was a lot less scary when you didn't have to look her in the eyes.

"What have you done to her?" Lily demanded.

"Who?" James asked, not quite sure he was following the conversation.

"Melody."

Oh. Her! Right. "Er...I don't know what you're talking about, Lily dear, but--"

Lily stomped her foot and interrupted him. "Don't call me 'dear'!"

James did meet her eyes now. "Well, what should I call you? My little fuzzy-wuzzy Lily-bean plant?" He asked, trying to be cute, but apparently Lily wasn't in the mood for cute, because she whipped out her wand and pointed it at his chest.

"_What_? Are you all keeping from me?"

"L-Lily?" James asked, looking at her wand. "What exactly were you planning to do with that?"

"I don't really know," Lily said, annoyed, "but I imagine it would involve hexing, cursing, and the loss of several limbs."

"Mine or yours?"

Lily didn't find this amusing. "Just answer my stupid question, James!"

"About Melody?" James asked, and Lily nodded slightly and continued to glare at him. Unfortunately, looking into her brilliant, beautiful, bright green eyes wasn't helping him focus on the question, so he decided to look at her nose instead. On her nose there were lots of freckles. They were very cute. Damn those cute little freckles! James averted his gaze again. No, no, no; not her lips, looking at those wouldn't do (damn those teenage hormones), and—no, he had better not look any lower than her neck. He looked up at the ceiling. It was a very boring ceiling, as far as ceilings go. Very clean.

"James, what exactly are you doing?"

"Would you believe me if I said 'looking at the ceiling'?"

"Well, that _is_ what you're doing, but _why_?"

"Where else am I supposed to look?"

Lily grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. "At _me_, please, while you're answering my question."

"Why do I have to answer your question?" James demanded. "Why can't someone else answer your question?"

"Damn it, James, because I got in a fight with Melody, and she won't tell me what's going on, and she stole Sirius so I couldn't ask him, and you're my b—" Lily cut off very suddenly, her cheeks glowing pink.

James's lips broke into a grin. "I'm your what?"

"Nothing," Lily mumbled.

"What was that, Lily?" James asked, leaning toward her and cupping his hand around his ear, like he was waiting for an actual response.

"I didn't say anything! Nothing! I said nothing!" Lily insisted, her cheeks still very pink.

"Oh, but you did! What am I, Lily?" James asked, smiling evilly.

"Hey, you wouldn't answer my question; I'm not going to answer yours!"

"But I _can't_ answer your question!"

"Why not?"

"Can't!" James said again, straightening himself and slapping his hand over his heart. "Marauder Code of Honor."

"Uh!" Lily crossed her arms. "Aren't I sort-of a marauder? I've been to MHQ!"

"You've also tried to talk Melody out of every grand prank we've ever pulled!" James reminded her, and Lily glared.

"Now on to my question! What am I, Lily?" He asked, grinning evilly once again.

"Nothing!" Lily snapped, spots of color appearing in her cheeks.

"It's not nothing! What am I?"

"Can't tell you!"

"Can't tell me? But I'm your—oh, wait, I don't know yet, do I? Hmm..." This, as James had planned, caused Lily to blush further.

"It's the Lily-bean Plant Code of Honor!" Lily decided finally, slapping a hand over her heart lamely.

James pouted at her for a moment. "Fine."

Lily sighed, turned, and began to walk down the hallway.

"Lily-bean! Wait! Where are you going?" James followed her.

"What are you doing? You're like a lost puppy!"

"A lost puppy? But I'm a cute lost puppy, though, right?" he asked, giving her a puppy dog face.

Lily couldn't help herself. "Awww! Good doggy!" She patted him on the head. James, acting like an idiot, actually barked and tried to jump into Lily's arms. She shrieked and fell over, James landing on top of her.

"Ow," Lily groaned. "Why do you always have to act like an idiot?"

"It's just a natural talent," James replied, rolling off her. Lily rolled her eyes at him, and accepted the hand James was offering to help her off the floor. Standing up, she stumbled, and shot forward into James's arms, her cheeks going pink once again. She straightened up and found her face very close to his.

"Classic," she whispered.

"What?" James asked, looking very intent on kissing her now. Had he made her trip on purpose or something?

"Well, this is the part in the movies where the boy and girl are supposed to kiss."

James, without worrying what a movie was for the moment, said: "Hey, works for me if it works for you!"

"Well...okay," Lily said, shrugging, but her nonchalant attitude (or, for that matter, any attitude at all) disappeared when James's lips touched hers, and she could do nothing but lose herself in another one of James's amazing kisses.

Suddenly, a very immature hooting and howling came from the end of the hallway, and Lily and James broke apart to the sight of Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew acting very immature and making far too many suggestive gestures. Lily, flushed, confused, and irritated, slapped poor James across the face and dashed down the hallway.

"That's it, Lily Evans!" she heard James yell after her. "You're not coming to my birthday party!"

Lily rolled her eyes at him even as she was running, and let her legs carry her away, away, away, up into a tower somewhere, where she collapsed, gasping for breath, her head spinning from both the run and the kiss. After she had collected herself a bit, she stood up and looked out at the grounds. The tower had no ceiling, and little prevented her from falling out but a very low wall that came barely up to her thighs.

"Guess they had different standards of safety back then," she murmured to herself.

"Still lovesick, Evans?" A horrible, oily voice asked from behind her.

Lily's expression hardened, and she turned to glare at the person who belonged to the voice. "Still in desperate need of a shower, Snape?"

"You're all the same," he sneered. "You stupid Gryffindors and Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. All so righteous, so self-confident, so sure of yourselves."

"Better than being a sniveling, obsequious weasel of a person like all you Slytherins," Lily shot back.

Snape sneered further. "You think you're so perfect," he spat. "So wonderful, so great, so untouchable. Well, we'll show you!" He hissed the last sentence at her. "We'll show you all!"

Lily narrowed her eyes. "Which is why you've won the House Tournament so much lately."

"You know, there's something bigger going on out there. You think everything happens inside of Hogwarts—you stupid Ravenclaws and Gryffindors have taken over the castle like you think it's yours, like you think it's the only thing that matters. There's a bigger world, Evans, and while you're running around in here playing King of the Castle, the Slytherins will be out dominating it."

Lily crossed her arms at him. He smiled smugly and rather evilly at her before turning away and disappearing down the corridor. What in the world had he been getting at? He seemed to know something she didn't. What was it, and...why did she care? Who cared if the Slytherins all beat each other to death with broomsticks?

But the way Snape had talked...it was like he was..._in_...on something...something that was wrong, something that was evil. Something only a stupid Slytherin could come up with, most likely. She rolled her eyes, shook her head, and forgot about it.

* * *

Sirius sat alone in MHQ, simply thinking. Normally, you wouldn't peg Sirius for a serious person, but underneath all of his immaturity was a young wizard who was becoming more and more worried about the emergence of a Dark Wizard in Britain.

Sirius probably worried about things more than all of his friends combined. He didn't sleep at night, sometimes, worrying about his friends; Remus, a werewolf; James, a lovesick, headstrong, rather insecure wizard; Peter, a shy, struggling boy; Lily, a shy, studious, witch, rather confused about James; and Melody, a gorgeous, self-confident, silly, talented, beautiful, smart, perfect...

Damn. Melody didn't have any faults, did she? She was just...perfect. He could find faults in all of his friends, but she...she...

Oh, who was he kidding? He was crazy about her; of course she seemed perfect! He sighed and put his head in his hands, and had just started an interesting train of thought when he heard the sound of tapping on the door of MHQ. He looked up and blinked. Why would someone be knocking on the wall? No one knew it was there except for the people who knew the password...

Oh well! He shrugged, and got up to open the door. In flew an owl Sirius had never seen before, bearing a small pink envelope. For a brief moment Sirius thought it might be a Howler, but as he took it from the owl he saw that it was simply pink stationery...scented pink stationery. He was intrigued.

"Smart owl," he muttered, as the owl flew back through the open door. Sirius closed it, hoping no one had been watching, and examined the envelope again. _Sirius_, it said, in a pretty cursive he did not quite recognize. Well, that was plain enough for him. He shrugged and tore the letter open, read its contents, dropped the letter on the floor, picked the letter up, read it again, dropped it again, picked it up again, sat in a chair, read it again, and allowed his jaw to drop open.

The letter read:

_Sirius-_

I am in love with you. I didn't know how to tell you, so I wrote you a letter. Actually, I'm not writing it—my best friend is. The first letter I wrote, my hand shook so badly that I spilled the ink bottle when I tried to dip my quill in.

You probably don't notice me, but I notice you. I've been in love with you for a year, and I couldn't stand being in love any longer without you knowing.

I don't want you to respond just yet—I'm too scared—but I had to let you know. I'll send another owl later, when I've gotten the courage.

Until then,

Forever yours,

Your Secret Admirer  
  
Well.

Sirius had never had a Secret Admirer before. It was rather flattering, but...he'd rather he knew who it was. Did he know her? Was she a sixth year? Seventh year? Fifth year? Had he ever talked to her before? Was she afraid to talk to him? It wasn't like Sirius would...clobber her with a broomstick or something if she asked him out.

Maybe it was Melody.

Sirius dropped the letter again at this thought.

It almost made sense, though...after all, he'd never seen Lily's handwriting, and...who knew whose owl that was, so maybe...just maybe...

Sirius bounced happily around MHQ for several minutes, and then ran off to find Remus, or Peter, or James, or...hell, he didn't know—Professor McGonagall, even!—somebody he could present with his Love Letter.

* * *

"Interesting," Remus said, examining Sirius' letter with a magnifying glass. "Very interesting..."

"What?" Sirius demanded, wondering what Remus could possibly find with a magnifying glass.

"Well, according to...to this inscription here, and...this marking here..."

The Marauders leaned in closely around him, trying to see what he saw.

"Yes, by George, I've got it!" Remus said triumphantly, standing up.

"What?" James, Peter, and Sirius asked him, with wide eyes.

"You've got a secret admirer, Sirius!"

They all groaned. "That was _horrible_, Moony," Sirius said, snatching his letter away.

Remus laughed and plopped back down into his chair. "Well, what did you expect? A major scientific finding? DNA?"

"James, do you think this is Lily's handwriting?" Sirius asked, handing over his letter.

James frowned at the page for about a second and a half before shaking his head. "No. I don't recognize this at all."

"Damn!" Sirius said, snatching it back.

"Why? Were you hoping it was...Melody?" James teased.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Sirius replied, and James blinked.

"Well, that's the first time you've ever admitted it outright." Peter remarked.

"Admitted it? What? I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about, Wormtail!" Sirius lied, inspecting the letter closely for something that obviously wasn't there.

Peter rolled his eyes. "It could still be from Melody—Lily isn't her only friend, you know."

"He speaks the truth!" Sirius cried, flinging a hand into the air and inadvertently sending his Love Letter flying.

Wormtail snatched it in midair and read it again. "What makes you think Melody would write something like this in the first place? It doesn't sound remotely like her."

"Since when are you a Melody expert?" Sirius demanded, snatching his letter back yet again. James plucked it from Sirius's hands almost immediately and scanned the letter himself.

"Wormtail does have a point, Sirius," he said. "I think Melody would strangle herself with Toothflossing Stringmints before even thinking about putting a word of this junk down on paper."

Sirius, now in quite a foul mood, took his letter back for the last time and shoved it into a pocket. "And what about you, Moony?" he demanded. "Are you on the S.S.R. Dreamspoiler too?"

Remus looked at Sirius and shrugged. "Ay, ay, Cap'n...I suppose," he said lamely.

Sirius glared at all of them and stomped off to find Lily.

* * *

"Lily?" Mimi said cautiously, walking into the girls' dormitory, where Lily had camped herself out since lunch. She'd been in a horrible mood ever since the fight with Melody, and Mimi hadn't approached her since she'd run off to who-knows-where, probably looking for James.

Lily, hidden behind the curtains on her four-poster, didn't say anything.

"Are you okay?" she tried again.

"Of course I'm okay," Lily said coldly. "Why wouldn't I be?" she was attacking her sketchpad with a dark, thick pencil, attempting to draw a...well, she didn't really know what she was attempting to draw, but at the moment it really didn't look like much.

There was silence from the other side of the curtain for a moment, as Mimi tried to think of what to say. Several things came to mind, but none of them seemed appropriate. "Have you been studying?" she finally asked, but the question felt very awkward.

"No," Lily said, sounding agitated. She didn't seem much in the mood for small talk—or, for that matter, any kind of talk.

"You sound...angry," Mimi tried.

"I'm fine," Lily insisted, not sounding so at all.

"Did you find James?"

"Who said I was looking for him?"

"No one. I just..."

"Damn it, Mimi, what do you want?" Lily demanded, finally exploding. She pulled back the curtain on her bed and glared at Mimi, who looked like she'd been slapped.

"Want? Lily, I don't _want_ anything! I'm trying to make sure you're okay!"

"I'm fine! I already told you, so give it up!" Lily yelled.

"Why are you yelling at me? What did I do?" Mimi screamed back.

"Why can't everyone just LEAVE ME ALONE?"

"FINE! If that's what you want, I'll leave you alone—FOREVER!"

Mimi stormed out of the dormitory, slamming the door violently behind her and causing a vase of flowers to crash to the floor.

Lily just pulled her curtain shut again and returned to her drawing.

* * *

Sirius was tooling around the Ravenclaw entrance, wondering how to get to Lily, when someone shot out from it and smacked squarely into him.

"Ow!" They both exclaimed. Sirius stumbled back, shaking his head; trying to make his eyes focus. When they did, they were trained on a very pretty girl with short, wavy brown hair and large brown eyes, who was rubbing her forehead.

"Ow," she said again. "Sorry!" she looked apologetically at Sirius, who smiled.

"Hey..." he said, after a moment. "Don't I know you?"

"Vaguely," she said. "I know Lily Evans, who likes James, who's your friend."

"Oh!" Sirius said. "And you know Remus, too, right?" She nodded. "And your name is...?"

"Mimi," she said. "Ramirez," she added, after a moment of thought.

"And I'm Siri--"

"Sirius Black," Mimi finished for him. "Yes, I know."

"Ah! A fan!" Sirius cried, clapping both hands over his heart. Mimi giggled.

"Don't give yourself too much credit," she said, crossing her arms.

Sirius's mouth dropped open. "How rude! Are all fans this insulting?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Well, un-knowing fan, do you know where Lily is?"

Mimi rolled her eyes. "Up in the girls' dormitory, being angry. Why?"

"Hmm. Well, that stinks."

"Hello?" Mimi waved a hand in front of Sirius's face. "Care to answer my question?"

"Not really..."

"Uh!"

Sirius smiled. "Well, I have to go! Bye!"

Mimi glared at him as he disappeared down the hallway.

* * *

Lily, after many hours of scribbling on her paper and fuming, had finally calmed down enough so that her eyes would focus. She looked down at her drawing, and allowed her mouth to fall open in indignation.

On the paper was a drawing of herself, but with bean plants growing out of her head. She ripped the page out of her notebook and left the girls' dormitory.

* * *

James was in the library, actually attempting to study, when a brown school owl flew in, looking rather agitated. It rather rudely dropped a letter on James's head and flew off. James, curious, abandoned his Potions notes and opened the letter.

It was a drawing of Lily, with bean plants coming out of her head. James burst into laughter, which quickly subsided with a sharp glare from Madam Pince, and he looked at the writing scrawled under the drawing:

_Look at what you made me do!  
_

* * *

Melody was in MHQ, trying to figure out what to do about Lily, when Remus came in.

"Sorry, were you...er...studying?"

Melody laughed. "Very funny, Moony. Me? Study?"

Remus smiled and shrugged. "So, when are you going to patch things up with Lily?"

Melody rolled her eyes. "Don't talk to me about her! I'm not planning on patching things up."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"I don't know! My partner-in-crime disappeared. I've been waiting for him, but...well, he's obviously not here. Do you know where he is? Wait, don't answer that. He's probably just off chasing some stupid girl." Melody shook her head and crossed her arms, feeling a twinge of jealousy in her stomach. "Whore," she muttered.

Remus, who had been silently containing his laughter, finally burst, and fell to the floor in hysterics.

"Uh! And what, exactly, is so funny?"

"Sirius—Sirius—" Remus gasped, in between laughs. "He's—you—whore—he's looking—_whore_—!" then he exploded in a fit of laughter again and couldn't speak. Melody smiled, shook her head, and waited for Remus to calm down.

"So..." Melody said, once Remus had managed to contain his laughter. "You said Sirius was looking for something?"

Remus grinned evilly. "Melody dear..." he said, and Melody raised her eyebrows.

"Yes, Moony dear?"

"You haven't been commissioning any of your friends to write mysterious love letters to Sirius lately, have you?"

"SIRIUS HAS A LOVE LETTER?" Remus nodded, still smiling evilly. "AND HE THINKS IT'S FROM ME?" Melody demanded, her eyes as wide as saucers. Remus nodded, widening his evil smile.

"This is good news!" Melody exclaimed. She, too, got an evil grin on her face. "This is very good news."

* * *

Lily looked up from her Potions book and at the window, where she expected to see an owl. Instead, she saw the grinning face of James Potter.

"What are you doing?" Lily exclaimed, opening the window.

"Coming to say hi to my Lily-bean plant, of course!" James said. Lily giggled.

"Enjoyed my drawing, did you?"

"Immensely!" He grinned devilishly at her. "Hop on," he said, motioning to his broom.

"From this window? Are you joking?"

"What, you don't trust me?" James asked, mocking hurt. "Come on, Lily, where's your spirit?"

Lily grinned and slid out of the window, landing herself safely on the back of James's broom. She was, after all, only sixteen.

"Woo-hoo!" James yelled, and took off.

"Aaa-AAH!" Lily screamed, and clutched James around the waist for dear life. "DON'T DO THAT!" James laughed but slowed down. They spiraled up to the roof of Hogwarts, to the same place James had found Lily last year.

"What's the occasion?" Lily asked, dismounting the broom.

"You've been stuck in your room for the last few hours. I had to cheer you up," James said, shrugging. He pulled a rolled up, bulging napkin out of his pocket. "I nabbed some food for you," he said, offering the bundle to her. Lily raised an eyebrow and smiled, accepting the package.

"Is James Potter actually being thoughtful?"

"Are you implying that I'm inconsiderate?" James demanded, seizing Lily by the waist and dangling her feet over the side of the school.

"_Aaah_! James!" Lily yelled, only half frightened. James smiled and pulled her close, giving her a peck on the cheek. "Jerk," Lily muttered, but she was smiling.

"Jerk, eh?" James started to pick her up again, but Lily shrieked and wrapped her arms around his neck tightly in protest. "Ah, the lady can't resist me!" he said, wiggling his eyebrows. Lily rolled her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder.

"In your dreams, Potter." She looked up at him, suddenly feeling very small and very safe. She traced the line of his jaw with her finger, memorizing the look and feel of his face. She kissed his chin, his nose, his cheek. James, growing impatient, caught her lips with his, and proceeded to kiss her until Lily no longer had control over her body, until all she could think about was James, and how right it felt when he kissed her, and how dizzy she got when she kissed him back. But then another thought wormed its way into her head, and she gasped, breaking the kiss.

A year ago, she had sat on this rooftop yearning for love. As she looked into James's sweet brown eyes, she wondered...had she found it?

* * *

Wendy Thompson couldn't concentrate on her Arithmancy homework. There was something much more pressing to think about. Linda Sharp, her best friend, sighed, and nudged her.

"Come on, Wendy, this paper is due tomorrow! I really need your help!"

Wendy sighed as well. "I can't concentrate, Lin! Not now!"

"I knew I never should have helped you write that letter."

Wendy glared at her. "Well,_you_ fall in love with someone, then, and see how well you can concentrate on Arithmancy!"

"_Please_, Wendy, like I need to fall in love to get distracted from Arithmancy." Lin rolled her eyes.

They were sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room, in the two chairs nearest the fireplace. Wendy's chair was strategically positioned so she could glance over at Sirius Black and his friends with out being conspicuous. This would have worked well, had she only been glancing, but she was constantly staring instead of glancing, and positively drooling at the sight of the very cute sixth year.

"Wendy! Hello!" Lin waved a hand in front of her friend's face. Wendy blinked and looked back down at her Arithmancy paper. "Do you want to go to the library?"

Wendy glanced back at Sirius. "Not really."

Lin sighed, exasperated. "Wendy, please!"

"Okay, okay!" Wendy snapped, frowning. Lin, with Wendy's help, actually managed to get a few more sentences written before Wendy started drifting off to Sirius-land again.

"Wendy!" Lin yelled, annoyed.

"Not so loud, Lin!" Wendy said, spots of color appearing in her cheeks as several students turned their heads to look.

"Well, you're doing it again!"

"I know," Wendy moaned. "What am I going to do?"

Lin sighed. "Forget about him, Wendy! Please!"

"But Lin, I..."

"He's a sixth year. Face it—you're never going to get him! That alone should be reason enough to give up. You're only a third year, remember?"

"I remember!"

"And besides all that...he's Sirius Black. There are seventh year girls who probably wouldn't stand a chance with him."

"That's not very encouraging!" Wendy huffed.

Lin shook her head. She didn't want to hurt her friend's feelings, but...Sirius was just way out of her league. And it wasn't love! It was just a silly crush! She didn't voice her opinions, though. She just kept wishing, over and over, that she had never agreed to write her friend's love letter to Sirius Black.

* * *

Melody, at the next Marauder meeting, tried to embarrass Sirius as much as possible. She'd asked Remus to remember everything he could about the contents of the love letter, and was now using all the information she possessed against Sirius, trying to deceive him into thinking that it really was she who had written the love letter, while simultaneously trying to draw him into confessing his feelings for her.

All was going well until Melody's Loathed Enemy Number 2 burst in the doorway (Loathed Enemy Number 1 being Snape). It was Lily, dragging Rita Skeeter with her.

"Look who I found eavesdropping!" she said triumphantly.

"Sirius, Melody, take her hostage!" James commanded, then he went over to be mushy with Lily for a moment.

"Lily, you're turning into a Marauder!" James cooed, and Melody nearly barfed. She gagged silently, for the benefit of Remus and Sirius, who laughed. Pettigrew laughed too, of course, but Melody didn't pay him too much mind. She still disliked Peter, but they had gotten to a point where they could at least stand being in the same room with one another.

Once Melody and Sirius had successfully bound Rita Skeeter to a chair with magic, they began The Interrogation.

"You are in strict violation of Code 10234," Peter stated. "And you must now be punished and interrogated!"

Rita Skeeter looked slightly alarmed.

"First, the punishment!" Sirius said, almost sounding delighted. "You must have pink gumdrops raining down on your head throughout the interrogation!"

Rita Skeeter looked slightly confused.

"A-hem!" James cleared his throat. "The sort-of honorable Judge Moody presiding!" he announced. "This case is now called to order! Will the ladies please act as a jury!" Melody and Lily glared at each other. "Or...not. Sirius, will you please allow the pink gumdrops to act as the jury?" Sirius, who now had pink gumdrops flowing freely out of his wand, nodded.

Rita Skeeter rolled her eyes.

* * *

The Interrogation didn't last long. The Marauders discovered that Rita Skeeter had been eavesdropping on their meetings, with the help of a Wall-Thinning Charm, and decided on a course of action—to turn her into a donkey and let her roam the halls for a few hours. (They also performed a Memory Charm so she wouldn't remember that the Marauders were all unregistered Animagi.)

This, of course, earned James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Melody a handful of detentions each, as they all proudly claimed fault for it, and a strict talking-to from Professor McGonagall, who warned them that if they ever used any Transfiguration on a fellow student ever again, the five of them would be expelled, and that ended the Marauder's grand campaign of turning people into donkeys.

* * *

Meanwhile, Lily was still keeping up a lively war with both Mimi and Melody. Nothing had really happened except for a lot of glaring, but Melody, begin Melody, decided to change this.

On Tuesday morning, Lily awoke, with a shock, to find that her entire body, skin, hair, teeth, tongue, and all, had been turned blue.


	7. The War of the Shoes

Chapter Seven

The War of the Shoes

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Lily Evans screamed as she looked into the mirror. "I—I—I—" she gasped, trying to find the words. "I'M A BLUEBERRY!"

Her eyes were wide, which looked freakish, because they were completely blue, just like the rest of her. She was surprised she could even tell where her eyes were at all—every part of her body was exactly the same color, and there was little difference between her hair and her face, her cheek and her chin.

"Wha…?" Came a confused, sleepy voice, and Lily whirled around to see the other girls in her dormitory climbing out of bed. Mimi was the one who had tried to speak, and Lily glared at her.

"What part did YOU have in this?" she demanded accusingly, pointing a finger at Mimi.

Mimi blinked at the sight of a completely blue Lily and, without realizing it, began to giggle.

"I knew it!" Lily exploded, and dug her wand out of her robes. Her wand wasn't blue, at least; that was a relief. "You will pay for this. _Puniceus_!" Lily cried, and the spell shot out of her wand, turning Mimi bright pink.

"Aah!" Mimi cried. "Lily! TAKE THIS OFF OF ME!"

"WELL YOU TAKE THIS OFF OF ME FIRST!"

Mimi, looking very much like she was covered in radioactive pink bubble gum, stomped her foot. "I didn't _do_ it!"

"LIAR!"

"I AM NOT!"

By this time, all of the girls in their dormitory were very awake, and watching the fight with interest. Susie, who had forgotten to put her glasses on, was awake but very confused, as it looked like a blue blob of jelly was arguing with a pink blob of jelly, and…why were there blobs of jelly that big in the girls' dormitory at all?

"Well if _you_ didn't do it then _who did_?" demanded the blue blob of jelly, which for some reason sounded very much like Lily Evans. Susie decided to find her glasses.

"I don't _know_! Can you think of no one else who _hates you_?" Susie found her glasses just in time to see the pink blob throw this insult at the blue blob. Once the blobs were in focus, Susie began giggling, because of course they weren't jelly blobs at all.

"It's NOT FUNNY!" Lily and Mimi screamed in unison, and Susie stopped laughing before either one of them decided to turn her purple or something.

Lily turned back to Mimi, fuming. "Well, _fine_ then, O Thou who has _so_ many friends, I'M GOING TO FIND MELODY!"

Lily stormed out of the girls' dormitory and through the Ravenclaw Common Room. She didn't stop storming until she reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"WAKE UP!" she demanded of the portrait. The Fat Lady woke up looking quite sour.

"Who exactly do you think you are?" she demanded of the very blue and very angry Lily.

"OPEN UP!" Lily demanded of the Fat Lady.

"That is NOT the password!"

"I. DON'T. CARE!"

"Well! Then I guess you're NOT getting in, are you?" The Fat Lady huffed, and she flitted out of her portrait to find one of her friends. Lily glared at the blank painting for a moment, and then screamed at the top of her lungs:

"MELODY CAULDWELL! I'M CALLING YOU OUT!"

The whole of Gryffindor Tower heard her yelling, but only a few chose to respond. Melody, who normally would have rolled over and gone back to sleep, had no choice but to get up and walk down to the portrait hole. Of course, once she got there, she didn't really mind. After all, Lily was blue. She burst out laughing, and made no attempts to restrain herself, not even when Lily took out her wand and shrieked:

"_Puniceus_!"

With that, Lily stalked off to the hospital wing to have her blueness fixed.

Melody spent several more minutes laughing after Lily walked off, unable to get the picture of a completely blue Evans out of her mind. She re-entered the portrait hole (which the Fat Lady had just returned to), still giggling, to find Remus, Peter, Sirius, and James waiting for her. The Marauders all had very odd expressions on their faces, and Sirius looked as though he were about to laugh.

"What?" Melody asked. "What's so...AAAAAAAH!" She had just discovered that every inch of her body was pink. By then, all the Marauders were laughing hysterically.

"Oooh! This is NOT FUNNY!" Melody stomped her foot. "LILY KNOWS HOW MUCH I HATE PINK!" Melody's face would have been bright red, had it not already been pink.

Remus calmed down enough to speak. "Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey."

Melody's eyes narrowed. "Ha! And have Lily laugh at me? That's where _she's_going."

"So you're just going to stay pink?" James asked, snorting.

"You!" Melody exclaimed, whipping out her wand. James's eyes grew wide.

"Why me?" he squeaked as Melody waved her wand at him threateningly. "You know you look a lot like Lily when you do that?"

Melody chose to ignore this comment. "She's _your_ girlfriend, James."

James shook his head fervently. "No she's not!" he said quickly.

"James, get out your wand," Melody instructed. "We are going to duel this out."

James shook his head. "I don't duel with girls," he said, sounding like a prat.

"JAMES POTTER!" Melody screamed, infuriated. "Stop acting like a git, stop acting like you're really afraid of me, get out your wand, and _duel_!"

"What are we dueling over?" James demanded, getting out his wand.

"Lily. Are you going to assist her, or me?"

James groaned. "Melody! This is ridiculous! And for your information, I don't plan on assisting either one of you!"

Melody's eyes flashed. "You're involved in this whether you like it or not! _Petrificus totalus_!"

James blocked and sent back a leg-locking curse. "I am not!" he insisted as Melody shot curses at him.

"You are too!"

James dropped to the floor to avoid a particularly well-aimed spell. "This is _your_ fight. You picked this fight with Lily, and you can finish it by yourself!"

Melody glared as James rolled over and shot another spell at her, which she had to dodge, giving him enough time to stand again. He was making too much sense. It was time to end this duel. "_Expelliarmus_!"

Unfortunately, this spell didn't have entirely the effect Melody had hoped. She called this spell just as James did, and they switched wands. They continued shooting spells at each other for a while, until their wands began malfunctioning.

James couldn't seem to get anything but daisies to come out of Melody's wand. It was very temperamental, and at first had not worked even for Melody. Melody, on the other hand, couldn't seem to direct any of her curses at James. They kept rebounding and shooting back at her.

"Aauugh! I can't duel like this!" Melody cried, throwing James's wand back at him. He caught it easily, with all the grace and athletic movement of a Seeker. James looked at the wands in his hands.

"I guess this means I win, then?" James asked, smirking and tossing Melody's wand back.

"It's not _my_ fault your wand is defective," Melody huffed.

"I don't have to take sides now—_ha_!" James stuck his tongue out at her, and Melody returned the childish gesture. She sighed and looked down at her magnificent pinkness.

"I guess I'll be going to get this reversed then, won't I?" she sighed. "Off to the hospital wing again!" she saluted the Marauders and marched off, ignoring the giggling of the Fat Lady as she walked down the corridor.

Halfway to the hospital wing, she was intercepted by Mimi.

"Whoa!" she said.

"You laugh, you die," Melody warned. Mimi shook her head.

"Nothing to laugh at. Lily put that curse on me too."

"Really?" Melody said, sounding thankful, as Mimi looked perfectly normal. "So how do you take it off?"

Mimi shrugged. "I'm not...entirely sure. All I know is that I put the spell on someone else, and I wasn't pink anymore. Then I had to run because Susie was kind of mad at me."

Melody giggled. "Well then! What's the spell?"

"_Puniceus_."

"Right," she said, looking around for a target. Mrs. Norris just happened to be in the hallway, and Melody shrieked with delight. "_Puniceus_!" she cried, and the spell shot out of her wand. Mrs. Norris meowed, alarmed, as the spell hit her, and ran off, suddenly very pink, to find Filch. Melody and Mimi exploded in giggles, and ran down to the Great Hall for breakfast before Filch could catch them.

* * *

Lily, her pride very injured, sat in the hospital wing and sulked. Madam Pomfrey had given her an awful-tasting potion to drink that slowly took off the effects of the spell. Her hair was mostly red again, except for the ends, and her forehead looked completely normal again, except for her half-blue, half-red eyebrows. The rest of her body was still blue, though, and the potion had already been in effect for an hour. Lily suspected this was going to take a long time.

Suddenly, shrieking and wailing filled the hospital wing. "Help! Madam Pomfrey! My nose! My eyes! My ears!"

"Oh my goodness!" Came the startled voice of Madam Pomfrey. Lily couldn't see what was going on from behind her curtain, and had to admit that she was quite curious.

"Please, Madam Pomfrey, say you can fix it!" the girl wailed.

"Why, dear, of course I can fix it! There's nothing to be afraid of! Now sit, dear, and try to calm down a bit." the nurse soothed. Lily listened curiously as Madam Pomfrey asked the girl all kinds of questions.

"Now—your eyes—they were—ah, yes. Does that look right? The ears, I'm assuming, go here—"

"No, on the left." the girl replied.

"How long has it been this way?"

"Ten minutes, I guess." the girl sniffed.

"Well, it'll all be all right in a minute. I—oh dear!"

"What?" came the girl's voice, sounding very alarmed.

"Well, this isn't going to be entirely easy. Your nose—hold on, dear, while I get you a potion to loosen your skin up."

Lily heard the curtain around the girl's bed close, and Madam Pomfrey's footsteps as she walked off to her potion cabinet. The girl continued to sniffle.

"I thought I was the only one having a bad morning," Lily said, out of nowhere.

The girl sniffed again. "What's wrong with you? I bet it's not as bad as mine."

"Well, I'm half blue. It's not exactly fun," Lily replied. The girl sniffed once more and laughed mirthlessly.

"You should see my face. I look like a Picasso."

"Yikes!" Now Lily understood all the talk about noses and eyes and ears...

"So, who's the cause of all YOUR troubles?" the girl asked of Lily.

"My ex-best friend," Lily said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

"Ex-best friend? Are you sure you're not just having a stupid fight?"

"The stupid part is right, but I'm going to get her back for this anyway."

The girl laughed a little again.

"What about you?" Lily asked. "Who rearranged your face?"

"Ooh!" the girl exclaimed, suddenly sounding angry. "Frank Longbottom! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!"

Lily laughed. "Sounds like another James Potter," she said, rolling her eyes.

The girl paused momentarily before replying. "James?" she echoed, sounding confused. "No, no, no! Frank isn't _anything_ like James! James is...suave, and...handsome, and he knows how to treat girls. If _only_ I had a problem with James Potter! I think I might actually enjoy him constantly bothering me. He's _so_ cute!"

Lily coughed. "ExCUSE me? What _is_ it with everyone and James Potter?"

There was another pause. "Well, don't _you_ think he's cute?"

Lily considered for a moment. Well, he wasn't devilishly handsome like Sirius. And James definitely wasn't as cute as everyone made him out to be, but... she thought of his smile, and his eyes, and the way he looked at her...

"No!" Lily suddenly cried, her cheeks flushing. "James Potter is _not_ cute!"

A moment of astounded silence. "Well, I think you're crazy, but I guess you're entitled to your opinion!"

Just then Madam Pomfrey came back with the potion, and Lily and the girl's conversation ceased. Lily sighed and laid back down as Madam Pomfrey started babbling again.

"Now, just drink it down. Good! Okay, now...where exactly was your nose positioned...?"

This was going to be a long day...

* * *

Melody snatched a croissant off the Gryffindor table and waltzed over to the Ravenclaw table.

"So, Mimi..." she began. Mimi looked up at her and blinked.

"So, Melody?"

Melody grinned. "How would you like to be my partner in crime?"

Mimi raised an eyebrow. "What crime?"

"Come with me and we'll talk about it," Melody said mysteriously. Mimi rolled her eyes and followed Melody out of the Great Hall.

"We must pay dear Lily back for turning me pink," Melody said decidedly, opening the front doors.

"What about me?" Mimi asked as they began descending the stairs.

"There was a 'we' in that sentence, you know." Melody pointed out, taking a bite of her croissant.

Mimi sighed. "I just—oh, never mind," she decided.

"So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to let me into Ravenclaw House and assist me in pulling another marvelous prank on Lily."

"Okay, two things: one, you already know how to get in there; two, what's the prank?" They reached the lawn just as Melody finished her croissant.

"Well," Melody began, licking her fingers. "Lily will undoubtedly do something to prevent me entering Ravenclaw Tower now that we are at war. And I don't exactly have a prank yet—I was hoping you could help me think of something."

"Hmm…" Mimi considered all this for a moment. "Well, the question is, then, when are we going to pull it, once we know what we're going to do? In all fairness, Lily is probably still blue. We wouldn't want to hit her with a double whammy, would we?"

"I don't think it really matters WHEN we do it, it's just WHAT we do. Lily's never been much of a prankster. Based on how things played out this morning—well, first, I turned her blue. In retaliation, she turned me pink. Think about it for a second. All she did was mimic me. So…"

"Whatever we do to her, she's just going to throw right back at us?"

"Exactly!" Melody said. "So what we need to do is come up with something that would be completely upsetting to her, but in return would have no meaning whatsoever to me."

"What, like stealing all her books?" Mimi joked. Melody was notorious for not studying, losing her textbooks, and failing to bring said textbooks to class. Melody, however, didn't seem to recognize it as a joke. Her eyes sparked.

"Mimi, that's perfect!" Melody cried. "We're going to steal all of Lily's books!"

* * *

Despite the fact that the majority of her body was still blue, Lily was having quite a fun time. She and the girl with the Picasso face (whose name, Lily discovered, was Alice) had gotten involved in a lively conversation about their families. Alice, like Lily, was a Muggle-born, and it turned out they both had Muggle sisters who resented their talent. They also both had boys who severely annoyed them, and whom everyone insisted they were going out with even though they weren't. They _also_ discovered that they had Herbology together, and agreed to work on the next few projects together, which was a relief to Lily, as Mimi had previously been her partner, and now they were…well, pink and blue (or so Lily assumed). They began to talk of pranks they could pull on Melody in retaliation.

Alice threw around a few hexes, but Lily dismissed them all quickly.

"She knows too many countercurses," she said, shaking her head.

Alice nodded, considering Melody's reputation. She was one of the more mischievous girls in the school, and very fond of pulling pranks on people. "You'd better hope you don't get into a duel with her," she said, shuddering. She'd heard that Melody was associated with the Rita Skeeter episode a week ago—she and Sirius Black. Rumor had it that Rita had challenged them to a duel, which eventually got so violent that Rita was turned into a donkey.

Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm not worried about dueling Melody Cauldwell," she said, leaning back and trying to make herself comfortable against her pillows. "Her attacks are strong, but her techniques are too repetitive. You can usually land a good curse or two if you pay attention. She is getting better, though," Lily noted, and frowned at the silence from Alice. They were both still behind their curtains, so Lily couldn't see the look of awe and horror on Alice's face.

"You've dueled with Melody Cauldwell?" she squeaked.

"Uh...yeah," Lily said, wondering if this was supposed to be a big deal.

"Did she turn you into a donkey?" Alice breathed.

Lily burst out laughing. "No!" she cried, snorting and laughing harder. Alice didn't seem to find this entirely amusing. Lily calmed down after a bit, and then spoke. "Melody is—was—one of my best friends. We were just dueling for fun." Lily noted the was in her sentence with a pang of sadness, and wondered if it were entirely true. They would get over this eventually...wouldn't they?

"Oh," Alice said. "Well—"

Her sentence was interrupted by a large disruption near the entrance of the hospital wing.

"What is the meaning of this?" came Madam Pomfrey's irritated voice.

"Sorry, Madam Pomfrey, sorry!" came a very familiar voice, accompanied by even more familiar laughter. Lily groaned.

"What?" Alice whispered.

"It's Sirius and James!" Lily moaned. Alice didn't seem to find this annoying at all. Instead, she squealed in delight and began fussing over her face.

"I hope it looks normal," she muttered. Lily sighed and rolled her eyes.

"My patients need rest! Now please, if you—"

"Madam Pomfrey, we came to drop Lily's homework off!"

"Well, give—"

"No, no, we can take it, can't we Sirius?"

"Oh, all right, but be quiet!"

Lily could just see the evil grins on Sirius and James's faces as they waved Madam Pomfrey back into her office. She put a hand to her forehead and began to pray, as she heard their footsteps grow nearer, that they wouldn't pull her curtain back.

Too late.

"Lily-bean!" James and Sirius cried, taking in her half-normalness, half-blueness with glee.

"Hello," Lily said miserably.

"Aw, cheer up, Lily-bean!" James said, setting some books down on the table next to her bed. "Look, bubbles!" he said, flicking his wand. Blue bubbles floated out of it.

"No! Not those stupid blue bubbles again!" Lily shrieked. "Away! Away!" she cried, waving them away fervently with her hands.

Alice peeked out from behind her curtain. Fortunately for her, James and Sirius didn't notice.

"Perhaps you prefer little pink flowers?" Sirius suggested not-so-innocently, a devious grin on his face. He created a chain of flowers with his wand and set it on Lily's head.

"I hate you," Lily said, glaring at them. Sirius and James smiled cheekily. She sighed and rolled her eyes, removing her flower headdress and flinging it on the pile of books on the table next to her bed. "I'm still going to get you back for that," she muttered.

"Of course you are, Lily-bean! We'll have a rematch over Christmas holidays!" Sirius declared.

Lily frowned. "Actually, I can't. I promised mum and dad I'd come home for Christmas this year."

"And so did we, remember, Padfoot?" James said, hitting Sirius upside the head. Sirius staggered comically, and Alice giggled. She quickly retreated behind her curtain at the looks from Sirius, James, and Lily.

"Who's that?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Just leave her alone," Lily said, and Sirius shrugged.

"Anyway, o dearest blue Lily-bean," James said, noting, with amusement, that Lily was still blue from the waist down, "we just came to bring you some homework! Dear Professor Thorne was missing you desperately in Potions."

Lily gagged, for the benefit of Sirius and James, who laughed appreciatively, then looked over at the books on her bedside table.

She rolled her eyes.

"James, these are Care of Magical Creatures Books!" At this statement, Alice peeked out from behind her curtain again.

"Are they really?" James asked, sounding not at all surprised. "Well, then, I guess we'll have to go retrieve the Potions book!" he said, sounding very pleased with himself and grabbing the books from the bedside table.

"Can't wait!" Lily said, unenthusiastically.

"Farewell, my dearest Lily-bean!" James cried, picking up the flower chain. "Until we meet again..." he said, far too dramatically, and placed the chain back on Lily's head, while simultaneously giving her a kiss on the cheek. Lily, blushing furiously, rather lamely waved good-bye as Sirius and James bounced out of the hospital wing.

"Aaaaaw!" Alice cried, once they were gone. Lily's face, which had been nearly normal, suddenly went very pink again.

"Aaaaaw what?" Lily muttered, looking very embarrassed indeed.

"James is so sweet!" she cooed.

"He is not!" Lily cried, desperately trying to cool her cheeks.

"Oh, please!" Alice rolled her eyes. "I think you're crazy about him."

"And I think you should shut it, or I'm going to start referring to Frank Longbottom as your boyfriend!" Lily threatened, and Alice quickly shut her mouth and retreated behind her curtain.

"It was still cute," Alice muttered.

Okay, so it was.

Maybe just a little bit.

* * *

James and Sirius's second visit wasn't nearly eventful as the first, because Madam Pomfrey refused to let them anywhere near Lily's bed. She brought the books back to Lily herself, and then urged her to go to sleep, as she'd been urging both of the girls to do all day. Lily was normal down to her knees by then, and it was getting dark outside, so it wasn't as hard to fall asleep then. She'd never been able to sleep during the day. She and Alice talked a little before they fell asleep, and when Lily woke up the next morning, Alice was gone.

* * *

Lily looked completely normal the next morning, to her utter relief, and walked down to the Great Hall early, clutching James's Potions book in her arms. She found most of her professors eating at the Staff Table, and apologized for her absence from class yesterday. She scribbled her assignments on a spare piece of parchment from Professor Flitwick and walked back up to the Ravenclaw Common Room to get her books before returning to the Great Hall for breakfast with Susie and Matt.

They sat at the end of the table, and Susie and Matt informed her of yesterday's events. Lily giggled as Matt told her about what had happened to Mrs. Norris yesterday—apparently she had been turned pink twice by Lily's _puniceus_ spell. Filch had been beside himself with anger. The students responsible (Melody and Susie, in turn) had been given a detention apiece.

"I've never had a detention before," Susie said nervously, squirming in her chair.

"They're not that bad," Matt said dismissively, loading potatoes onto his plate. "The only one I didn't like was when I had to clean out Professor Thorne's jars, which were covered with all kinds of...slime, and...mold, and...nasty stuff, and I dropped one of them, and the sludge ended up on my favorite pair of musical socks..." he sighed, remembering the blue-and-green, "Fur Elise"-playing, large, fuzzy, musical socks. "They've never been the same!"

Susie and Lily both giggled.

"That's nice, dear," Lily said, taking some potatoes for herself. Just then the doors to the hall burst open, and the Marauders came through, quite noisily, with Melody, and, Lily saw, with a lurch in her stomach, Mimi. She shook it off, and tossed James's Potions book to him as he passed.

"Lily...why is Mimi with a bunch of Gryffindors?" Susie asked, sounding confused.

Lily shrugged. "Dunno," she muttered, pushing her potatoes around on her plate aimlessly. Matt and Susie exchanged a glance.

"Lily...?" Susie said cautiously. "Is there something you want to...talk about?"

"No!" Lily said, almost yelling. She let her fork clatter onto her plate as she stood up, and she ran out of the Great Hall.

* * *

The Marauders and Mimi, who hadn't quite reached their table yet, turned to look as Lily ran out of the Great Hall. Momentary looks of guilt passed over both Mimi's and Melody's faces; Remus, Peter, and Sirius shrugged, and James ran after her. He burst through the doors of the Great Hall and saw a flash of red hair disappearing behind the closing front doors. He followed her out and down the steps in front of the school.

"Lily!" James called as she ran across the lawn. Lily didn't stop. She didn't even bother to look back.

* * *

Silent feuding passed between Lily, Melody, and Mimi for the next few weeks, during which Lily spent a lot of time in the library, talking with Susie, Matt, and occasionally Alice, and avoiding James. Avoiding James was the hardest; he seemed to be everywhere. It wasn't that she was mad at James, really; she just didn't feel like talking to him. He would make her explain everything, and then try to come up with a solution, and she, for once, didn't want a solution. If she and Melody were going to have a fight, they were going to have a fight, damn it, and James had better not get in the way!

Besides, she didn't need James disrupting her plans for revenge. She had to do something...something better than turning Melody pink again, at least. Something better than what Melody would come up with. Something...prankster-ish. The only problem was, she couldn't come up with anything that the Marauders hadn't already done, and she was not about to be a copycat. And even if she was a copycat, Melody would know how to fix everything right away, so it would be pointless to try.

Lily was pondering this one afternoon, right after lunch, as she walked to the Ravenclaw Common Room to get her books for Potions and Arithmancy. What could she do, she wondered, entering the common room, that would make Melody really upset? She briefly considered cutting Melody's hair while she was sleeping as she ascended the stairs to the girls' dormitory, but dismissed the thought as she approached her four-poster. She lifted her Bottomless Bag off the bed and began digging through it for her books.

Having a Bottomless Bag sometimes had its drawbacks. For example, sometimes her books got lost in its bottomlessness, and it took quite some time (and perhaps a Summoning Charm) to retrieve them. She usually tried to get all necessary books near the top before class started, but it looked like today she'd have to walk through the halls with her hand in her bag, searching.

She groaned and left the Common Room, still digging around in the bag. Her hand hit something, and she pulled it out. It was her copy of _Hogwarts, A History_.

"I have been looking for this!" she exclaimed, then sighed and tossed the book back into her bag. She was almost to the Potions dungeon already, and she still hadn't seen any sign of her book.

"Come on! Where are you, you stupid book?" she demanded. She pulled out something else, rolled her eyes, and groaned. "I thought I had gotten rid of all these," she muttered, tossing the year-old box of chocolates back into her bag.

By that time, she had reached the Potions dungeon. Lily swore under her breath and pulled out her wand.

"_Accio _Potions book!" she hissed, pointing her wand inside the bag. She concentrated, and waited, and waited, and concentrated, and...no Potions book.

"WHAT?" Lily shrieked, digging furiously through her bag. "That's impossible!"

"What's impossible?" came the voice of the person she'd been avoiding for days. Lily sighed, and turned around to face James.

"I've lost my Potions book," she explained, as she really wasn't in a mood to avoid anybody at the moment.

James put on a face of fake horror. "Lily? Lose a book?"

Sirius, who was hovering nearby as always, chimed in with, "Everybody run! It's the Apocalypse! The unthinkable has happened! Lily's lost her Potions book!"

Lily, her cheeks growing red, crossed her arms and looked at James, trying to ignore the Idiot. "James, can we share yours?" she asked pleadingly, because now she not only didn't have a partner in this class, she didn't have a book either.

"Sure," James said, ushering her over to the table where he, Sirius, Remus, and Peter normally sat.

"You do realize this table's only fit for four, don't you, James?" Remus said.

"Not to worry!" Sirius said, clearing his throat and eyeing the seat next to an attractive Ravenclaw across the room. "Peter, you can go sit with her,"

Well, _that_ wasn't what Lily had expected Sirius to say.

"Me?" Peter asked, bewildered.

"Sure!" Sirius said. "I mean, look at how short she is! She'd be perfect for you!"

Peter looked rather doubtful of the last statement, but Sirius had been right in pointing out that she was short—she looked several inches shorter than Peter, at any rate, who was rather short himself.

"Go get 'er, Wormtail!" James said, with a wink. Peter gulped, rather nervously, but set off across the Potions dungeon with a swagger that so mimicked Sirius's that Lily had to laugh.

"We've trained him well, haven't we?" Sirius said dramatically, and Lily rolled her eyes. They took their seats just before Professor Thorne burst into the dungeon. He looked at James's table sourly before beginning the lesson.

Lily, who had never worked with James on anything before, was surprised to discover that he was actually rather good at potion making. Between the two of them, they had their potion finished before anyone else in class. And there was another benefit to working at James's table, besides—he, Sirius, and Remus were always cracking ridiculous jokes, which made the class fly by faster than usual, despite the fact that Professor Thorne kept swooping over their table like they were up to something.

Melody, who was working across the dungeon with Mimi, glared at them throughout the entire class period.

"This is ridiculous!" Lily cried as she entered the Arithmancy classroom.

"What's ridiculous?" Susie asked, blinking.

"I can't find my Arithmancy book!"

"Really? And you couldn't find your Potions book either?"

"No! I don't understand! I put all of my books in here this morning, and I went to my first two classes just fine, and now I can't find any of my books. The only one I've found is _Hogwarts, A History_, and that really isn't going to do me much good! I just don't know..." she gasped suddenly, unable to finish her sentence. "Melody," she hissed. "DAMN IT!" she yelled, throwing her bag onto the floor.

The entire class was looking at her, and Lily suddenly realized how lucky she was that the teacher had not been in the room. "Sorry," she said, and picked up her bag. Melody was so going to pay for this.

* * *

Mimi stumbled up to the Northeast tower, doubled over in laughter. Melody was already there, waiting for her.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Lily—was—so—mad!" Mimi gasped. "When she realized—what you had done—she—she—" Mimi was brought to her knees in a fit of laughter. "And she didn't even blame _me_ for it!" she cried, wiping away tears of laughter. Melody giggled.

"This is perfect," she said. "Now all we have to wait for is the response. Let's go down to the kitchens and get some food for celebration!"

* * *

Lily paced outside of the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room, Bottomless Bag in hand, ignoring the Fat Lady, who was watching her curiously. She had loads of homework to do—but this was more important. Suddenly, the portrait hole opened, and two third year students walked out, arguing.

"I wish I had never agreed to write that stupid letter!" one of the girls cried, turning to face the other, her black hair whipping behind her.

"Well I wish my best friend wasn't a—" but she froze in midsentence upon seeing Lily. The other girl turned, and froze once she, too, had seen Lily.

Lily hurried past the third years and into the Gryffindor Common Room, only slightly curious as to what letter they were talking about. The portrait hole closed behind her, and the girls' shouts were muffled as they resumed their fight. She hurried across the Common Room, ignoring the Gryffindors' curious stares, and marched up the stairs to the Sixth Year Girls' Dormitory.

The dormitory was, thankfully, deserted. Lily marched to Melody's bed—last on the right—and began to put her brilliant plan into action.

* * *

After she and Mimi were done celebrating, Melody sighed and began wandering around the school. Her thoughts drifted back to Potions class...Lily had been sitting with James, Sirius, and Remus, in a spot that Melody had never managed to earn, no matter how much time she spent with the Marauders. She had never been more jealous of anybody in her entire life, not even that time when her little sister Novolie had gotten invited to Callie Manilow's birthday party and Melody hadn't, even though Callie was the same age as Melody, and Novolie was a whole year younger.

Melody came from a very large, very poor family—she had seven brothers and sisters in all. Every year she told Lily that Christmas was too much of a pain at home, and that was why she stayed at Hogwarts—but the truth was her family didn't have enough money to bring her home. They didn't have enough money to come and get her, or feed her, or take care of her. They only managed during the summer because four of her siblings were carted off to a Muggle summer camp for underprivileged children somewhere in Scotland for two months. And last summer had been even easier on her poor parents—Melody's uncle had taken her on that trip to Venezuela, and given her parents some extra money.

Melody was the only witch in her family. She was the only product of her mother's first marriage, to a Mr. Barry Cauldwell. Melody's dad, along with her dad's entire family, was magical. Her mother, however, came from a long, boring line of Muggles, and her second husband, Steve Huntington, was as big of a Muggle as they came. He was also about as poor of a Muggle as they came. Melody wished, at least once every day, that her father were still alive.

He had been killed on the job—his job being top-secret work for the Ministry of Magic. It had been so secret, in fact, that no one had ever told Melody exactly what it was that he had done. All Melody knew was that her father had been one of the first victims of the Dark Lord Voldemort; one of the first victims to have the Dark Mark painted in the sky over his dead body; one of the first to leave behind a shell-shocked family; one of the first to leave behind a daughter who wanted revenge.

Melody had devoted all her spare time (that wasn't occupied by playing practical jokes) since arriving at Hogwarts to learning how to duel. She paid special attention in Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and sometimes studied late into the night, out of large, thick volumes about dueling, an activity no one in the world knew about—but she had a feeling Lily and Sirius knew about it anyway. And maybe James and Remus; James, because she spent so much time with him, and Remus, because he was just a naturally perceptive person.

Her siblings didn't understand her endeavors, or all the time she spent studying at home. Of course, Melody didn't really expect them to understand—none of them were magical, and they weren't her father's children. But she loved them anyway.

Melody's mother had remarried several years after Barry Cauldwell's death. Steve had once been married himself, but he hadn't been widowed; he was simply divorced. He also had a daughter; Novolie, with whom Melody usually got along very well (excepting after Callie Manilow's birthday party, and after Melody received her Hogwarts letter, when Novolie had been mad at Melody for being a witch and going away). They had then produced the remainder of Melody's siblings, and had fallen into a state of poverty.

Last summer, for Melody, had been the best experience of her life. Her uncle's mistress, Catalina, had taken her shopping almost every day, and she'd bought herself a large amount of shoes (Melody was very fond of shoes) and a variety of new clothes and dress robes, as well as a fantastic new racing broom—a Nimbus 1001! She'd also bought a lot of things for her siblings, and had gotten Christmas gifts for her entire family, as well as for all her friends at Hogwarts. Melody's uncle was very rich and very extravagant. He had taken her to lush, elegant parties almost every night, where she met some of the finest, richest, most respected, and charming witches and wizards in the world.

Everyone at the parties had loved Melody. They commented on her beauty, her grace, her charm. She had enjoyed being treated like royalty. She had enjoyed not having to spend her entire day cooking and cleaning. She had enjoyed being fawned over by young, handsome wizards, each of whom were heirs to fortunes even larger than her Uncle's. There were no unpleasant people there, and even if they were, they didn't dare insult the niece of Hans Cauldwell. There were no Snapes present at the parties, thank God—not that the Snapes were rich at all; Melody, in fact, had no idea. The only people there that Melody didn't like were the Malfoys, but even they could be a tolerated for a time.

But even so, she had enjoyed coming home. She had enjoyed returning to Hogwarts. And, most of all, she enjoyed seeing Sirius Black again. She wished, desperately, that Sirius had been invited to Venezuela with her. The only thing missing from that vacation had been someone to enjoy it with. Oh, sure, Catalina was nice enough, and her uncle was very pleasant to be around, and the people at the parties were interesting to talk to, but...none of them were Sirius. None of them had his wacky sense of humor, his devilish grin, his confident swagger, or his wonderful, perfect, beautiful, intelligent, mischievous, dark brown eyes.

Melody was suddenly jolted out of her memories as she realized she was standing at the entrance to MHQ.

"Tea kettle," she muttered, and was granted entrance to the place. Upon entering, she saw Sirius sitting at the long table, looking very thoughtful and quite troubled. "Oh," she said, and turned to leave.

"Don't go," he said, and Melody turned to see that he had come out of his trance.

"What were you thinking about?" she asked.

"What were you?" Sirius shot back. Melody rolled her eyes.

"I asked you first."

"Well I asked you second."

"What in the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"I don't know, you started mentioning order!" Sirius shrugged. Melody shook her head and giggled.

"Never mind," she said, sitting down across from him.

"You want to know what I really was thinking about?" Sirius asked, looking serious again.

"What?"

"Voldemort."

Melody's eyes darkened. "Voldemort," she spat.

Sirius grinned. "Oh, so you hate him too? I thought it was just me."

Melody sighed. "I guess...I haven't told anyone about my father, have I?"

"No," Sirius agreed. "Not more than the fact that he died, but...he didn't just die, did he?"

Melody shook her head, looking sad and angry at the same time.

"Voldemort?" Sirius asked, needlessly, and Melody nodded again, looking strangled. "That explains that, then," he said quietly.

"Huh?"

"The circles under your eyes," Sirius said, reaching a finger over to touch her cheek gently. "All your dueling practice."

Melody chuckled. "Kinda sad to know I'm that transparent."

"Oh, it's not about transparency—just because you're really bad with make-up—"

"Shut up!" Melody cried, smacking him on the shoulder lightly, but laughing all the same. Sirius caught her hand as she tried to pull it back and, for no reason, began examining her fingers. They were long, and, just like the rest of her, elegant. He laced his fingers through hers and waved their hands around aimlessly.

"Is there any point to this?" Melody asked as their hands spasmodically shot up into the air and then came back down again.

"Is there any point to anything?" Sirius asked, in the usual Sirius-like way of answering a question without answering it at all. Melody rolled her eyes. Instead of responding, however, she grabbed Sirius's other hand, and then their hands were waving all over the place, wildly, as if both sets of arms had been possessed. Melody began giggling at the ridiculousness of the situation, and Sirius soon joined her, with his own booming laughter. Soon both of them were laughing so hard their sides hurt, and, although the arm-waving ceased, they refused to let go of each other's hands.

Melody recovered first, and she slowly lifted her head off the table and looked at Sirius, who was still laughing, in spasms. He looked up at her, with a slight dash of tears in his eyes, and squeezed her hands. Melody smiled so widely she thought her cheeks would break, and squeezed his hands back. And suddenly, she really, really, really wanted to kiss Sirius Black.

* * *

Lily exited the Gryffindor Common Room through the portrait hole, now shouldering her quite heavy Bottomless Bag, and encountered the same two girls she had seen when she had entered. They were standing in the hallway, completely ignoring everything around them, and screaming their heads off at each other.

"--CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE SUCH A STUPID, BACKSTABBING, UNSUPPORTIVE FRIEND!" the blonde girl screamed.

"WELL, I'M SORRY IF I GOT TIRED OF YOUR STUPID, RIDICULOUS CRUSH ON SIRIUS BLACK! HONESTLY, HE'S ALL YOU TALK ABOUT! SIRIUS THIS, SIRIUS THAT, BLAH BLAH BLAH! IT'S ALWAYS, 'OH LIN, WHAT SHOULD I DO ABOUT SIRIUS', NEVER 'HEY LIN, THANKS A LOT, YOU'RE A GREAT FRIEND, WANT TO PLAY SOME EXPLODING SNAP?'! OH NO, YOU'VE GOT MUCH BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN CARE ABOUT YOUR BEST FRIEND!" The black-haired girl finished her speech in a sea of rage, and turned around and stormed into Gryffindor tower, eyes blazing, before the other girl even had a chance to respond. Lily's heart went out to both of the girls, and especially to the blonde, who took one look at Lily, realized she had heard their fight, and turned and ran, her face crumpling and her eyes leaking tears as she did so.

"Hey! Wait!" Lily called, and ran after her. After all, the poor girl wasn't the first blonde to have her heart stolen by Sirius Black.

The girl stopped and looked back just as Lily rounded the corner. She looked thoroughly embarrassed.

"What do you want?" she asked, sniffing and wiping her tears away. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?" she asked, eyes wide.

"No," Lily said, shaking her head. "I just...it looks like you're having a rough time. With your friend, that is. Did you...um...do you want to talk about it?" she asked awkwardly, unsure why she had decided to approach this girl. The girl looked at her suspiciously.

"You're not in Gryffindor," she said abruptly, and Lily blinked in surprise.

"Um. No," she replied.

"Why did you go into our common room? And how did you know where the entrance was? And...wait, you're James Potter's girlfriend, aren't you?"

Lily's face went beet red, half from embarrassment, half from anger. "James is not my boyfriend!" she yelled, a little more vehemently than necessary. The blonde girl took a step back.

"Okay, okay, he's not your boyfriend!" she said, holding up her hands defensively.

"Sorry," Lily said, regaining her composure. "Just...never mind about James. We were...what were we talking about?"

"You wanted to know if I wanted to talk about...something."

"Right. Your friend. Do you?"

"Well...why do you want me to tell you?" The blonde girl looked slightly confused.

"I dunno," Lily said, shrugging. "I thought you might want to talk to someone about it. I mean, I'm having a fight with my best friend right now, too, and...well, it's kind of a pain in the butt, if you know what I mean. And it's a lot of stress." _Especially when you're dealing with Melody_, she added silently.

"Really?" the girl said, now sounding slightly more interested in Lily's proposition. Lily nodded.

"Come on, let's go to the Southwest Tower. It's always deserted." The girl followed Lily to the tower, where they both sat down and the third year girl spilled her guts about her crush on Sirius Black, and her fight with her best friend.

"I know you're going to say I'm too young for Sirius," she sighed. "And...I guess you're right, but...I...I..." the girl sighed hopelessly. "I'm completely in love with him."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure it's...love? I mean, no offense, but it's kind of one-sided, and you really need two people involved for it to be love."

The girl glared at her. "Well what would you know about it?" she spat, suddenly vengeful. "You don't even have a boyfriend," she muttered, glaring off into the distance.

"Hey! Calm down! Boyfriends are not God's Gift to Women. I don't need to have a boyfriend to know what I'm talking about," Lily said, only slightly offended. What was up with this girl? Were kids always this touchy?

"I'm not a little girl, you know. I am thirteen," she said pointedly, crossing her arms. Lily rolled her eyes and briefly wondered if the girl was psychic.

"Yeah, and I'm sixteen, and I'm older than you, so just deal with it, okay? Trust me. I know what I'm talking about."

"What's your name?" the girl asked suddenly.

"Lily. And yours?"

"Wendy," the girl replied, sighing. "So, you think I should give up on Sirius too, huh?" She looked completely miserable. Lily nodded, and smiled ruefully.

"There are other guys in the universe," she pointed out.

"I suppose..."

"And don't forget to apologize to Lin."

Wendy screwed up her face. "Great. I hate apologizing."

Lily smiled. "You're not the only one..."

"So, what about you? Why are you fighting with your best friend?"

Lily, fingering her Bottomless Bag, decided that it would be better if she didn't talk about it right now, before Wendy caught her red-handed. "Never mind that," she said hastily, standing. Wendy stood, too, and looked at her accusingly.

"What are you hiding in that bag?"

"That's really not important right now!" Lily said, shouldering the bag. "What is important is that you apologize to Lin before your fight gets blown way out of proportion." She pushed Wendy along as they exited the tower.

Wendy glared at her when they reached the bottom of the stairs. "Well, at least tell me one thing."

"Hm?"

"When did you get over _your_ crush on Sirius?"

Lily raised her eyebrows. "What makes you think I ever had a crush on Sirius?" she asked, bewildered.

"Well, why else would you talk to me about it? And you seem to know a lot about Sirius, besides."

Lily shook her head. "You have the complete wrong idea. I never had a crush on Sirius."

"Oh," Wendy said knowingly. "So you still like him, eh? So is that what all this was about? You were trying to get me to forget about him so you could move in on him guilt-free? I see what you're up to!"

Lily smacked herself in the head. "Look! I—do—not—like—Sirius! I have _never_ liked Sirius!"

Wendy looked at Lily sideways, as though she still didn't believe her. "So your friend does, then?"

Lily sighed, exasperated. "Yes, if you must know, one of my friends does like Sirius, okay?"

"A-ha! So that's the friend you're arguing with?"

"Yes. The same one."

"And you were fighting about her crush on Sirius, right?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Well, you should definitely apologize to her," Wendy said, nodding knowingly. Lily felt very much like patting her on the head and shooing her away.

"Thanks for the advice, kid. I'll keep that in mind."

"I am not a kid! I am a teenager! Thir-TEEN. Do you hear that 'teen'?"

Lily sighed again. "Look, I have to study. Come find me if you ever need to talk again, okay? I can be, like...your mentor, or...something like that."

"Will you help me with my homework?" she asked eagerly, noting Lily's shiny Prefect badge.

"Sure. Why not?" Lily muttered.

"Okay! Bye, Lily!" Wendy called, running off toward Gryffindor tower. Lily shook her head and began making her way back to her own common room.

* * *

Melody stared at Sirius for a moment, then suddenly took her hands from his.

"I have to go," she said, her cheeks growing hot.

"Melody..." Sirius said weakly as she turned to go. Melody, however, ignored him, and took quick, sure strides toward the door. Sirius, thinking quickly (or, perhaps, not thinking at all), leapt over the table and caught her arm just as she reached the door.

Melody looked up at him, her heart pounding ridiculously hard in her chest. They stared at each other for a moment, and then Melody turned to leave once more, but before she knew what was happening, Sirius had whirled her around again and lowered his mouth to hers. Melody closed her eyes and allowed Sirius to kiss her, but for some reason, something inside of her told her not to kiss him back. Memories flashed through her mind—memories of last summer—of a certain man—

She broke away suddenly, feeling sick.

"I'm sorry," Sirius said immediately.

"No," Melody said softly, shaking her head. "It's not you, it's..." she stopped, knowing that it wasn't quite her either.

"You? Not the right time? Someone else? What?" Sirius asked bitterly.

Melody frowned, as the feeling of nausea went away. _Forget that. Just forget it._

"Nothing," she said, slightly surprised, and she threw her arms around Sirius's neck and kissed him fiercely. Sirius froze for a moment, taken aback, but quickly attuned himself to the kiss and slipped his arms around her waist. Neither of them had any idea how long the kiss lasted, but it was just long enough for James, Peter, and Remus to walk in on them.

"—and then he—" James was saying, but he was cut off abruptly by the sight of his best friend caught up in a very passionate kiss with the girl they were supposed to be teaching how to be an Animagus.

"O...kay!" Peter said. "I vote we--"

"SHIT!" Melody yelled, having broken out of the kiss, but Sirius's arms were still around her, and both of their faces had gone very red.

"Um, " Remus said, looking scandalized. "Maybe..."

"Maybe we should do the Animagus lesson later!" Melody said, twisting out of Sirius's arms and running out of the door. After she had gone, all the Marauders turned, very slowly, to look at Sirius, who looked guilty and embarrassed.

"Erm..." Sirius said, before the other three Marauders exploded and jumped on him, with shouts of...

"Way to go, Padfoot!" (Peter)

"Awesome, Dog-boy!" (Remus)

"Sirius, you rascal!" (James)

Then, James, Peter, and Remus stepped back, and took a look at the now-disheveled Sirius with pride.

"He's all grown up!" James cried, wiping away a fake tear, which made Sirius laugh.

"My little boy!" Peter cried, clasping his hands together, which made Sirius scowl.

Remus, instead of saying anything, burst into ridiculously fake sobs and ran to Sirius's side, fake-sobbing onto his shoulder, which made Sirius push him to the ground and begin dusting off his robes.

* * *

Melody spent the remainder of the night studying, and stumbled into class the next day without even bothering to change her robes—or, for that matter, her shoes. Melody normally changed her shoes at least once every day. As usual, she had forgotten her book, but in this class it didn't matter—nobody paid attention in History of Magic anyway.

She spent half of the class with her head on her desk and the other half giggling at Sirius's dead-on imitation of Professor Binns. During the time she had her head on her desk, James was complaining to Sirius about the fact that Lily couldn't find any of her books (has she not figured it out yet? Melody wondered curiously) and she was now borrowing James's, for the classes where she couldn't share a book with a fellow Ravenclaw. This, consequently, made Melody think of the Potions class yesterday, and she frowned, making a mental note to talk to Sirius about it. She was not about to be replaced by Lily Evans.

* * *

Lily found Wendy the next day and told her that if Melody Cauldwell was in any way upset about anything missing, she should owl Lily right away.

Unfortunately for Lily, Melody didn't go back to Gryffindor Tower that day at all, until well past midnight, and it was several more days before Lily received any kind of owl at all.

At breakfast on October the ninth, Lily received her owl, and ran out of the Great Hall in a fit of giggles, passing Melody as she went. Melody, in turn, stormed in, and began yelling, loudly, to anyone who would listen, about her missing shoes.

* * *

Quidditch practice began that same week, and practices weren't fun for the Gryffindors, mainly due to the fact that Melody was still steaming about her missing shoes and kept hitting the Bludgers toward all of her teammates, envisioning that they were Lily, and wishing desperately that Lily were on the Ravenclaw team so she could whack her in the head with a Bludger. Sirius had an especially hard time at practices, as he was in charge of making sure none of his teammates got bludgeoned to death by one of Melody's ill-hit Bludgers.

"MELODY!" James yelled at one practice, after nearly having been decapitated by a Bludger she had hit in his direction.

"What?" Melody demanded from below him, annoyed, as she hit another Bludger toward Mundungus Fletcher, one of their Chasers.

"Would you PLEASE STOP TRYING TO KILL US ALL WITH THE BLUDGERS?"

Melody glared at him, but, just as she was about to hit another Bludger in his direction, her club was snatched out of her hand. She turned to see the face of a very impatient Arabella Figg glaring at her. Arabella was a Chaser, a fellow sixth year, and normally a rather good friend of Melody's, but at the moment she looked royally pissed off.

"Melody," she said sternly, holding the club out of reach as Melody grabbed for it. "We all know you're mad at Lily, but you're acting like a three-year old." The remainder of the team (who were, besides James, Sirius, and Mundungus, Fifth Year Keeper Andrew Brown and Seventh Year Harrieta Finch) formed a circle around Melody and Arabella.

"Calm down or you're not getting your club back," Arabella continued. Melody glared at her for a minute, but then realized that the entire team was staring at her. Little pink spots appeared in her cheeks as she realized what she'd been doing.

"Sorry," she mumbled, looking at the ground. "I just...look out!" she cried suddenly, seizing her club back and whacking a Bludger away from Arabella's head. With that, the team resumed practice, and the Quidditch pitch returned to its normal state of chaos.

* * *

"'Lo, James," Lily said, easily, as James came up to greet her. They were meeting by the statue of Boris the Bewildered, as they'd been doing for the past week. "Thanks," she said as he handed her his Transfiguration book.

"I still don't see why you won't just ask Melody for your books back. I mean, you have her shoes now; you might as well call it square."

Lily sighed. "You of all people should understand. Haven't you played enough pranks on Snape to realize that the war's not over 'til it's over?"

"At this rate, the war won't be over 'til you two have completely switched possessions, and then you'll have a time getting it all switched back!"

Lily giggled. "I don't think she's going to try to steal anything else of mine. Not after I took her precious shoes." She frowned. "I'll bet she wasn't expecting that."

"Judging by the way she went off screaming...no. I have to admit I was impressed. I didn't think you had it in you."

Lily raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really?" she asked, sounding defensive. "Are you suggesting I have no spirit in me, James? No mischievousness?"

"Not with those long words flowing out of your mouth, you don't," James said, grinning. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, James, sometimes you act as though you were stupid!"

"And who's to say I'm not?"

"Dumbledore, apparently," Lily said, flicking his Prefect's badge.

James sighed. "Don't mention it," he said, as though the mere thought of it were painful. "I'm still ashamed!" He hung his head in mock embarrassment. Lily smiled.

"Getting back to the point...you didn't think I could do it, did you?"

"Well...no. Not more than once anyway."

Lily was slightly offended. "Don't presume to judge me so quickly, James!" she said, stiffening.

James blinked in surprise. "Well come on, Lily...you're always reading...I don't think anyone really expected you to—"

"To have a spot of playfulness in me? To come up with a prank? To take my nose out of my books long enough to have a little fun? I'll have you know, James Potter, I have as good a trouble-making mind as any of you!" Lily snapped, flushing bright red.

"Lily—come on—I didn't mean anything by it—"

"Oh, you didn't mean anything, did you? Ready to take it all back then, are you? Well I won't have it! I'm sick of people making up their minds about who I am before they've even got to know me! Including you!"

She pointed a finger accusingly at James. However, she wasn't trying to be scary. She was looking rather...injured, actually.

"Lily, I'm sorry! I know you're not a complete bore—I—" he winced, knowing, once again, that he'd said the wrong thing.

"A bore? Is that what I am? Well, that's just lovely! Just because I study hard—"

"Lily, that's not what I meant—"

"Oh, but it is! And I can't exactly blame you, I mean, after all, I do study a bit, but it's not like that's all I think about! I mean, really, no one expects me to do anything else, do they? You all think I'm just a little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, don't you?"

"No—yes—I mean—"

"Well, I'll show you, James Potter! I'll show you all! And you don't forget it, either!" Lily turned on her heel and began stomping off. She wasn't mad at him, really; she was just tired of everyone pinning her down as a Perfect Prefect. And besides, she and James both knew he knew better than that. After all, he'd asked her to help him pull a prank last year, hadn't he? Just because she didn't use her brains to make mischief all the time—like him and Sirius—well, she had plenty of good ideas now!

A few feet down the hallway, she stopped and thought of something.

"James!" she called, turning around. James, who had only gone a few feet in the opposite direction, turned to look at her.

"What now? Going to lecture me on how you tortured your poor sister Petunia before you came to Hogwarts?" he asked jokingly.

"Oh, never mind that! When's the first Quidditch game?" she asked.

"Um...sometime after Halloween, I think. I'm not really sure yet; we only started practice last week."

"Who's playing?"

"Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Why?" James asked suspiciously.

"You'll see!" Lily said happily, and turned and began walking down the corridor. The light expression on her face quickly turned thoughtful. This was going to take a lot of planning...

* * *

Melody walked into Transfiguration later that day with Remus and Peter, talking loudly, as usual. It was funny how much better she and Peter had gotten along ever since the Marauders had started training her to become an Animagus. James and Sirius came running in a few minutes later, nearly late for class as always, and were nearly to their seats when the bell rang. James plopped into his seat, panting, but Sirius was staring, transfixed, at something hovering near the ceiling. Professor McGonagall walked in just then, and looked at him curiously.

The rest of the class looked up at the ceiling, and frowned at what appeared to be...

"MY SHOE!" Melody cried, jumping on top of her desk and grabbing her shoe. It was red, high-heeled, and looked to Sirius as though it had a few too many straps. Ignoring the stares from her fellow classmates, as well as the stern glare from Professor McGonagall, Melody hugged her shoe before hopping easily off the desk and sitting down once more.

"Well, that's quite enough!" Professor McGonagall snapped. "Everyone, in your seats and your attention to the front of the classroom, please!"

Melody hastily shoved her shoe into her bag and turned her attentions to Professor McGonagall. Transfiguration, for her, was becoming increasingly more important, as she had hopes of becoming an Animagus. They had started human transfigurations, and she was becoming quite good at them.

However, Professor McGonagall did not begin lecturing them about human transfigurations. In fact, she wasn't speaking to them on the subject of any kind of Transfiguration at all.

"It is my duty as your Head of House," she was saying, "to inform you of a wonderful opportunity. As many of you may already know, every few years the Aurors at the Ministry of Magic go on a marvelous recruiting campaign to bring more Aurors in the service. The Aurors have once again extended a most unique invitation to next year's seventh year Hogwarts students.

"The Aurors have invited next year's Head Boy and Head Girl, as well as six additional students of Professor Dumbledore's choosing, to an Auror Training...camp, so to speak. Anyone seriously interested in becoming an Auror should see me after class."

At this, the room exploded in a blaze of questions, conversations, and exclamations of excitement.

"Quiet down, quiet down!" Professor McGonagall said sternly. "That is quite enough! We can worry about this after class. Now, on to Transfiguration!"

* * *

Throughout the next few weeks, Lily, Melody, and the Marauders all fell into an odd routine. Lily and James met up at the statue of Boris the Bewildered at strategic times throughout the day to swap books, so Lily wouldn't fall behind in her classes. Every night, Lily would meet with Susie and Gertrude in the library to do her homework.

Melody sat with Remus, Peter, and Arabella during Potions; Lily sat with Sirius, James, and Mundungus Fletcher. It became a normal part of the day for Melody to find one or more of her shoes floating around a classroom, stuck to a wall in the hallway, being delivered to her by owl during breakfast, or tap dancing across the grounds.

The Hufflepuff and Gryffindor Quidditch teams were training hard for the first match of the season, which was to be held on November eighth. Lily was also working hard; she had a brilliant plan. She let Matt, Susie, and Gertrude in on it, and together they figured out a way to make it happen.

* * *

Halloween approached swiftly. Lily was still having a silent fight with Melody and Mimi; that is, she wasn't talking to them. Lily had commissioned her third year friend, Wendy (whom, she was glad to hear, had apologized to her friend Lin), to keep an eye out for any suspicious behavior (well, more suspicious than usual) from the Marauders (although she knew perfectly well that all suspicious plans would more than likely be discussed in MHQ rather than the Gryffindor Common Room). Although Lily was still mad at the two of them, her anger was ebbing, and their war had sort of come to a standstill (despite the fact that Melody's shoes kept popping up all over the place).

Nevertheless, the Halloween Feast was, as always, very enjoyable. The Ravenclaw Sixth Years mostly chatted about the Auror Training Camp. Those who were interested (everyone, naturally) had stayed after class one day last week and learned the details about the program from Professor Flitwick. Anyone interested would have to go to a couple of meetings before Professor Dumbledore chose which six students (in addition to the Head Boy and Girl) were qualified to go. There was a small chance, of course, that either the Head Boy or Head Girl would decline the invitation to go, but the students felt that there was so little chance of this it wasn't worth mentioning. Every sixth year in school wanted to go, but everybody was sure Professor Dumbledore would only pick Prefects for something of this magnitude. Everyone teased Lily about how she didn't even need to bother going to the meetings; that she would be Head Girl next year and would get to go anyway, but Lily was still adamantly holding on to her belief that she would remain only a Prefect next year.

The Seventh Years were quite miffed that they hadn't been extended this invitation as well, and frowned every time they heard a Sixth Year talking about it, but the Fifth Years were quite excited to hear this, thinking that if all went well they might have a chance of going when they were Seventh Years, too.

The Halloween Feast flew by in a flash for Lily, who very much enjoyed all of the festivities, especially the fact that she had managed to put one of Melody's shoes in each of the twelve giant pumpkins situated around the Great Hall. The end of the night for her was marked by a lovely, highly embarrassing, peck on the lips from James as they both met up and parted ways at the doors to the Great Hall.

* * *

Lily got out of bed very early on the morning of November 8—even earlier than James, which was hard to believe, as he was normally up at 5AM on the morning of a Quidditch game, and could be found in the Gryffindor Common Room prodding little figurines of Quidditch players around on his model of the Quidditch pitch with his wand, muttering to himself. He was, after all, the Gryffindor team's captain. That as it may be, Lily was up earlier than he, and sneaked down to the Quidditch pitch and back before anyone had gotten up for breakfast. Peeves nearly caught her, once; she had rounded a corner to find him quite occupied with turning all the heads of the suits of armor backwards, so they were pointing to the walls, and she had had to duck back into her corridor and find another way to get out of the castle. But even so, she was back in the Ravenclaw Common Room now, safe and sound and quite impatiently awaiting the start of the Quidditch game.

She awoke Susie and Matt promptly at seven, and they were among the first in the Great Hall for breakfast. They greeted a very sleepy Alice, grabbed some toast from their respective House tables, and hurried outside, Lily clutching her bottomless bag and nervously looking around to make sure no one was following or watching them. They hurried to the equipment locker, where all the players' brooms were kept, and made quick work of their task. Matt was the most helpful here; he knew which brooms belonged to the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor players, and made sure they weren't tampering with Ravenclaw or Slytherin brooms. Even so, Lily thought they might have made a slip here or there—but no matter; it was harmless enough.

Once they were done, they sneaked back out of the equipment locker and back into the castle, trying to look as innocent as possible as they walked back into the Great Hall, which was much fuller than when they had exited.

Albus Dumbledore, who had been watching them all from his office, decided to go to the Quidditch match.

* * *

James, Melody, and Sirius arrived in the locker room first, all clutching their Nimbus 1001's, and waited for the rest of the team to grab theirs out of the equipment locker. The Gryffindor team had had rotten luck with brooms in the last few years; Mundungus Fletcher's had been brutally beaten by the Whomping Willow just yesterday, during a game of Touch-The-Trunk; Arabella's good-for-nothing Uncle Marvin had put hers up as a bet in a game of poker and lost; Harrieta's parents were Muggles and consequently didn't understand the need for a racing broom. They were all currently using school brooms. Andrew had his own broom; however, it was an old Tinderblast and he didn't feel it was valuable enough to bother keeping in his room, when he could just as easily keep it in the equipment locker.

Arabella, Mundungus, Harrieta, and Andrew all filed into the locker room, and each of them dropped two pairs of shoes into Melody's lap, looking quite unhappy.

"MY SHOES!" Melody cried. She had over half of them back now. "Where did you find them?"

"On our brooms," her four teammates snapped in unison, looking quite unhappy.

Melody gasped suddenly. "You don't think—" she began. "The Hufflepuffs—?"

But her teammates nodded, and Melody went bright red and ran out of the locker room, sprinting over to the Hufflepuffs' and banging on the door to get her shoes back.

James had to give the team their pep talk while she was gone, as it was nearly time for the game to begin, and Melody, who came back looking murderous, was even more upset when she found this out. There was no time to pummel James with her bludger club, however; it was one minute till game time and they had to walk out onto the pitch.

"I can't believe her!" Melody cried as they reached the pitch. "I mean, shoes are one thing, but interfering with Quidditch is just going too far!" She looked up at the stands, located Lily, and proceeded to glare at her until the redhead noticed. Lily laughed when she saw Melody's faced and waved sarcastically, accompanying the wave with a cheesy smile. Melody didn't hear Madam Hooch say "Mount your brooms," and was therefore still standing and glaring at Lily when she blew her whistle and the thirteen other players kicked off around her.

She swore under her breath, going even redder, and kicked off almost too hard, but compensated for her mistake by whacking a bludger away from Mundungus and toward the youngest Hufflepuff Chaser, who panicked, swerved, and dropped the Quaffle, which Harrietta snatched up right away. She zoomed toward the Hufflepuff end and passed to Arabella, who scored. Melody cheered along with the crowd and whacked a Bludger off in Sirius's direction, which he in turn whacked straight toward the Hufflepuff Keeper, ruining her concentration as Mundungus flew in and scored for the Gryffindors again.

Melody was having quite a fun time. The Gryffindors had quite a strong start, and besides, they were playing Hufflepuff—it wasn't like they were matched up against Slytherin or anything. The Hufflepuffs wouldn't play dirty if you paid them to.

Melody zoomed around, knocking Bludgers out of her teammates' ways, and listened, quite happily, to the commentary being given by Seventh Year Eric Chang. He'd been commentating ever since Melody's second year at Hogwarts, and she had to admit she'd be sorry to see him go. He was a very interesting commentator, if a little biased toward Ravenclaw House.

"Figg passes to Finch, Finch to Fletcher—ouch, that Bludger must have hurt like five hundred packages of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans landing on your toe! Gudgeon to Sweetwater—she shoots—she misses like she were shooting a machine gun blindfolded with her left foot!"

"What the hell is a machine gun?" Sirius demanded, flying over to Melody, absentmindedly knocking a Bludger out of his way as he did so. Melody laughed before zooming up the Quidditch pitch to cover Arabella, who had two Bludgers attacking her.

"Muggle weapon...don't worry about it," Melody advised, as they knocked the Bludgers away in unison.

"Melody?" Sirius said, sounding confused.

"Yeah?" Melody said back, knocking another Bludger out of her way. Was it just her, or were they being returned awfully fast?

"Are there...four Bludgers on this field?"

Melody blinked and looked around, frozen in midair for a moment, counting. "WHAT?" she cried. Sirius was right—there were four. And...what were all those floating things on the Hufflepuff end?

"MELODY! SIRIUS!" came a shout from above them. James was being singled out, it appeared, by yet another Bludger. Sirius zoomed up to cover him, and Melody zoomed around lower on the field, knocking away three Bludgers in a row.

Something funny happened to the third Bludger, though—it exploded. Melody shrieked and zoomed off as it blasted apart, but was encountered in midair by—k

"MY SHOE!" she screeched. The Bludger had exploded into several pairs of her shoes. "SIRIUS! THESE EXTRA BLUDGERS ARE MY SHOES!" she cried, as he knocked another shoe-bludger apart. "No!" she shrieked, as they went flying. "You're going to dent them!"

"Well what would you have me do?" Sirius demanded. "Let our Chasers be pummeled while the Hufflepuffs score? We are ten points down, you know,"

"WHAT?" Melody shrieked, knocking away a Bludger—a real one this time—and glaring at the Hufflepuff team.

"You heard me!" Sirius yelled, zooming off to cover Harrieta. Melody sighed, and, trying to ignore her shoes, went off to cover Arabella, who was again being attacked by more than one Bludger.

The pitch was getting more and more congested; the more shoe-bludgers the four Beaters knocked apart, the more shoes there were flying around. Melody discovered, however, that if she knocked the shoes with her club, they would fall to the ground innocently. She put herself on double duty, and proceeded to knock as many Bludgers out of the way and shoes out of the sky as she could before—

"And there goes Potter, in another one of his magnificent dives, at an angle steeper than the Titanic right before it broke in half! Carleton tries to follow, but it's like the Americans against Brazil at the World Cup—there's no hope—and...yes, ladies and gentleman, Potter has the Snitch! Gryffindor wins, two hundred points to sixty!"

The Gryffindor supporters erupted into cheers, and the Gryffindor Quidditch team swooped down on James, congratulating him, and ignoring the enormous quantity of shoes raining down on their heads. James was looking at the Snitch quite oddly, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

"What's wrong?" Arabella asked, frowning at their Seeker.

"The—the—the Snitch!" James gasped, staring at it in disbelief. "IT'S A GIANT MILK DUD!"

"You know what?" Lily said to Matt, Susie, and Alice (who was very miffed that the Hufflepuff team had lost) as they left the stands. "I think I'm really beginning to like Quidditch."

* * *

Melody met up with Mimi after the match, shaking her head in disbelief.

"I can't believe she did that!" Melody exclaimed. "That Quidditch game was ridiculous!"

"Tell me about it," Mimi said, rolling her eyes.

"But," Melody conceded. "It was a pretty good prank."

Mimi grinned. "It was hilarious!" she agreed.

"Were you laughing at me?" Melody demanded.

"Who? Me? Of course not!" Mimi lied, but she started giggling hopelessly.

Melody actually smiled. "You know what, though? I think it's time we gave Lily her books back. And that we apologize."

"As long as she apologizes to us, too," Mimi said. "She did overreact a little bit, don't you think?"

"Well, duh! She's Lily!"

"But—speaking of apologizing—do you think she's still going to want to know whatever 'secret' it is that you're hiding?"

Melody bit her lip, mulling it over. "Probably," she sighed. "But then again, maybe it's time she knew."

"What about me?"

"What about you?"

Mimi's jaw dropped. "You—"

"Just kidding!" Melody said quickly, holding up her hands in surrender and grinning. Mimi rolled her eyes but smiled back.

Melody dashed up to Gryffindor Tower to grab all of Lily's books, and then Mimi led the way to the Ravenclaw Common Room, and both witches entered. Lily was in the corner, talking happily with Matt and Susie. Melody and Mimi approached them slowly. Lily saw them and broke away from her two other friends to meet them.

"Well?" Lily prompted, raising an eyebrow and looking testy.

Melody sighed. "You know I'm not good at this...here are your books," she said, handing over the bag. Lily broke out into a huge smile and sighed in relief, accepting her books back gratefully.

"Thanks," she said, and looked at both of them for a moment. Then...

"I'm sorry!" All three girls exploded at once. They laughed, and Lily flung her arms around them, smiling wider than she had in weeks. Spending time with James had been nice and all, and she was really glad she'd gotten to know Alice, but no other people in the world were quite like Melody Cauldwell and Mimi Ramirez.

* * *

"So, what brilliant prank have you come up with now?" Lily asked as James and Sirius strutted into MHQ several days later. She, Melody, Mimi, Peter, and Remus were all sitting on top of the table, their feet on the chairs. They were being honored as 'co-Marauders', in the same category as Melody and Mundungus Fletcher. They had also been accepted into the 'Order of Marauder'...whatever that was, and were both now quite comfortable with MHQ.

Sirius and James, grinning devilishly, launched into a detailed description of their latest troublemaking scheme. Once they were done, the rest of the Marauders were doubled over laughing.

"I think we've struck gold again, James," Sirius said, spinning a chair around and sitting in it backwards.

James just smiled at Sirius and turned his attentions to Lily, who he expected would be their naysayer—if there was something hideously wrong or illegal, she would be the first to point it out. However, she simply laughed and smiled at him, her eyes twinkling. He gave her a dopey, lopsided grin, which caused the rest of the Marauders to roll their eyes, and then return to business.

The next step in their prank was to decide who was going to do what, and the room fell into a tense silence for a few minutes as everyone thought. James sat down in the chair next to Sirius and screwed his face up in concentration. After about five minutes of this, Sirius looked around the room, bored. It was his job to come up with the pranks, not assign the roles.

He looked around again, and considered. After a moment, he stood up.

"Now would be the appropriate time for a song," he decided. "BE KIND TO YOUR WEB-FOOTED FRIENDS—" he began singing at the top of his lungs, but all of the Marauders jumped at him at once, clamping their hands over his mouth. They all fell rather painfully to the floor.

"God, does he ever shut UP?" Melody demanded, from the top of the pile, her hair hanging in ringlets over her face.

"Can someone just...unplug him, _please_?" Lily asked, irritated, from somewhere in the middle.

"Unplug?" James, Remus, and Peter chorused.

"What's a plug?" James asked curiously, and Lily groaned.

"Never mind..." she said.

Sirius, from the bottom, began wriggling and shouting out something that sounded vaguely like "Oooh! Oooh! I know! I know!", but the Marauders ignored him and decided to clamp their hands more tightly over his mouth.

Once Sirius had decided he valued his life and actually shut up, the Marauders let go of him, and he turned, for once, serious. The Marauders returned to their thinking, and soon all the parts were assigned.

The next day the Marauders were shown the fruits of their labor, as a very colorful, very angry, and very afro-ish Severus Snape burst into the Great Hall, and most of them were promptly awarded a handful of detentions each; for some reason, Lily was spared.

Lily marched up to James after breakfast and demanded to know why Professor Thorne had not given her a detention. James shrugged.

"I guess we...forgot," he lied. The truth was, he hadn't actually wanted Lily to get in trouble—think what it would have done to her perfect record! Apparently, however, Lily hadn't appreciated his gesture of...well, chivalry, he supposed…because she poured a glass of pumpkin juice on his head and stormed off to Arithmancy.

* * *


	8. Christmas at the Cottage

Chapter Eight

Christmas at the Cottage

November, after the Quidditch game, flew by very fast, and melted almost imperceptibly into December. Some professors sped up their lessons so they could finish everything up nicely before the Christmas holidays; others were less worried. Professor Binns, for example, plowed right on through the Wizarding Emigrations of 1770-1820 as though there were no holiday approaching at all. The only thing that was keeping Lily awake through this particular History of Magic class was the thought that she'd be going to a meeting about the Auror Training Program immediately after it.

The previous meeting had been rather uneventful. Professor McGonagall, upon realizing that every student in sixth year was trying eagerly to jam into her office for the meeting, had sighed and requested that everybody who wasn't a Prefect should leave, because they probably wouldn't have a chance of getting in otherwise. This, while not unexpected, made several students very unhappy. So unhappy, in fact, that they had attempted to curse several Prefects, only to have the curses go haywire and perform the exact opposite of their intent, but it sent people to the hospital wing nonetheless (those who had done the cursing had been given a detention apiece).

At any rate, Lily managed to stay awake enough so that, when the bell rang at the end of the period, she was the first one out of the door. She was among the first to arrive at Professor McGonagall's office as well, though she had not managed to beat the slew of Hufflepuffs who had just finished Transfiguration class. Students trickled in through the door in small groups, except for the Slytherins, who all managed to arrive together. Among them, Lily picked out Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy—both equally detestable boys, though Malfoy wasn't quite as slimy as Snape. Lily's own friends arrived only a short time after her, save Alice, who was already there, and the Marauders, who showed up just before the Professor, as usual, and, as usual, laughing hysterically about something-or-other.

They came over to Lily in a huge bubble of movement and noise, and swallowed her up in their glee. Lily discerned, between shouts of laughter and exclamations of excitement, that an enchanted pair of fuzzy pink bunny slippers was now hopping its way around Professor Thorne's Potions dungeon. Just seconds before Professor McGonagall stepped in the door, the Marauders shut up and composed themselves, as though they had all been equipped with some sort of miraculous Professor Radar since birth.

McGonagall wasn't entirely fooled, however; the second she entered her office she eyed the Marauders sharply, as though she knew they'd been up to some kind of mischief. The rest of the students also fell quiet, and McGonagall considered them all for a moment before speaking.

"Do you all have your papers written, then?"

There was a great rustling sound as all of the Sixth-Year Prefects reached into their bags for the papers they'd been asked to write about why they wanted to become Aurors.

"Good. You will all place them on my desk in an orderly manner. Dumbledore, I, and the rest of your Heads of Houses will read them and post a list of Prefects who are to come to the next meeting in the Great Hall before Christmas Holidays. You are dismissed."

The hum of excitement in the room immediately flattened, as the students all realized they would not be doing anything fun or hearing anything interesting, and that some of them would not be able to return—many of them had not taken the paper very seriously, and gulped nervously, positive that their efforts had not been enough—Peter Pettigrew was one of these.

"Enjoy your weekend in Hogsmeade!" McGonagall called, as the first students filed out of the door. This brightened the mood considerably, as the students remembered that they had a weekend of butterbeers, candies, and Christmas shopping ahead of them.

Lily returned to her common room immediately and began working, frantically, on all her homework, so it would be done before she departed for Hogsmeade the next day, as she intended to spend the entire trip exhausting herself with buying Christmas presents, and didn't plan to leave, between the shopping and the wrapping, any time for studies. Mimi entered the common room shortly behind her, and spent half an hour leisurely painting her toenails before begrudgingly picking up her Potions book and beginning her homework, while she could still get help from Lily.

"So, have you heard the plan yet?" Mimi asked, as they neared the end of their essay on: 'The Importance of Being Precise: Why Some Potions Ingredients Must be Picked Under the Full Moon'.

"Plan?" Lily echoed, measuring her parchment—it was just long enough. Good; she didn't want to have to add to _that_ essay again.

"Yeah, we're all going to meet at the Three Broomsticks tomorrow as soon as we get into Hogsmeade."

Lily frowned. She and Mimi both had several groups of friends; _we_ wasn't quite specific enough. "Who's _we_?"

"All the Marauders, duh!" Mimi said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh. _We_. Right. Well, I kind of already had plans," Lily said, rather distractedly, as she was now fishing around in her bottomless bag for her half-finished Herbology essay.

Mimi visibly perked. "Plans? What plans? Do you have a _boy_? Oh, James is going to be so jealous!"

Lily giggled and shook her head. "Not those kinds of plans...no, I was just going to go Christmas shopping for everybody, but I suppose I can stop by the Three Broomsticks first to say hi to everybody."

"Well, of course you can!" Mimi chirped, and then frowned down at her essay. "Oh no...Lil, what are the words for the Severing Charm? I started writing my History of Magic paper beneath my Potions essay again."

* * *

Lily walked down to Hogsmeade with Alice, Matt, and Susie. It was cold and the wind was chilly; a light snow had fallen last night, and it crunched pleasantly under their feet as they walked. Lily found herself clutching her cloak more tightly around her, and shivered once or twice as they reached the village. She parted with her friends at the entrance to the Three Broomsticks, where, inside, she found the Marauders already making a ruckus—the only thing they seemed to show up early for was food. Sirius and James were at the bar, charming Madam Rosmerta, the young and rather attractive new waitress, and Remus, Peter, Melody, Mimi, and Mundungus Fletcher were over in a corner, dragging two tables together to make room for all of them.

Lily took off her gloves and stuck them in one of the many pockets of her cloak, then pulled down her hood, shaking her long, curly red hair free. It was already frizzing horribly, though she had put an Anti-Frizz charm on it only an hour ago. She sighed and pushed the hair out of her face, frowning at it a little; not even magic could tame her stupid red curls.

Lily was suddenly aware of someone staring at her, and let her eyes wander around the room. They came to a rest on James, who was waving at her from over by the bar; Madam Rosmerta was now busy fixing drinks behind he and Sirius. Lily smiled and waved back, then wound her way through the already-crowded bar carefully.

"'Lo, James. 'Lo, Sirius," Lily said as she reached the bar.

"Lily-bean!" Sirius said happily. "So glad you could come."

"Come on, Lily, we have a table!" James said, grabbing her hand rather impulsively and dragging her across the floor to the half-full table at which the rest of the Marauders were seated. Mimi and Melody's eyes immediately flickered to Lily and James's intertwined hands, and Lily blushed and immediately withdrew hers, sitting herself down carefully in the empty seat next to Remus at the end of the table. James sat down across from her, and Sirius sat to James's right, next to Melody, who was in turn next to Mimi; Mimi was sitting across from Mundungus, on whose right sat Peter, and on Peter's right was Remus, thus ending the circle.

Madam Rosmerta came over a moment later, carefully balancing two trays, one on each hand. A magical tray-holder followed closely behind her, and set itself up next to her. She carefully set down the tray on her right hand, and began distributing the eight butterbeers she had on the other tray, before turning back to the first and setting three baskets of cheesy fries on the table. "Enjoy!" she said, before picking up both trays and walking away, the magical tray-holder winding its way through the crowd behind her.

The Marauders attacked the cheesy fries eagerly, all but Lily; she had just eaten breakfast. Apparently, the rest of her friends had skipped that step this morning. She did sip her butterbeer gratefully, however; it warmed her insides, and she was still chilly from the walk to Hogsmeade.

"Do you fffant fum sheesy fwies, Wiwy?" James asked, mouth full, offering a near-empty basket to her. Lily giggled and shook her head.

"I'm not hungry."

James shrugged and ate half of what was left in the basket; Sirius snatched up the other half before he could get at it all. Lily giggled again. Once the cheesy fries were completely devoured, the Marauders all took up their butterbeers and downed them in nearly one sitting. They seemed to be working on clockwork.

"So," James said, wiping his cheese-lined mouth with a napkin (Lily was impressed; boys were usually oblivious to the fact that napkins even existed), "Who's paying?"

Everyone dug in their pockets or (in Mimi's case) their purses (Lily and Melody weren't too fond of the things) for money, and gathered a pile of Sickles and Knuts to pay for their meal. After Sirius and James had collected the money and paid, the group split.

Melody and Mimi went off to look at shoes in Gladrags Wizardwear (apparently it was a shared obsession); James and Sirius set off to see if anything new had arrived at Zonko's; Mundungus, after unsuccessfully trying to get Remus to go with him to the Shrieking Shack, went with Peter instead; Remus went to the post office to see about sending an owl to his second cousin Hector in Uruguay; Lily went off on her own to Christmas shop for everyone, as she'd intended.

She went first to Honeydukes, where she bought candies for all of her siblings. Next stop was Zorcoran's Charmed Gifts, a store that sold normal, everyday objects with enhancing charms on them—among them were Self-Brushing Hairbrushes, Self-Applying Make-up Kits (this was sometimes annoying; the make-up applied itself as soon as you opened the container, and if you tried to wipe it off before closing the container again it would battle with you for the chance to re-apply itself), Quick-Quotes Quills, Self-Tying Ribbons, and Self-Watering Plants. Some of these items were allowed to be used only in the wizarding world, but most had a little red Ministry of Magic stamp of approval on the packaging, certifying the gifts okay to give to Muggles, but only those who were aware of the charms placed on the gifts and were prepared to follow the accompanying instructions in order to keep the magical nature of the gift hidden from other Muggles. Lily had gotten Dean Self-Tying Shoelaces here last year.

A sound like a wind chime tinkled in Lily's ears as she entered the store, and she immediately felt warm from head to toe. There must have been some kind of charm around the doorway; she hadn't gotten this warm stepping into Honeydukes.

"Welcome," said Mr. Zorcoran from behind the counter. He always bade welcome to everyone entering his store, even if there was a horrendously long line stretching away from the register, as there was today. Lily recognized a lot of students from school, but, thankfully, didn't see any of the Marauders. Lily smiled back at Mr. Zorcoran before heading farther back into the store. She planned to buy a Self-Watering Plant for her father; it was the kind of thing he would love.

Lily liked Mr. Zorcoran. He was tall, and fairly old, with longish black hair that was beginning to grey around the edges. He had a long crooked nose, which, remarkably enough, looked nothing like Dumbledore's; rather, it looked almost sinister, and were it not for the kindness in Mr. Zorcoran's eyes, Lily would not have trusted him or his store.

"Lily!"

She was halfway to the display of plants when she heard her name being called out, by a voice that sounded very small and quiet against the hustle and bustle of the store.

"Lily!" she heard again, and turned to see her third-year friend Wendy and her best friend Lin struggling toward her through the crowd.

"Hi!" Lily called, and retraced her steps to meet them. They were both a good foot shorter than her yet, and looked up at her with equal expressions of delight.

"Christmas shopping?" Wendy asked, noting the bag in Lily's hand, and the older girl nodded.

"You?" she asked.

"Yep!" Lin replied, holding up her bag. It was very full. "We're almost done, but we wanted to say hi."

"Yeah, and we wanted to ask you if you'd mind helping us with some of our homework—Professor Thorne's already assigned us an essay to work on over the Christmas holidays," Wendy said, pulling a face. Lily laughed.

"Sure, I'll help you. We can meet in the library Tuesday; I'm busy until—oh no, what's he doing here?" Lily cried, suddenly ducking behind a display of Self-Supplying Tissues (they jumped out of their boxes and hovered in front of you when you sneezed). Wendy and Lin turned their heads to see a greasy-haired boy prowling through a display of Self-Stirring Cauldrons.

"Who's that?" Wendy whispered.

"Severus Snape," Lily said. "Is he gone yet?"

"Yeah, he's leaving," Lin replied, watching him walk out of the store.

"Good," Lily said, straightening, and she shuddered. "I hate him."

"Well, we have to finish shopping, but we'll meet you in the library Tuesday right after class," Wendy said, tugging Lin toward the door; her friend was looking interestedly in the direction of a display of Self-Applying Nail Polish.

"Bye!" Lily called, waving as they left the store.

She bought her dad a Self-Watering Plant, and her mom a Self-Curling Curling Iron, and then a roll of Self-Tying Ribbon for herself, to aid her in her present wrapping.

Lily put her hood back up as she stepped out of the store, and bumped into the first person she came to.

"Sorry," Lily said automatically, barely glancing into the face of the person she'd run into; there were too many people shopping to worry about who you ran into; she was constantly being bumped into herself.

"Lily!" the person cried, and Lily looked up, blinking.

"Oh—James! Hullo." She looked around for a moment, frowning. "Where's Sirius? I thought you two were inseparable."

James smiled. "Well, he did have to buy me a present, you know. He's making a big production of it again—he won't even let me see what store he's going into; he made me stand with my eyes closed to the count of twenty so he could run off." He smiled wider. "He's going to end up getting me the same thing he does every year—Every Flavor Beans, a bag of Dungbombs, and whatever happens to be in the small display window at Quidditch Supplies Unlimited."

"So what are you going to get him?" Lily asked.

James grinned again, even wider, if possible. "I've had his present since July!" he said happily. Lily laughed.

"What—" But she didn't get to finish her question, because several people came out of the door to Zorcoran's and nearly ran her over, and she had to dodge them. "I think we should get away from this door," she said, and she and James began walking down the street, side by side. Lily drew her cloak close around her, teeth chattering, body bent against the wind, but James walked easily beside her, seemingly unaffected by the cold.

"You look cold," James said amusedly.

"Aren't you?" Lily demanded, looking up at him in amazement.

"_Ardor_," James murmured, taking out his wand. Lily's eyes widened in surprise as her body suddenly warmed, from the outside in, and the wind, while it still whipped her hair against her face, was no longer bitter and cold.

"Where did you learn that?" Lily asked, impressed.

"My mom," James said, shrugging. Lily nodded, and wondered, for probably the thousandth time since she'd arrived at Hogwarts, what it would have been like to grow up in a wizarding family.

James casually reached over and took her hand as they wandered down the snow-covered streets of Hogsmeade. Lily's cheeks glowed happily, and she made no move to pull her hand away, rather enjoying the feel of it tucked up inside James's.

* * *

Lily spent the remainder of her weekend wrapping presents, with much aid from the Self-Tying Ribbon. The next week of school was the last before the Christmas holidays, and the decorations were coming up. Lily was sad she'd have to miss Christmas at Hogwarts this year, but was glad to be going home all the same.

On Tuesday, she met Wendy and Lin in the library, as promised. She found them at a table with books and papers spread out in front of them, but they weren't working—instead, they were giggling over something.

"Hello," Lily said, joining them. "How have you been?"

Lin giggled. "We've been spying on people."

Lily frowned. "That's not—"

"Wait!" Wendy cut her off. "You'll want to hear this! That sixth-year Slytherin—the one you hate—"

"Snape?" Lily asked, and Wendy nodded.

"Yeah!" she said, and then began giggling as well.

"What about him?" Lily asked curiously.

"He has a _girlfriend_!" Lin squealed, and then burst into giggles again.

Lily made a sort of strangled noise, and then fake-gagged herself. Snape? Get a girlfriend? Ew!

"Who?" Lily demanded, hands on her hips.

"She's a seventh year!" Wendy said.

"She's in Slytherin," Lin added.

"Yeah, and she has a kind of squashed-in face—"

"And she always has her nose turned up at people—"

"Yeah, and she's not really very pretty—"

"Well, she would be if she got that expression off her face—"

"Yeah, like there's something nasty-smelling in the room—"

"She has pretty hair, though—"

"Yeah, it's blonde—"

"We're not really sure about her name yet—"

"Yeah, but—"

"We think it's Narcissa," the girls finished together.

Lily snorted, and then began giggling herself. "Narcissa?" she asked, shoulders shaking. "That's Lucius Malfoy's girlfriend! They're always on again, off again...she's probably trying to make Malfoy jealous."

"Do you think it'll work?" Wendy asked.

"Probably. Malfoy was jealous of Snape in the first place—Snape's always gotten higher marks than him." Then she rolled her eyes. "But enough about that! Now it's time for studying."

The third year girls groaned.

* * *

Melody rushed into Potions class on Wednesday morning, face flushed, clutching a letter in her right hand, all of her books completely forgotten in the girls' dormitory.

"You—will—never—believe this!" she said, panting, and slumping over the Potions table behind which Peter, Remus, Sirius, and James were sitting, and Lily and Mimi were standing.

"What?" they asked collectively. Melody's face broke into a silly grin.

"My uncle is going to take me to Switzerland for Christmas holidays!" she squealed.

The other Marauders all began speaking at once. Melody only caught snippets of each exclamation:

"—went there skiing once—"

"—a good time—"

"—not fair—"

"—good food—"

"—expensive resort—"

"—afraid of heights—"

"—too cold—"

"—horrible skier—"

"—want an uncle like—"

"—send me a postcard!" That was Lily. Melody hadn't really been able to discern who was talking about what, but she gathered that James and Sirius had gone there once on a skiing trip, Sirius had liked the food, and James had run into a tree. The rest of it was a bit of a blur, but the rest of them seemed jealous enough to make Melody happy.

Just then the bell rang, and Lily, Melody, and Mimi dashed to their table, where they were joined by Arabella Figg, who had just entered class, panting.

"What took you so long to get here?" Melody whispered as Professor Thorne strode into class, swaggering pompously, and began taking roll.

Melody thought she saw Arabella blush, but it was hard to tell, because her cheeks were already pink. "Forgot my book," she whispered back, and then ducked her head into her bag and began searching for said book before she could be questioned about it further.

* * *

On Thursday, Mimi, Melody, and Lily were to be found in the library, with Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions books laying open on the table before them, alongside scrolls of parchment still glistening with newly printed ink, with sugar quills, real quills, and an assortment of ink bottles scattered amongst them. There was just enough room left on the table for the girls to rest their elbows, because after finishing the grueling Potions essay, none of them were in the mood to write another one.

"Only one more day 'til holidays, and still McGonagall assigns us another essay," Melody muttered, twirling her quill around in a bottle of ink. She lifted a sugar one from the table and stuck the end of it in her mouth, sucking on it as she glared at her half-completed essay. "I'm too excited to think!"

Lily sighed. "It doesn't seem fair," she agreed. "But all the same, she did assign it a week ago."

Mimi snorted. "Not that that made _you_ jump right into it," she pointed out. Lily shrugged.

"I tried to start it last week, but I couldn't get into it."

Mimi laughed. "Get into it? You sound like you're talking about a book. If I ever start getting 'into' a Transfiguration essay, please, someone _Avada_ _Kedavra_ me!"

This statement had a profound effect on the easy, carefree atmosphere of the table. Melody's face immediately hardened, and she bent over her parchment, suddenly intent on writing her essay. Lily half-smiled, but her stomach twisted unpleasantly. The whispers about wizard and Muggle killings were quickly turning from rumor to fact, and the name Voldemort was beginning to strike fear in the hearts of witches and wizards across Britain.

"Oh," Mimi said softly, covering her mouth with her hand. Lily stared at the floor for a moment, and then looked up, frowning in thought.

"Did you guys hear Snape has a girlfriend?" she said suddenly, and both Mimi and Melody snapped their heads in her direction in surprise. Then they both burst into giggles, and Mimi's careless comment was forgotten.

* * *

On Friday, the sixth years were so noisy and boisterous that even Professor McGonagall gave up trying to teach them. Instead, she let them turn their essays in and succumbed to a round of questioning about the Auror Training Program. They really didn't learn much except that, no, their essays were NOT done being evaluated yet, and could they PLEASE come up with a different question, because they all knew perfectly well that the list would be posted outside the Great Hall before dinner.

After Transfiguration, Lily and Mimi headed off to their last class of the day, Double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, while the Marauders headed off for Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins. Lily and Mimi had a rather exhausting time of running around the grounds and zapping all of Professor Sprout's plants with anti-frost spells, which had worn off just yesterday, and Professor Sprout hadn't had enough time to zap them again. By the end of the lesson, Lily and Mimi were of the opinion that _they_ needed anti-frost spells, but didn't say so to the professor.

The Marauders came hooting and howling from their Care of Magical Creatures lesson quite excited—they'd got to spend the entire lesson chasing around fire-squirrels, which apparently warmed up everything within a ten-foot radius, and had kept them all much warmer than the Herbology class.

Lily spent the remainder of the afternoon in the girls' dormitory, packing her trunk up for the holidays with Mimi. She'd finished all of her assignments for over break, so she didn't need to bring any of her books—that lightened her trunk considerably. She also left behind two pairs of shoes and most of her Hogwarts robes—she really wouldn't need them at home. On top of her clothes she tossed her Bottomless Bag, and spent several minutes debating whether or not she should bring Hera—her owl—'s cage home. She would be fine in the Owlery, but what if she delivered a letter to Lily over the holidays and wanted to rest? Wouldn't she be miffed that Lily hadn't brought her cage for her? Then again, she didn't really feel like lugging an empty cage through King's Cross, either.

"Just use the Shrinking Spell on it," Mimi advised. "That way you can just put it in your trunk, and you won't have to mess with it unless you need it."

"Good point," Lily said, and followed Mimi's advice. After they were done packing, they sat and talked for about an hour, and then, unable to wait any longer, dashed down to the Great Hall to see if the Auror list had been posted yet. It hadn't, but there was such a large crowd of Sixth Years milling around in the hallway that it was hard to tell. Mimi and Lily wound their way over to the Marauders, who were being loud and ridiculous, as usual.

Several minutes later, Professor McGonagall appeared on the top of the stairs at the end of the hall. When she saw the waiting crowd, she rolled her eyes, and had to fight back all of the Sixth Years once she reached the bottom of the stairs—they all crowded around her in a vain attempt to see the list.

"Please!" Professor McGonagall said. "Would you all calm down! I will not post the list until there is order in the hallway!" All the Sixth Years immediately quieted, and those hovering around Professor McGonagall backed away and cleared a path to the wall for their professor. McGonagall walked briskly over to the wall, set the list on the wall with a spell, and disappeared into the Great Hall before the large group of Sixth Years clamoring to see the list crushed her.

Lily and her friends were all too far away from the list to see it, but Sirius and James fought valiantly through the crowd, and shouted over all the commotion that all of them had made it—including Peter.

* * *

The train smelled like pine and leather, with a faint aroma of chocolate hanging in the air. Sprigs of mistletoe hung over every compartment door, and trays of chocolates were to be found inside each. Lily settled into a compartment with Melody and Mimi, and James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter took the compartment right across from them. They left the doors open so they could yell over at each other if necessary. Sirius and James quickly took advantage of the open doors by running into Lily's compartment and stealing their tray of chocolates.

Melody retaliated by calmly Summoning both trays of chocolate in the Marauders' compartment over to hers and sliding the door to her compartment closed. They all fought over the chocolates for the first half hour of the journey to Hogwarts, but after that there weren't any chocolates left to fight over, so they let their minds turn to other matters. Before they knew it, the train had pulled into King's Cross.

They were let out of the gate in twos and threes. James and Sirius left first, then Remus and Peter, and Lily, Melody, and Mimi followed shortly behind. Mimi spotted her family first, gave Lily and Melody hugs, and made them promise to owl her over break before trotting off to meet her parents. Lily watched as Peter happily greeted his parents, and Sirius, James, and Remus walked over to meet the Blacks, who were standing next to the Potters, who were standing next to...Lily's parents. Oh no. That was _not_ a good sign.

"Ooh, there's my uncle!" Melody said suddenly, pointing to a rather large man in a business suit who was standing mostly by himself. A tiny little woman, who Lily assumed was a witch, with short, curly blonde hair and who was wearing a short, professional-ish red dress, accompanied him.

"I'll send you a postcard—I think! If I can remember your address...well, I'll owl you, anyway. Bye, Lils!" Melody said, giving her a hug and running off. Melody's uncle gave her a disapproving look, and she slowed to a walk, grinning back at Lily sheepishly.

"Bye!" Lily called, waving, and then took a deep breath and walked over to her parents, preparing to meet her doom—the last time they had been like this with the Potters, she had wound up spending an entire week of her summer at James's house. Okay, so not _everything_ about that had been bad, but still…

"Hi, mum! Hi, dad!"

"Lily!" her parents cried, and turned away from their conversation to hug their daughter. Lily gave them quick hugs, and then stepped back. She didn't want to make a scene in front of James.

"What were you all talking about?" Lily asked, rather bluntly. _Smooth, Lily. Smooth_, she thought to herself.

"Oh, just...things!" Lily's mom said happily. "We'll tell you about it in the car."

"Farewell, Lily-bean!" Sirius said, sounding too dramatic about it, and giving her a huge, bone-crushing hug.

Lily coughed, pushing herself away from his embrace, and said, "Uh...thanks, Sirius."

"You're welcome!" Sirius said happily, and then turned to walk off with his parents, who looked altogether very exasperated with him.

"Bye, Remus," Lily said.

"Bye."

Then Lily turned to James, and they both hesitated. An awkward silence passed between them. Should they hug, or kiss, or...what?

"Happy Christmas, James," Lily said finally.

"Happy Christmas."

They waved, and both turned their separate ways.

"What were you talking about?" Lily demanded of her parents as they reached the parking lot.

"Well, the Potters invited us over for Christmas dinner!" Mrs. Evans said happily. Lily stopped in her tracks and stared at her mother, mouth gaping open.

"No!" she cried.

Her parents stopped and turned to look at their daughter.

"Well...what's the matter with that, dear? Didn't you have a nice time at the Potter's last summer?" Mr. Evans asked.

"But—but—" Lily sputtered. "We're going to miss Christmas at home?"

Mrs. Evans laughed. "Of course not! We'll open presents in the morning, have your father's famous Christmas breakfast, and then head over to the Potter's at noon!"

"But—but—!" Lily began again. Mr. Evans frowned

"It's already been decided, Lily, so there's no use fighting it. Let's not ruin the holidays over this," he said reasonably.

Lily sighed. "Sorry, dad." She hated it when her parents were right.

* * *

Petunia was less happy about having Christmas dinner at the Potter's than Lily.

"But MUM!" she shrieked. She and Mrs. Evans were having a 'private' conversation in the kitchen. This didn't really work; Petunia was yelling so loudly Lily could have heard her in her bedroom. However, Lily was not in her bedroom—she was, conveniently, in the pantry, getting a snack, so she could have heard her sister whether she'd been yelling or not. "They're—they're—"

"They're wizards, Petunia, not convicts! And they're very nice."

"Mother, they're _freaks_!" Petunia hissed.

"PETUNIA ELIZABETH EVANS! I never want to hear you use that word when talking about magical folk _again_! Do you understand me?"

"Yes, mum," Petunia mumbled.

"Good! Now, we are going over to the Potter's for Christmas dinner whether you like it or not, and I don't want to hear another word out of your mouth about it! And out of the kitchen, I have a supper to fix!"

Petunia stomped off, and Lily stood frozen in the pantry, a bag of crisps in her hand. Freaks? The Potters were _not_ freaks! Especially not James! And Lily certainly wasn't a freak, either! FREAKS? How dare she! How dare she talk about wizards and witches like that! Lily rolled up the bag of crisps angrily and nearly threw them back on the shelf. She stormed out of the pantry, and her mother looked up, startled.

"Lily! I didn't realize you were in there. Are you—"

"A freak? Oh, yes, of course I'm a freak! Just because I'm different from Petunia, that means I have to be the freak-oh no, _she's_ not the freak, no one in the wizarding world would call _her_ a stupid Muggle, naturally it must be all _me_ who's wrong, _me_ who's the weird one, _me_ who's all alone in her oddity—God forbid I act any different than the great, perfect, wonderful PETUNIA!" Lily finished her speech seething, and stomped up the stairs to her room. She never got there, however—Petunia stepped out of her room and confronted her sister first.

"You think you're wonderful because you're a witch?" Petunia hissed. "Well, let me tell you—"

"No! Let me tell _you_!" Lily interrupted. "I'm not wonderful because I'm a witch! I'm wonderful because I'm _not_ one! Because I'm _not_ like you. Sure, I have magical blood in my veins, but that doesn't make me better or worse than you. You're just _afraid_ of it is what you are, Petunia. You're afraid of it because you don't understand it, because you couldn't possibly comprehend it, and most of all because you don't _want to_. Just because something's different, Petunia, doesn't mean it's wrong!"

With that, Lily brushed past her sister and flew into her room, flinging herself onto her bed, where she began crying. Petunia would never forgive her for being a witch. Not that Lily was going to ask for forgiveness, but...her sister made out like Lily had decided to be different on _purpose_, when really she'd had no control over it. She and Petunia had always been competitive, at everything. At grades, at beauty, at hair, at piano playing...they'd even competed against each other at ballet when they were younger. They had gotten along, when they weren't battling it out for something-or-other. But now...well, now the race was over. The fun and games were long gone. Petunia and Lily didn't compete anymore. They just fought. Petunia, if Lily ever had the 'audacity' to ask her about it, and if Petunia ever felt like being truthful about it, would probably say that she'd been 'cheated' out of her win. That Lily had done some sort of trick to make her a witch and Petunia a Muggle. That she would have won, had Lily not been different—not been a freak.

_Freak_.

Lily didn't know if Petunia had been serious about it or not. She probably had. She'd always hated the idea of Lily being a witch, which Lily hadn't quite understood—Dean had been happy for her. Why couldn't her sisters?

Lily sighed. She knew, for the most part. She had just explained the logic to herself for the thousandth time. Petunia felt cheated, and Daisy idolized Petunia, so if Petunia wanted to hold a grudge against Lily, so did Daisy.

James was _so_ lucky he didn't have siblings.

* * *

"I wish I had a brother," James complained, bouncing a little purple bouncy ball against the wall. Sirius had found it at a Muggle shop last summer, after taking an unauthorized trip on his flying motorcycle. James was sitting in the chair at the desk in his bedroom. Sirius was lying on James's bed.

"What do you need a brother for? You have me," Sirius said matter-of-factly, flipping through his Quidditch magazine. On the cover was a picture of Sandra Sheikh, winking and waving. She was the Haileybury Hammers's newest Chaser, and was giving the team unexpected publicity, both because she was very photogenic and because she was very good at pulling off dazzling Qudditch moves.

"I don't see why you're obsessed with that girl," James said, bouncing the ball off the wall again. "She doesn't even play for your team."

Sirius's team was the Falmouth Falcons. "James, you can't tell me you don't like her," he said, holding up a fold-out poster of Sandra in stunning blue dress robes, smiling and flipping her black, silky hair at him. James shrugged.

"Well, sure I do, but honestly, who doesn't?"

Sirius laughed and went back to the article he was reading about the Wigtown Wanderers. "So, when is Lily-bean coming over again?" he asked out of nowhere. James sighed.

"Sirius, you know perfectly well that she's coming over at noon on Christmas day for dinner."

Sirius smiled. "Yeah, I know, but I enjoy tormenting you."

"Thanks, Padfoot. I appreciate it," James said, rolling his eyes and throwing his bouncy ball against the wall again.

"Anything for dear old Prongsie!" Sirius said happily.

"Speaking of..." James said, smiling. "You feel like going for a run?"

Sirius had jumped up and turned into a dog and back again before James had a chance to finish his sentence.

* * *

Hera arrived at the Evans's the day after Lily. The owl didn't have any letters, but Lily was glad to have her there all the same. After spending an hour or two lying in her bedroom, having a one-and-a-half sided conversation with her owl (Hera seemed to understand what Lily was talking about, but she couldn't do any more than hoot in response), Lily decided to write a letter to James. It was a very interesting letter. It was also a rather disturbing letter, as Lily was really very bored, and she tended to ramble when she was bored. The letter went as such:

_Dear Jamesie-poo,_

Don't be afraid. I don't really think of you as Jamesie-poo, I just couldn't think of anything else to call you. I need to come up with a nickname for you, since you and Sirius insist on calling me Lily-bean.

Anyway. How is the weather? Here it's...nice. It's very nice. It's very...sunny! There isn't much snow, but apparently it's enough for my younger brother and sister to make snowmen out of, because they've already made three. Now there are a lot of grass-patches in our backyard, though...but at least we have snowmen!

I don't really have anything to say...well, there's something new, eh?

Um.

Kumquat!

That is a very strange word. I don't remember where I heard it, and I have no idea what it means, but it's a very strange word, don't you think? Yes. Well. I suppose I'll see you on Christmas.

Truly bored,

Lily  
  
Lily didn't know what James would make out of it, but hopefully he would find it amusing.

* * *

_Lily-_

You are insane. Did you accidentally perform a Mind-Scrambling Charm on yourself?

-James

* * *

_Dearest fuzzy-wuzzy Jamsie-poo-_

Do you happen to own a dictionary? I really would like to know what the word "kumquat" means. Do you know what else is a funny word? Streudel. Streudel! Streudel noodle poodle foodle boodle koodle...hm. I think I might need to work on improving my vocabulary.

I think Hogwarts should allow salamanders as pets. Especially those fire ones; they could live in the fireplace in the common room or something. Don't you think?

Warm fuzzy feelings from,

Lily  


* * *

_Lily-_

Where in the world did you hear about Fire Salamanders? You don't take Care of Magical Creatures, do you?

-James  


* * *

_Silly willy-nilly Jamesie-poo-_

Of course not, you idiot. I bought myself a copy of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" when Melody signed up for it. I thought it'd be interesting.

Huge embarrassing hugs from,

Lily

P.S. You haven't looked up "kumquat" in the dictionary yet, have you? I don't think we have a dictionary here...

* * *

_Lily-_

All those books and you don't own a dictionary?

-James

PS I love you forever I want to marry you and have kids and buy a little house and start a Gringotts account and get a dog.

* * *

_Lily-_

Ignore the P.S. at the end of the last letter. That was all Sirius's doing.

-James

* * *

_Big cuddly gummy bear of a Jamesie-poo-_

You mean you don't want to marry me?

Heartbrokenly yours,  
Lily

* * *

_Lily-_

You can't be serious.

-James

* * *

_James-_

Of course not, you idiot!

-Lily

* * *

_Lily-_

Just making sure.

-James

* * *

_James-_

I think Hera's really starting to hate us.

-Lily

* * *

"Mum!" James cried on Christmas morning, running into his mother's room.

"Yes, dear?" his mother replied, fastening a bracelet onto her left wrist and closing her jewelry box.

"I don't have a present for Lily!"

James's mother turned to him with wide eyes. "James, it's Christmas Day!"

"I know!" James cried helplessly.

"Well, where do you expect to get a Christmas present? Diagon Alley is closed!"

"I don't know! That's why I came to you!"

Mrs. Potter sighed and shook her head. "James, I don't have any extra presents I can just pull out of thin air and give to you to give to Lily. That's just not the way things...wait a minute. Lily?"

James looked rather confused. "Yes, mum, that's what you just said."

"I think I might have something!" she said excitedly, opening her jewelry box.

* * *

"Lily! Are you ready yet?"

"Almost, mum!" Lily yelled down the stairs to her mother. It was ten thirty on Christmas morning, and Lily had just had a rather eventful morning with her siblings. They hadn't appreciated each others' gifts (except Dean—he loved everything, as usual), and they'd fought all during breakfast. Lily's father had been threatening to make them all stay home instead of going to the Potters', which was of course what Petunia and Daisy wanted, so that didn't really work as a threat.

Lily straightened out her skirt and fussed over her green sweater one more time before sighing, flipping off the light switch, and running downstairs.

"Oh, Lily, you look just lovely!" Mrs. Evans said, beaming.

"Thanks, mum," Lily said, smiling, and noting the sour look on Petunia's face. Her sister was looking just as horse-like as ever, in a frilly red dinner dress that did nothing to flatter her wiry, bony figure. Lily was shorter and slightly stockier than Petunia, but never felt awkward for it, because she'd always considered Petunia to be far too gangly. Actually, Lily rather liked her appearance.

Lily's other siblings were standing beside Petunia. Daisy looked nice, as usual—she had blond hair, like Petunia, but her face was more like Lily's, and she was wearing a cute navy blue dress with a bow that tied in the back. Dean was wearing dress pants and a polo shirt, and looked absolutely adorable—he looked just like Mr. Evans, with flaming red hair, freckles, and dark brown eyes.

"Well, let's get going before we're late," Lily's dad said, ushering them out the door.

The car ride was mostly silent. Lily and Dean joined their mother and father in a few verses of "Deck the Halls", but Lily trailed off eventually, and Dean didn't find it any fun without his older sister, so he dropped out a few moments later, and Mr. and Mrs. Evans eventually gave up. Lily spent most of the ride staring out the window. The day had started out cloudy, and as they left home it started snowing. By the time they reached the Potter's, the snow was coming down in blankets.

The ride took three-quarters of an hour, and as Mrs. Evans pulled up to a wrought-iron gate with an ornate letter "P" wrought into it, Mr. Evans twisted around in his seat to give the kids his usual speech about what would happen if there was any fighting while they were guests at someone's house.

Mrs. Evans rolled down her window and leaned out to talk to something, or someone, that was apparently very low to the ground. Lily, curious, peered over Dean's head and out of the window, trying to catch a glimpse of who or what it was that her mother was talking to. She caught a glimpse of pointy ears and heard a shrill voice speaking to her mother—it was a house-elf. After a few minutes, Mrs. Evans leaned back inside the car and rolled up her window. The gate swung open, and they drove through.

Lily noticed something peculiar as they drove—if she looked behind the car, she couldn't see the road, and if she looked out of the front of the car, she could only see about ten feet of the road before it simply...stopped. But it didn't really stop, because a few seconds later more road appeared. No one in Lily's family seemed to be phased by this, however; in fact, her mother drove on as though this were all perfectly normal. Perhaps, Lily mused, her mother had gotten used to this last summer, when she'd come to pick Lily up. Or perhaps, Lily thought again, the road looked perfectly normal to her family.

The drive to the Potter's actual house took another fifteen minutes. When the mansion first came into view, Lily's heart leapt into her throat, and by the time they reached the front door, there was a circus of butterflies dancing in her stomach. She was back! She was back at the most amazing house in the world, back with people who understood magic, and back with James. Lily nearly fell out of the car, she was so eager to see the house again, and was the first one at the door, where she waited impatiently for the rest of her family to collect themselves. Dean came next, followed by Mrs. Evans, then Daisy, then Mr. Evans, carrying a large shopping bag full of Christmas presents.

Petunia took as long as possible to get out of the car, purposely to annoy Lily, and took her sweet, precious time walking to the door. It didn't matter, however; Mrs. Potter had already come to the door to greet them, and Petunia had to jog to catch up with her family. Lily smirked at her sister as Mrs. Potter escorted them all to the living room, where a group of adults Lily didn't recognize were seated. She did, however, recognize Remus, Sirius, and James, who were all sitting on a couch together, hunched over a piece of rather suspicious-looking parchment.

Also in the room stood a very large, very decorated Christmas tree, sparkling with tinsel and ornaments and fairy lights. Wreaths, garlands, and sprigs of holly and mistletoe decorated the rest of the room, as well as a dozen more glittering fairies.

Mrs. Potter introduced Lily's parents to the other adults, who turned out to be Sirius and Remus's parents. Then she turned to Sirius, Remus, and James, and cleared her throat. The boys looked up from the parchment, which James hastily shoved into his pocket, and noted Lily's presence with equal looks of mischievousness on their faces.

"Boys, I believe you know Li—" Mrs. Potter began, but Sirius didn't give her the chance to finish.

"Lily-bean!" he cried, jumping up and wrapping her in one of his highly embarrassing hugs. Lily's face turned red, and she hastily extricated herself from the embrace, patting Sirius awkwardly on the shoulder. Sirius's parents were looking at their son with equal expressions of disapproval on their faces, Mrs. Potter, playing the gracious host, was pretending nothing had happened, and ushering the Evans's toward a couch, and the Lupins looked as though they thought the spectacle was highly amusing. Petunia, Lily noted, looked rather alarmed.

Sirius, ignoring everyone as usual, dragged Lily over to the couch where James and Remus were still seated, and sat her down between himself and Remus. Lily missed the obvious look of disappointment on James's face, and was rather confused when Remus and Sirius started laughing.

"I'm sorry my husband isn't here yet," Mrs. Potter apologized, taking a seat, "but he had some Ministry business to take care of. Emergency, you know."

Mr. Evans, completely oblivious to the significance of this statement, began asking questions about the Ministry. He and Mr. Black, who was as interested in Muggles as Lily's dad was in wizards, were soon firing questions at each other like nobody's business. The rest of the adults quickly engaged themselves in conversation, and Dean, who got bored if he wasn't in the center of attention, quickly chimed in his two cents and was soon having a fine conversation with Mr. Lupin. Petunia and Daisy had removed themselves to a corner of the room and were whispering unhappily.

Lily turned to Sirius, Remus, and James.

"What's with the parchment?" she asked curiously.

"What parchment?" They replied in unison. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Fine, then where's Peter?"

"Peter who?" Sirius asked.

"What kind of a question is that?" Remus asked suspiciously.

"Who sent you?" James demanded.

"Never _mind_," Lily moaned, putting her head in her hands. The Marauders all looked very pleased with themselves.

Just then a door banged open, and all the guests turned their heads toward the sound. Mrs. Potter got up and hurried away in the direction of the kitchens, and a moment later she returned with James's father. All the adults sat up straighter, and James tensed, quite perceptibly, two seats away from Lily. James's father, who looked winded and slightly frazzled under his outward composed appearance, collected himself, and let his eyes sweep the room for a moment before speaking.

"I'm terribly sorry for my tardiness," he said finally, although his gaze had not been long in lingering. "Please excuse me."

"Oh, not at all!" Mr. Evans said, springing up and extending a hand to Mr. Potter, who allowed his somber face to break into a smile—Lily imagined he hadn't done much of that this morning. Lily's father and James's father shook hands then, and all the adults then rose, as if answering some sort of unspoken order, and followed Mr. Potter to the dining room.

The room looked just as Lily remembered it, but the table was much longer than it had been last summer. It somehow fit into the space comfortably, and everyone had plenty of elbow room after they were seated, six adults on one side, seven children on the other, and Mr. and Mrs. Potter at the heads of the table. They sat around the table as such: Mr. Potter at the right end, James on his right, and to James's right, Sirius, followed by Remus, Lily, Dean, Petunia, and Daisy, then Mrs. Potter on the left end, and to her right, Mrs. Black, followed in succession by Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, Mrs. Lupin, Mrs. Evans, and then Mr. Evans, on the Minister's left.

After they were all comfortably seated, and had had a moment to settle in and place napkins on their laps, a great deal of food magically appeared on the table, surprising Lily's parents, alarming Petunia and Daisy, and positively delighting Dean. Everyone else at the table took this in stride, and after a moment they were all chomping away happily, and were once against immersed in conversation. Lily, who wasn't much in the mood for talking, ate her food silently and listened to everyone else throughout the course of the meal.

"So, Mr. Potter—"

"Christopher, if you don't mind."

"Er, Christopher—what is it that you do?"

"I am the Minister of Magic," Mr. Potter replied nonchalantly, taking a bite of ham.

"Ah. And—er, that's important, is it?" Mr. Evans asked interestedly. Lily nearly blushed for her father—he was interested, and he was trying, but he was obviously very lost.

Mr. Potter chuckled. "People think so—some more than others, mind you. It's a rather—er, political position, in Muggle terms."

"Ah, politics!" Mr. Evans said, sounding slightly more confident. "So, that would be the equivalent of a..."

"A president, if you will. It's not quite as democratic as the term lends, but there you have it."

"Ah!" Mr. Evans said.

"Now, I'm unfamiliar with Muggle professions in general, but I'd be terribly interested to learn more—would you mind enlightening me about your profession, Mr. Evans?"

"Ah, yes—and please, call me Robert." The Minister nodded. "I'm an engineer," Lily's father continued carefully, and at that point Lily lost interest in their conversation. She turned her attentions to James, Sirius, and Remus, who were whispering conspiratorially over the piece of parchment. She spent the remainder of the meal trying to snatch the parchment away from them, in between stern glances from her parents, but to no avail.

"Stupid Quidditch players," Lily mumbled under her breath as James snatched the parchment out of her reach again. She went back to stabbing at her mashed potatoes with her fork. Lily wasn't particularly fond of potatoes, but the mashed ones were okay if you drenched them with gravy, which Lily was still waiting for—Petunia was holding the gravy boat hostage at her end of the table.

The end of dinner came quickly, and all the food disappeared from their plates—Lily never had gotten a chance at that gravy. They were then each served a piece of peach pie—except Lily, who, for some reason, got her very own piece of cheesecake. Not that she objected to the cheesecake, of course; in fact, she was quite delighted with it, especially when she caught Petunia shooting a jealous glance at it.

After that they all retired to the living room again, and Lily marveled at their beautiful Christmas tree—it looked like one of the ones at Hogwarts. Mrs. Potter then pulled out a bag of gifts she'd bought for all her guests and distributed the presents merrily. Mr. Evans, taking out his bag of presents, did the same. Each of the adults, in turn, passed out presents, and the four teenagers ripped theirs open excitedly as the adults, still making polite conversation, rather more neatly opened theirs.

From Mr. and Mrs. Lupin, Lily had gotten a very nice pin, in the shape of a lily; from Mr. and Mrs. Black, a Potions Logbook (these were very helpful; they magically kept records of all the potions you'd ever made, and, while you were making a potion, would keep track of boiling time and yell at you if you forgot to add an ingredient); and from Mr. and Mrs. Potter, "Wanda Witch's Magical Cookbook" (featuring some of the finest cheesecake recipes to ever come out of Wanda Witch's kitchen). She had also gotten presents from Remus and Sirius—a bottle of moonbeam essence (which would be the Muggle equivalent of a rabbit's foot or lucky penny), as a joke from Remus, and a bottle of wand cleaner—oddly thoughtful, Lily mused, for Sirius.

Lily looked up from her gifts happily, prepared to inspect all of James's presents, but she was distracted by Sirius, who was sitting on the floor surrounded by six identical boxes, one of which looked very familiar.

"Sirius, are those...?" Lily wondered.

Sirius nodded at the six identical boxes in disbelief. "Motorcycle helmets," he said incredulously. "Six! Six motorcycle helmets!"

Everyone in the room looked at everyone else. Maybe next year they would collaborate on gifts.

"Six? SIX?" Sirius repeated, sounding very upset. His mother looked at him uncertainly.

"Well, dear, you know-"

"No, no, no, mum!" Sirius cried, jumping to his feet, looking ready to make a passionate speech about something. "I mean, come on, six? The least you people could have done was get me seven! Then I could coordinate for days of the week! The blue-and-white one would be good for Sundays, black-and-red is great for Saturdays, Wednesdays could be this yellow-and-black one, Fridays would have to be red-and-gold, Mondays would have to be blue-and-green, and Thursdays could easily be orange-and-black, but...what about _Tuesday_? There's no Tuesday! How can you live without a Tuesday?"

Lily began giggling, and the others joined her. Sirius just shook his head and them and sat back down beside his motorcycle helmets.

"Six..." he muttered.

Just then several large owls flew into the room, and dropped a pile of presents in the middle of the room. On top of the pile was a bright blue envelope, emitting little sparks of light.

"Ooh, a Sparkler!" Sirius said, bounding over his presents and grabbing the blue envelope. He ripped it open, and out of it erupted a very lifelike figure. It sparkled and shimmered and giggled at everyone.

"It's Melody!" Lily cried.

"Hi everybody!" the sparkly Melody said. "Happy Christmas! I'm having fun in the Alps, even though I'm not very good at skiing..." (giggling) "Sirius, I wish you were here so all the food wouldn't go to waste at all these parties." (more giggling) "James, I wish you were here so somebody could ski into trees with me. Remus, I wish you were here to help me with my Astronomy homework." (wink) "Lily, I wish you were here to see my ski instructor..." (hysterical fit of giggling) "Mr. and Mrs. Black, thanks for the coat!" The shimmering Melody twirled around and modeled her fancy-looking blue coat. "Mr. and Mrs. Potter, I love the hand lotion, and Mr. and Mrs. Lupin, thanks so much for the diary! Oh—and Lily's siblings, if you're there—Happy Christmas to you too, and don't eat too many sweets! Mrs. Potter is horrible with them!" The very sparkly Melody flashed another smile at them. "Bye!"

The smiling Melody shimmered and sparkled her way into nothing.

"That was wicked!" Dean said in awe.

"That was giggly," Lily commented.

"That was expensive," Mrs. Black and Mrs. Potter said together. Everyone but the Evans's nodded in agreement. Then Sirius shrugged and began digging through the pile of presents.

"Lily—James—Remus—mum—dad—Mr. and Mrs. Potter—Mr. and Mrs. Evans—" he muttered, distributing gifts. "Mr. and Mrs. Lupin—blast, where's my—a-ha!" Sirius ripped off the wrapping paper to his present and smiled happily. "We have a Tuesday!" he announced, placing the seventh motorcycle helmet with the rest of them.

Lily giggled and began opening her present from Melody. It was a plain brown box, nothing special. She looked at it curiously, and then very slowly opened the lid, hoping it wasn't magical and that nothing would spring out at her. Nothing did. She frowned and pushed the tissue paper aside hurriedly, wondering what in the world Melody would feel needed to be placed inside a plain brown box. (Normally, Melody hated anything plain, let alone brown, so why she would put a Christmas present in something so boring-looking, she didn't know.)

Lily looked into the box. She blinked. She looked at the ceiling and shook her head. Then she looked into the box again and began giggling. It wasn't magical. It wasn't a joke product. It wasn't plain and boring. It wasn't a book. It wasn't jewelry. It wasn't a styling product.

It was a pair of shoes.

* * *

"Lily, have you seen the indoor gardens yet?" James asked conversationally, several minutes later. Everyone was sprawled comfortably around the living room, talking and playing with their presents. Outside, the wind was howling and snow was coming down in droves.

"Not yet today," Lily replied, admiring her new shoes, which were high-heeled, black, and very elegant. They looked good on her.

"Come on, I'll show you," he said, getting up from the couch and pulling Lily with him.

They jogged up several flights of stairs together. On the way, Lily poked him in the shoulder.

"You haven't given me a Christmas present yet," she accused.

James flashed a cocky grin at her. "Who says I got you one?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Five sickles says it's in your pocket."

"No bets! You're starting to sound like Melody..."

Lily laughed.

"So where's _my_ present?" James demanded, as they reached the indoor gardens.

"It's around," Lily replied casually. James shook his head and pulled open the door. Lily walked in and gasped.

The most beautiful place on earth had become twice as beautiful. Everything was coated in thick layers of magical snow, which looked the same as real snow, but it wasn't as cold and didn't smell quite the same. It didn't smell bad, but it didn't smell like snow, either. But it was beautiful.

Red and white roses bloomed on snow-covered bushes, fairies hovered in clumps, lines, and patterns by trees, frozen streams ran under ice-coated bridges, and sprigs of mistletoe hung innocently everywhere.

"Wow," Lily whispered. "I didn't think...I didn't think this place could look more beautiful."

James shrugged and smiled at her. "Come on," he said, holding out a hand. "I have to show you something."

Lily took his hand and they walked along in silence, knowing before they even got there where they were going. The grove of evergreen trees sparkled with snow, and Lily sat down in the middle of it without even thinking. The snow was soft and cool, but not cold. It felt kind of silky, like a blanket, and slid through her fingers like sand.

"Interesting," she commented. James shrugged and sat down beside her. "So where's my present?" Lily asked, cocking her head and looking at James.

"You first," he said. Lily rolled her eyes and pulled out a small package, wrapped in red and gold paper.

"What is it?" James asked, looking at the small thing curiously. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Open it, idiot, and you'll find out!"

James laughed and opened the package, frowning at the small, liquid-filled bottle in his hands. "What is it?"

Lily rolled her eyes again. "It's cologne. It's magical. I...well, I made it myself. It changes scents when you change moods."

James smiled at her, rather lopsidedly, and sprayed some of it on. "Kind of...strong, isn't it?" he asked, coughing. Lily giggled.

"Only if you're feeling a particularly strong emotion," she said, batting her eyelashes. The scent of the cologne got stronger, and Lily laughed as James shoved a rectangular box into her hands.

"I didn't have time to wrap it," he said sheepishly.

"That's okay," Lily said, looking at it. _If I didn't know better_, she thought, as she opened it, _I'd say this was a very expensive...  
_  
"Necklace," she whispered. "It's a necklace."

"Do you like it?" James asked nervously. "Because if you don't, I can-"

Lily put her fingers over his lips. "I love it," she said, not taking her eyes off it. It was extraordinary, but at the same time very plain. Just a gold chain, with a pendant on it—a letter. "L".

It was the most beautiful thing Lily had ever seen.

"OH, LILY-BEAN!"

Lily jumped, and looked over in the direction of the doors. "And that will be Sirius," Lily said amusedly, taking the necklace out of its case and pulling it around her neck, fumbling with the clasp. She got it after a moment, and turned to James, smiling.

"Thanks, James," she said, and pecked him on the cheek, before turning and yelling out to Sirius. "OVER HERE!"

After a moment, Sirius and Remus came bounding through the trees, with Lily's younger brother in tow.

"Wow!" Dean said, looking around. "Is all of this inside?"

"Well, duh, that's why they call it the indoor gardens," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "Children," he said to Lily, trying to sound exasperated. "Honestly."

Lily burst out laughing, and Dean frowned at them both.

"Well, I want to see the rest of it!" he demanded, and the four teenagers looked at each other and shrugged, giving him a guided (and highly amusing, with Sirius there) tour of the gardens. By the time they got back to the doors again and ventured back to the living room, everyone was getting ready to leave.

The Lupins departed first, by stepping through the fireplace, and then Mr. and Mrs. Black—Sirius was going to spend the night at Potter's Cottage. The Potters then packed up their things and were escorted to the front door by Sirius and the Potters.

"Now Lily," Sirius was saying, as he helped Lily put on her coat and shoved her hat way too far down on her head. "Make sure you bundle up, because it's very cold outside—"

"And we wouldn't want you getting sick," James interjected.

"That's right, no getting sick! And don't forget to look both ways before you cross the street—"

"And no driving on the right side of the road—"

"And never talk to strangers—"

"And don't get involved with any wizards who say they can give you immortal powers—"

"Yeah, that always goes bad—"

"And no walking around alone at night—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Lily exclaimed, interrupting James. "Am I going home with my family, or am I going alone on holiday to France?"

James and Sirius exchanged a look, and then said together, decisively: "Alone on holiday to France."

Lily tried to roll her eyes and glare at them, but couldn't keep her composure and burst into giggles instead. "Happy Christmas," she said, shaking her head at them and giving them both hugs.

The Evans's all said their good-byes, and Mrs. Potter stepped up to open the door.

"Have a save jour—never mind," she said, slamming the door closed again.

Four feet of snow had piled itself against the Potters' front door, and, Lily had seen, in the brief few seconds the door had been open, the Evans's car was buried in a snowdrift.

"Well," Mrs. Potter said, clapping her hands together. "I guess you'll be staying here tonight...anybody care for a cup of cocoa?"

The Evans's looked at each other and shrugged. Lily looked at Petunia. Her mouth was pursed so much it looked like she had just drunk an entire vat of lemon juice. Daisy looked about half as angry. Dean was jumping around like his birthday had come early. James and Sirius traded evil grins.

Well. This was going to be interesting.


	9. The New Year's Party

Chapter Nine

The New Year's Party

"Well, you might as well settle down for the night," Mrs. Potter suggested, looking very tired and in much need of a large cup of tea. "I'll show you all to some rooms—and we'll get you some pajamas—"

Mrs. Potter sighed and began walking briskly down the hallway, motioning for everyone to follow. Mr. and Mrs. Evans complied, along with Dean, Daisy, Sirius, and James. Lily sighed and fell into step behind James, but hadn't gotten more than a few feet down the hallway before she felt thin, bony fingers close around her arm.

"_You_," Petunia hissed, and Lily whirled to face her sister. Petunia's bony, horse-like face was contorted in rage, and the orange glow coming from the candles in the hall did nothing to compliment the circles under her eyes.

"Me? Me what?" Lily asked, aggravated, yanking her arm out of Petunia's grip. It was harder to do than she'd anticipated; either Petunia had been lifting weights or she was very, very angry.

"You did this!" Petunia accused, jabbing her index finger at Lily's nose.

"I did nothing!" Lily said angrily, batting Petunia's finger away from her face.

"Oh of course you did! You just wanted me to be miserable, didn't you? You just wanted to ruin my Christmas!" Lily noticed that, despite Petunia's upturned nose and defiant eyes, her lower lip was trembling. She was about to cry.

"Oh, for heaven's sakes, Petunia!" Lily said, a bit more gently, throwing her hands into the air. "Do you really think I could have done this? Created a blizzard? I don't even know if witches and wizards _can_ do anything to the weather!"

Petunia evaluated her for a moment, and then stuck her nose higher into the air. "You're lying!" she declared. "I know you want to ruin my life, I just know it! First you go off to that stupid school and make mum and dad twitter over you, then you go off and become a—a—oh, whatever it is they gave you a stupid badge for, and now—well, now this. This horrible, disgusting, weirdo, he's just like you—honestly, I bet you'll even try to get _engaged_ before me, just to show mum and dad how _perfect_ you are!"

Now Lily was close to tears. "JAMES?" she yelled, outraged. "JAMES? You honestly think this is all about JAMES? Blast, it, Petunia, you great blubbering old—old—teapot!" Lily fumed.

"Teapot?" Petunia shrieked, outraged. "A teapot, am I? Well, look at you, Lily, you horrible, croaking—fire-bellied—_toad_!"

"Peacock!" Lily shot back. Petunia's eyes flared.

"Crow!"

"Horse!"

"Dog!"

"Sheep!"

"Cow!"

"Blast it, Petunia, this isn't Old McDonald's farm, you great old...beaver!"

"Badger!"

Lily's eyes flared, and she stomped her foot. "I am _not_ in Hufflepuff, you—you—SNAKE!"

Both girls stood glaring at each other for a moment, breathing heavily, their faces red in anger and indignation. Lily's hair had very nearly fallen out of its bun.

"Fine, even if you won't admit it," Petunia spat, finally, "I know you did it. So don't expect me to talk to you for the rest of the holiday!" She sounded very shrill.

"Don't expect me to care," Lily shot back, darkly, and glared at Petunia's retreating figure as she stomped down the hallway, from which everyone else had already disappeared.

Once Petunia had gone, Lily leaned back against the wall and swallowed the lump in her throat, fighting back the burning sensation of tears in her eyes. Why did Petunia have to fight with her like this? It wasn't fair! And on top of that, why did Lily care so much? She banged her fist rather halfheartedly against the wall and hung her head, feeling defeated.

She didn't notice James's wide eyes staring at her from the end of the hallway. He'd been hiding just around the corner the entire time.

* * *

"Ah, Melody, there you are!"

Melody Cauldwell looked up from her piece of parchment to see Luc Sawyer standing in her doorway. She flashed a pearly-white smile at him and looked back down at her parchment. She was composing a letter to Lily. _Dear_ _Lily_, it said.

She wasn't getting very far.

"_Bonjour_, Luc," Melody said, fighting back a giggle. Luc rolled his eyes.

"How many times a day do I have to remind you that I'm American?" Luc demanded.

"As many as it takes," Melody replied easily, staring at her parchment. "Maybe I should finish this later," she said, hopping off her bed and setting the parchment and quill down on the bedside table.

"What's that?" Luc asked curiously, walking over to the table and picking the letter up. "Fascinating," he said, smiling and setting it back down. Melody gasped suddenly, and he looked at her, eyebrows raised.

"But Monsieur Luc!" she protested dramatically, faking a French accent. "Zis is inappropriate! What eef someone zees us? We would be thrown out of ze 'igh society! Zen what will I do?"

"Get a job," Luc replied, sounding unsympathetic. Melody rolled her eyes and dropped out of character.

"Oh, you're no fun!" she whined, flopping back down onto her bed.

Luc shrugged and gave her a lopsided grin. He had a very cute grin. Not as cute as Sirius's grin, mind you, but still very cute.

"So, what news bring you?" Melody asked, hoping off the bed and walking over to the big, beautiful cherry armoire that took up almost an entire wall of the room. It was a piece of artwork as well as a wardrobe; the entire thing was carved to resemble a falcon, and probably cost more than both Melody's parents made in a year.

Its four elephantine legs, each as wide at the base as Melody's forearm was long (and she had exceptionally long forearms), were carved in the likeness of talons. The voluminous belly of the armoire (which held all of Melody's dresses, coats, skirts, and sweaters—her Hogwarts uniform had been shoved in her trunk in a corner of her room since the beginning of holidays) was carved intricately, but not too ostentatiously, with feathers, representing the breast and belly of the falcon. There were two more cabinets in the armoire, one on each side that were carved to look like wings, and both held Melody's extensive, ever-growing shoe collection (she now had forty-three pairs). The top of it was crested with a mighty, hulking falcon's head, it's beak open in a cry of...well, what, Melody didn't know. She couldn't imagine the falcon crying out for war; she was in Switzerland, after all. There were no handles.

"We don't have to go skiing again, do we?" Melody added, scrunching up her nose and tracing her newly manicured fingernail around one of the falcon's feathers. A tiny keyhole appeared, and Melody removed the long gold chain from around her neck. Dangling from it was a tiny golden key.

"Clever," Luc said as Melody inserted the key and twisted it three times—right, left, right. The doors magically swung open, and Melody turned back toward Luc and smiled.

"What, you don't have one of these in your room?" she asked jokingly. Luc's family, while it did have money, had not taken the liberty of renting out one of the five penthouse suites for Christmas holidays.

Luc frowned. "Unfortunately, no. After seeing this, I have the sneaking suspicion we're staying in the...broom closet."

"Broom closet?" Melody asked, raising one delicately plucked eyebrow. "Well, that's good, you can snatch a couple of Nimbus 1001s and we can fly over these stupid mountains instead of ski."

Luc laughed. "Well, I certainly hope you can fly better than you can ski."

"Of course I can," Melody replied, fingering the fabric of her newest dress robes. They were deep blue, and made of silk. They made Melody's eyes look almost purple. She took them out and hung them on the door. "I play Quidditch, you know. Although don't tell my uncle—I doubt he'd think it was proper," she sighed, and took out another set of dress robes, this one a shade of red reminiscent of very ripe peaches, hanging it next to her blue robes.

"Melody Cauldwell, worried about what her uncle thinks? What, is he holding a pair of your shoes hostage?"

Melody blushed a deeper shade of red than her dress robes. "It's about respect, Luc," she said tartly. "You should understand that, even if you _are_ from—" (she shot a coy look at him over her shoulder)"— America."

"Yes, I am!" Luc said proudly. "And I'm glad I finally found some Quidditch fans. In New York it's all Quodpot, Quodpot, Quodpot. What a bunch of weirdos!"

Melody giggled. "If I didn't know any better I'd almost think you were from Canada," she teased. "Monsieur Luc."

He rolled his eyes. "Ha, ha," he said dryly. "Anyway, Quidditch. You're a Chaser, then?"

"A Chaser?" Melody snapped, whirling around and feeling slightly more angry than necessary. "And why in the world would you assume that?" she demanded.

Luc blinked, looking rather astonished. He'd only known Melody for three days, sure, but he thought he'd gotten a good measure of her. She seemed an easygoing, optimistic, energetic witch, who was going to have one hell of a future, even if she didn't appear to have much magical talent—her uncle's money would see to that. But she'd never seemed like one to simply fly off the handle without warning.

"I—I didn't mean any harm," he stuttered. "It was only a question."

"No, it was an assumption. That's quite a bit different."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I've never known of a girl who played any other position but Chaser on a Quidditch team."

"Well," Melody said, visibly calming and managing a cocky smile, "that's because you've never been to Hogwarts. You're speaking to a real, live, female Beater." Melody smiled in amusement as Luc's eyebrows shot to the ceiling. "But," she added, turning back to the armoire, "like I said, don't tell my uncle. He wouldn't find it ladylike."

"Probably not," Luc agreed. "We aren't skiing again, by the way." (Melody let out a sigh of relief.) "Catalina sent me to tell you that your uncle's decided to show up for cocktails tonight, after all, and you have an hour to get ready."

"AN HOUR?" Melody screeched. "Get out! OUT! I have to get ready!"

Luc blinked in confusion, and, without much protest, allowed Melody to shove him out of her room and slam the door shut behind him.

* * *

Tendrils of flaming-red hair curled around Lily's face, and her bun sagged to the nape of her neck. The candles in the hallway laid a soft, flattering glow on her skin. In the flickering light her hair seemed to shimmer. She shrunk against the wall and stared at the ground, hugging herself, looking broken. James couldn't take his eyes off her.

He crept into the hallway and leaned against the wall opposite Lily.

"I really wish you hadn't seen that," she whispered. James blinked.

"You knew I was watching the whole time?"

"No, but..." Lily shrugged. She still hadn't taken her gaze off the floor. "You saw it, didn't you?"

"Lily, your sister—" James began.

"Don't," Lily said, her voice soft but fierce. "I don't want to talk about my sister."

"Yes, you do."

Lily looked up from the floor, eyes blazing behind a sheen of tears. "How would you know?" she whispered, shaking her head. "What do you really know about me, James? What do you know about my sister?"

James considered this for a moment, dumbfounded. "Lily—what do you—how can you say—" he sputtered.

"We've known each other for a year, James, and I bet you couldn't even tell me when my birthday is."

"Your birthday? Well, of course I know when your...wait..."

"Exactly, James. Exactly." Lily shook her head again and scuffed one shoe on the floor.

"How could I—How couldn't I have—" He stared at Lily for a moment. "I'm sure I know everything else important, don't I?"

"It doesn't matter, James," Lily said, and began staring at the floor again.

"Like hell it doesn't," James said fiercely, shoving himself away from the wall and advancing toward Lily. She didn't even look up. "Look, Lily, you're right; I've known you for a year and I haven't even bothered to—" He cut off abruptly when he saw Lily's shoulders shake.

"Lily?" James said softly, putting a hand under her chin. He lifted her face just enough to see the tears glistening on her cheeks.

"It's so _stupid_," Lily said savagely, jerking her head away. "I don't even _care_ what Petunia thinks, she's so—"

"Stupid?" James offered. "Detestable? Horse-like? Irrational? Jealous?"

"Jealous?" Lily echoed, wiping the tears off her face. She began walking down the hallway. "I doubt that." She stopped and leaned against the wall. "I doubt that very much," she whispered.

"Why?" James demanded, coming up behind her and peering over her shoulder, trying to get a good look at her face. "Why is it so hard to believe that she could be jealous of you?"

Lily turned around and looked up at James, half a smile on her face. She had a look on her face that suggested she knew why but wasn't going to tell him. "It really isn't important, James," she said, trying to sound convincing, but her voice was trembling so badly that it was jumping octaves.

"Lily," James said, exasperated. He looked at her for a moment, and opened his mouth to say something, but then decided against it and grabbed her instead, wrapping his arms around her waist. Lily responded instantly, grabbing at the back of his shirt with both her hands and burying her face into his shoulder, sobbing. It took several minutes for Lily to compose herself. She turned her head to the side and pressed her cheek against the fabric of James's sweater, sniffling.

"I'm such an idiot, James," she whispered, half-smiling.

"Well," James conceded, twirling a loose strand of her hair around his finger, "at least you're a beautiful idiot."

Lily glared up at him, trying to hide a silly grin, and grabbed his nose. "That's enough, you," she said, pinching the end of it.

"Ow!" James whined, rubbing it. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Oh, you are such a baby!" she complained. "Come here!" She grabbed his face and stood on her tiptoes, preparing to kiss his nose, but James's lips intercepted hers. Lily's heart leapt into her throat and then fell back down again, and began bouncing all over her rib cage. How was it that James always managed to catch her by surprise? And...how in the world was it that she gave him the opportunity?

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" she demanded a minute or so later, feeling slightly winded.

"It's not my fault I'm so irresistible," James replied, sounding equally out-of-breath. Lily rolled her eyes again and shook her head.

"_Gryffindors_."

* * *

It had taken Melody an hour and fifteen minutes to get ready. When Luc saw her he tripped over himself and nearly fell down the flight of stairs he was standing at the top of. If it had taken her an hour and thirty minutes to get ready, he mused, he'd probably have broken his neck.

She was dressed in a fantastic shade of blue that made her eyes purple and her skin very white. It suited her. Her hair was part up and part down, part curled and part not...Luc didn't have any idea what to call it, but it suited her, too. And her make-up...well, Luc didn't know mascara from eye shadow, but he knew what beautiful looked like, and Melody was it.

"Luc?" Melody asked, her voice jolting him back to his senses. "Are you all right?"

"I—I—yes—of—of course," he stammered. "I'm fine." Melody smiled and shook her head. She looked like...a doll. A painting. A cartoon. She looked too perfect to be real.

"Luc," Melody said, pouting and whining slightly. "I've been standing here almost a minute, and you haven't even looked at my shoes."

"What? Shoes—? Oh," Luc said, glancing at them. "They're...they're very..." he shrugged and returned his gaze to Melody's face. "Beautiful."

Melody rolled her eyes and glided over to Luc, her movements all silk. "Shall we?" she asked, indicating the doors to her suite. Luc nodded, somewhat regaining his composure and offering an arm to Melody. She took it and together they walked down the stairs into the world of the rich.

* * *

"Where's the trash?" Lily asked, emerging from behind the Christmas tree. "I have Melody's Sparkler." It had somehow gotten shoved back there, with several ribbons, random bits of wrapping paper, and one of Sirius's motorcycle helmets.

"Mum took it," James replied, placing all of his Christmas presents into a rather familiar-looking box. "It was full. Just throw that over there," he said, indicating the rather large pile of trash Sirius was inspecting suspiciously.

"Is that the box I got you last year?" Lily asked curiously as she crossed the room.

"Yeah," James replied. "Mum thinks it's great. She's been hinting all year she wants one...I think my dad's planning on getting one for her birthday."

"Six helmets," Sirius was muttering. "Six...where...?"

"Oh, it's behind the tree, Sirius," Lily said absently, tossing the Sparkler and several dull red bows onto the pile.

"Aha!" Sirius said, jumping over the pile and dashing behind the tree. "Tuesday! I thought I'd lost you!" he cried, reemerging. Lily rolled her eyes and James ignored him, shrinking his box to its smallest size and shoving it in his pocket.

"Here we are! Another trash bag!" Mrs. Potter said triumphantly, reentering the room and walking right over to the pile of trash, dumping it in the bag in great handfuls. "Sirius, have you found your motorcycle helmet yet, dear?"

"Tuesday? Yes, she was behind the tree."

"She?" Lily echoed, but Sirius ignored her.

"Mum, I still don't see why the house-elves aren't doing this," James whined, plopping down into an armchair.

"Oh, honestly, James! They do everything for you at school, they do everything for you at home, the least you could do is pick up wrapping paper once a year!" Mrs. Potter sounded very tired and strained. "And I appreciate all your help, Lily, but really, you shouldn't have, you're a guest."

Lily smiled and shrugged. "I don't mind."

"What about me? Aren't I a guest?" Sirius demanded.

Mrs. Potter laughed. "You? You spend so much time here I ought to be charging you room and board!"

"You'd charge me for food?" Sirius cried, looking pained. "But that—that—that's just inhumane!"

"No," Mrs. Potter corrected, "It's good business. I'd make a fortune."

James laughed appreciatively. "She's got you pegged, Sirius!"

Sirius solemnly considered throwing one of his motorcycle helmets at him.

"I wouldn't laugh if I were you," James's mother warned, "since you eat about as much as Sirius. I ought to start charging you, too."

James rolled his eyes. "What're you going to use the money for? Paying the house-elves? That's a nice thought."

Mrs. Potter bopped James on the head lightly with a crumpled edition of the Daily Prophet. "Don't be stupid, James."

"What?"

"Oh, just never mind," his mother said, looking exasperated.

"Look! A bow! Lily-bean, would you like a green bow?" Sirius offered, holding up a rather squashed-looking mess of lime green ribbon.

"That's okay, Sirius, you can keep it," Lily replied, shaking her head and throwing some more wrapping paper into the trash bag.

"But it doesn't match my eyes!" Sirius whined.

"It doesn't match mine either," Lily pointed out.

"Oh," Sirius said, and stared at it for a moment. "So?" he demanded.

Lily rolled her eyes and grabbed the bow, tossing it in the trash bag as well. "Just give it up, Sirius, nobody wants the bow."

"I want the bow!" James cried immediately.

"Oh, you do _not_!" Mrs. Potter said, bopping James again with her Daily Prophet.

"James, where—" Lily began, but she was cut off by the sound of a rather loud clock chiming in the hour.

"Oh dear, it has gotten late, hasn't it?" Mrs. Potter asked, her eyes focusing on the large grandfather clock in the corner of the room. "Midnight and I didn't even notice." She sighed. "Well, I suppose it's off to bed then!"

"Off to bed?" James whined. "But mum, it's Christmas, and it's not even _late_ yet, and Lily—"

"Oh, honestly, James, you sound like a five-year-old!"

"But isn't he an adorable ickle five-year-old?" Sirius asked, making goo-goo noises at his rather irritated-looking best friend.

"Well, _I_ would very much like to go to bed," Lily announced, "even if ickle Jamesie-poo doesn't."

Mrs. Potter laughed and beckoned Lily to the stairs. "Come on, then, I'll find you something to sleep in, and ickle Jamesie-poo can sit down here and pout."

James's face went very red and he glared at the both of them as they walked up the stairs. Lily giggled at the look on his face, and then lost sight of him as she and Mrs. Evans turned a corner and tramped up another set of stairs.

* * *

"Aw, that's so sweet, she's still calling you Jamesie-poo," Sirius teased.

"Oh, stuff it," James replied, crossing his arms and glaring at the Christmas tree, his face still a festive shade of red.

"Ooh, I wonder if I can make your face turn _purple_! Hey James, remember last summer when we saw Lily in her underwear, and—"

BOOM!

Sirius jumped and turned around, searching for the source of the explosion. His eyes landed on the spot of carpet where his motorcycle helmets had been neatly stacked; now the boxes were scattered askew across the floor, and Tuesday was scorched and looking rather worse for the wear. Sirius blinked and turned back to James.

"A little sensitive about Lily, eh?" he demanded, raising his eyebrows.

James glared at the Christmas tree and got up, throwing a stray piece of wrapping paper rather violently into the trash bag. "She's just so..._annoying_, Padfoot, I...augh! Don't you have problems like this with Melody?"

"No," Sirius said, rather darkly, beginning to stack his motorcycle helmets again. "I don't have anything with Melody. That's my problem."

"Well, at least you could fix that if you wanted to," James reasoned, tying up the trash bag and tossing it across the room, where it was picked up by a house-elf and carried away. He fell back into his chair and sighed. "At least you have some sort of experience with this kind of thing; you went out with all those girls in fourth year, and..."

Sirius laughed sharply. "That was the stupidest thing I ever did. Do you even remember what I was trying to prove?"

"Not really," James replied, taking his beloved bouncy ball out of his pocket and tossing it across the room. It bounced off the wall opposite him and flew back into his hand. "All I'm saying is that I could use a little advice here, Padfoot."

"Well, what do you want from her? Declarations of her undying love?"

James looked horrified. "Bleeding billywigs, no! I just...I don't know, Sirius, I just want to be able to talk to her without driving myself mad. I want to, you know...occasionally...kiss her...without worrying if she's going to slap me or not."

"Well, here's a thought: why don't you tell her how you feel?"

James threw his ball against the wall with more force than necessary and had to reach halfway out of his chair to catch it. "I don't feel anything about her, I just--"

"You want to kiss my _sister_?"

James blinked and turned around in his chair. Lily's little brother Dean was sitting at the top of the stairs, looking rather disgusted. Sirius looked up at him and laughed.

"You bet your bonnet, old chap!" Sirius said, sounding very much like his father. Dean scrunched up his nose.

"Eew," he commented. "Gross!"

"Well, of course for _you_ it would be, but for James—"

"Oh, lay off, Sirius," James said, sounding slightly grumpy. "What are you up for?" he directed at Dean.

"I wanted some water," Dean replied. "But I got lost."

"Well, the kitchens are that way," Sirius indicated, "And I'm kind of hungry myself. You up for a snack?"

Dean nodded fervently and ran down the stairs, following Sirius to the kitchens. James walked rather sluggishly behind them, bouncing his ball absentmindedly.

"I passed that garden-thing again on the way down here," Dean announced, sounding excited. "If the snow's not gone by tomorrow, can we go back there?"

"Sure," Sirius replied, taking charge for James, who was looking very morose. "And we can throw things at the fairies to irritate them."

"Cool," Dean said as they reached the kitchens. Sirius directed the house-elves to bring them something to eat and sat himself down at a small table. Dean sat beside him, and James leaned moodily against one of the counters and bounced his ball.

"What's wrong with him?" Dean whispered to Sirius, as the house-elves brought them some delicious-looking leftovers from today's meal.

"Who, Moody Teenage Hormonal Imbalance Boy? He's lovesick."

"I am not," James argued childishly.

"Lovesick? Who?" Lily asked, stepping into the kitchens. "Ah, Dean, there you are! We were worried about you. What are you eating?" she demanded, putting her hands on her hips. "Sirius! What did you give him?"

"It was his idea!" Sirius said defensively, pointing an accusatory finger at Lily's little brother.

"Whatever," Lily replied, rolling her eyes and grabbing a roll off Sirius's plate. She took a bite out of it. "Come on, Dean, you have to go back to bed," she said with her mouth full, holding out a hand for her little brother to take. She glanced at James and Sirius while she waited for Dean to collect his glass of milk and several extra cookies. "What's with James?" she asked of Sirius. He shrugged, in the middle of gnawing on a chicken drumstick.

"One too many pieces of pie, I guess," he replied as Dean took Lily's hand.

"Well...good night, Sirius. Good night, James," she said, turning to lead her brother out of the kitchens.

"Night," Sirius replied, taking another bite out of his drumstick.

"Lily, can I talk to you?" James asked suddenly, as Lily opened the door to the kitchens. She stopped short and turned back to him with an exasperated sigh.

"_Now_, James?"

"No. After you put your brother to bed."

"But I want to go to sleep," Lily whined.

"Just for a minute," James insisted.

Lily groaned. "Fine. Meet me at my bedroom in ten minutes."

James nodded and watched her go.

"Is it just me, or is she being unusually whiny?" Sirius asked conversationally.

"She's just tired," James replied, resuming the bouncing of his ball.

"So, what are you going to talk to her about?"

"I have no idea," James replied.

"Then why did you ask to talk to her?" Sirius demanded.

"Good question."

"Are you finally going to put yourself out of your misery then?" Sirius persisted, grabbing a new drumstick.

"I dunno."

"Are you going to tell her then?"

"Tell her what?"

"That you can't live without her!" Sirius cried dramatically. "That you can't breathe without her! Can't eat without her! Can't sleep without her! Can't change your knickers without her!"

"Oh, shove it, Sirius," James said, punching his best friend in the shoulder.

"Well, you're not denying it."

"Bugger off. I'm going to go talk to her."

Sirius loudly began humming a funeral march as James walked out of the kitchen.

"I'm going to hurt you one of these days, Padfoot!"

* * *

Lily waited impatiently outside of her room for James, playing with a lock of her hair. She was pacing...back and forth, back and forth...it was one of her more annoying nervous habits. She heard footsteps approaching and slowed her pace a bit. When she saw James, she stopped altogether and looked at him for a moment.

"James, what did y—"

But he didn't give her a chance to finish. Instead, he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, pulled her to him, and kissed her. Lily closed her eyes and kissed him back, letting her arms wrap themselves around his neck.

Lily had been very tired, but after a kiss like this she wasn't likely to sleep for hours. She broke the kiss and stepped away.

"What the hell was that about?" she demanded, but James didn't reply; he kissed her again. Lily tried to break away several times to ask him what he was doing, but he ignored her protests and kissed her until her head started spinning and her knees turned to jelly. Lily, shocking both herself and James, kissed him back, pulling his body as close to hers as she could, until their hearts were beating almost next to each other.

How long the kiss lasted after that, Lily didn't know...hours? Days? Did it matter?

James kissed her again, slowly, and brought his lips away from hers gently. Lily didn't open her eyes, didn't move, didn't speak. She just stood there, breathing, as James rested his forehead against hers. She couldn't remember ever holding someone so tightly.

"Well, we're making progress," James whispered. Lily felt his lips moving against her cheek, and a hot, achy feeling swelled inside her.

"Progress?" Lily echoed, trailing a line of kisses from his cheek to the corner of his mouth. James pulled away as she was about to kiss him, and her lips landed on his chin. She pulled her head back, disappointed, and looked up at him, feeling sulky. James was grinning from ear to ear.

"Aha!" he said triumphantly, kissing her on the nose.

"Aha what?" Lily asked, still eyeing his lips.

"Aha—" James replied, kissing her forehead, "—you _like_ it when I kiss you."

Lily's face flushed violently. "Of course I do," she whispered, as he kissed her on both cheeks. "Why do you think I've been kissing you back?"

James grinned and kissed her chin. "I don't know," he said, looking into Lily's eyes. "Sometimes you're difficult about it."

"Difficult how?" Lily asked, her mind still blurry, wondering why anyone would be difficult about kissing him—he was very good at it, and his lips were extremely soft—they were driving her crazy—

"I seem to remember," James began, interrupting Lily's rather crazed train of thought, "someone slapping me quite a bit. Last year. Over a few harmless kisses."

Lily narrowed her eyes at James's, which were taunting her, and had her mouth opened to defend herself before she saw the evident hurt behind James's teasing expression. "Oh," she whispered, before pulling him into a very tight hug. "I'm sorry. I didn't—I don't know, I was fifteen then, I didn't know what to do, I..." she trailed off and leaned back so she could look into his eyes. "It…I was mad at you, I wasn't at all expecting it, and...I was embarrassed, James."

"Well, what about this year then?" James asked, looking hurt. "When Remus and Sirius caught us kissing...you slapped me then too."

Lily bit her lip guilty. "I have been a bit horrible, haven't I?"

"No, Lily, not at all, it's just that—"

"No, but it _is_ that, James," Lily argued. "I _have_ been awful, and you haven't said a word about it. I don't know how you've put up with me."

"Oh, come off it, Lily, you're—"

"I'm sorry, James," she interrupted. "It's just...you..." she sighed. "You've never seemed very serious about any of it. You'd laugh at me before you kissed me, or laugh at me afterwards, or pretend the whole thing was some big joke, or...or just kiss me to shut me up, or..." she shook her head. "I could never tell if you really felt anything about me, or you were just having fun."

James kissed her again, unexpectedly, and Lily's heart fluttered. "I definitely, definitely feel something for you, Lily."

"Well then," Lily said, feeling a small pang of fear in her gut--she had not expected this. "This changes things a bit."

James kissed her in agreement.

* * *

Melody floated around the ballroom like a princess, dancing with every eligible bachelor in sight. Her uncle was very pleased. She had really blossomed over these last few months; she carried herself elegantly, and was becoming a master at small talk. She had caught the eye of several very prestigious wizards, and within a few years she would marry and bring the family a much-needed infusion of money. The Cauldwell fortune was dwindling dangerously, and there was no one else left to turn to.

Hans only wished the Potters would come to more of these retreats. They were always invited, of course; their fortune rivaled even the Malfoys', they were proven descendants of Godric Gryffindor—and Mr. Potter was the Minister of Magic, besides. They had a son about Melody's age, Hans knew, and he would have been a perfect match for her. But alas, it was not to be. Instead she was left to the selection of several unworthy wizards, including a particularly dislikable American one, whom Hans did not quite trust.

Melody was infatuated with someone, he could tell, but he did not know who. It was nobody here (another unfortunate circumstance), but Hans was half-tempted to ask his niece who it was; for all he knew, it could have been the young Potter boy. He did go to Hogwarts, didn't he?

Ah, well...maybe Hans would have Catalina go through Melody's things later and see if she had been receiving letters from any notable young wizards.

* * *

Lily and James had decided to go for a walk through the indoor gardens to talk. Unfortunately, they weren't doing much talking. They walked side by side in silence, Lily playing absentmindedly with her necklace, racking her mind desperately for something to say.

"What do you want from me, James?" she asked suddenly, stopping and turning to him.

"Want from you?" James repeated, sounding confused. "Lily, I don't _want_ anything from you, I just—I just want be _around_ you, and...not have you slap me."

"Is that all?" Lily persisted.

"I...yes," James insisted, looking very confused.

"Are you sure, James? Are you sure? Because the way you've been kissing me..."

James blinked and shook his head at her. "What about the way you've been kissing me back?" he demanded softly, narrowing his eyes at her. "What about that?"

Lily blinked but continued to stare straight ahead. "I can't...I can't do what you want me to, James."

"Oh, bugger, Sirius was right!" James cried, sitting down on the ground.

"About what?" Lily asked, finally laying her gaze on him.

"About everything," James mumbled, looking very put out. "Sirius is always right."

"What was it this time?" she prodded.

"Nothing," James said, shaking his head. "Nothing."

Lily sighed and sat down beside him. "Look, James, I...I want to be your friend."

"And is that all you want to be? Is that it?" he asked bitterly.

"I...yes. No. I don't know."

"Well, that's just dandy. Thanks for being so specific, Lil."

"James!"

"What?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake! It's...it's not that. Well, it is that, and it isn't that. It's..." She sighed and stared at the ground, attempting to collect her thoughts. "I like you, James," she declared finally.

"But?" James asked, sounding bored.

"No 'but'. I like you, and..." she shrugged. "That's all. Nothing more. Nothing less. "

"Ah," James replied, after a moment. "Lovely. Well, thanks for telling me now, Lily, that's really great, of course I wouldn't have cared to know when I was carrying on and making a fool out of myself back there, when you didn't even care—thanks a lot."

"James!" Lily cried as he stood and began stalking away. "It's not like that at all!"

"Well, then what's it like? Huh?"

"It's like...like...like when you kiss me, you want…commitment. I guess. Like you want…a commitment I'm not ready for. I'm only sixteen, James, and I feel like you want me to decide what to do with my entire future. Like I have to decide, right now, whether or not I want you to be…a part of my future."

James stared at her. "And you don't think you want me to be in your future, is that what you're saying?"

"No! James—I don't know! I'm _scared_, don't you get it? The truth is…I don't know what I feel about you, just that...I've never felt anything like it before, and..."

"And?"

"And it's scary as hell."

"Well, two steps forward, five steps back..." James shrugged. "It could be worse."

Lily put her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry I can't be perfect for you, James."

"You're still here, aren't you?" he asked, slipping and arm around her and staring straight ahead, feeling both like he'd lost and gained something.

"Yeah," Lily whispered, picking up a lock of her hair and playing with it. "I am."

* * *

Melody danced with Luc many times. He was the only person here that she really felt comfortable with. He was still something of a stranger, of course, and most definitely not a Marauder, but still...he was a friend, or something like it, and very nice to talk to. He was also a good excuse to get as far away from the Malfoys as possible. Her uncle had encouraged her to talk to them, but she didn't like the way Lucius sneered at her, or the way his uncle, Lucifer (a good ten years older than the both of them at least), kept staring at her.

"Come," Luc said, in the middle of the party. "Let's get away from here...I want to show you something."

Melody, glad for an excuse to get away for a minute, followed him eagerly out of the ballroom and into the front hall, where a sparse number of witches and wizards had decided to congregate, and Severus Snape could be seen (disgustingly enough) snogging with Narcissa behind a tapestry.

"Come on," Luc insisted, tugging at Melody's hand and pulling her toward a window that was, incidentally, hidden behind a tapestry.

"What did you want to show me?" Melody asked, but the words barely had time to escape her lips before Luc swooped down on her and kissed her. Melody was too shocked and disgusted, for a moment, to do anything, and instead concentrated on the horrible feel of one of his cold hands against her neck. Then she recovered her wits and shoved him away, with force.

"Ew!" she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, and feeling very stupid. "What gave you the idea you could do that?" she demanded, feeling rather violated.

"You've been dancing with me all night, haven't you?" Luc demanded, looking almost hurt.

"Well, yes, but that doesn't mean I want to have a snog session with you! You're practically the only person my age around here. Who d'you think I'd want to dance with, Colonel Farfinstein?" she demanded. Colonel Farfinstein was an ancient history professor, who had taught in America for many years and was rumored to have earned his title from fighting with the Confederate army during America's Civil War. He looked even older than Dumbledore.

Luc considered this for a moment. "Well, no," he conceded, "but if you didn't want me to kiss you, then what'd you get all dressed up for? Just to get dressed up?"

"Actually, yes," Melody replied. "I like dressing up, thank you!" She shook her head at him. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe I have a party to attend." With that, she spun on her heel and stalked off.

She didn't notice the gold chain glittering in Luc's rather cold right hand.

* * *

"Oh, dear," Mrs. Potter said the next morning as she was joined by her guests for breakfast. "It looks like the snow won't be clearing up any time soon." She drew back the heavy red curtains in the dining room and her guests could see that it was snowing heavily outside. "This is going to drive me crazy," she said, bringing a hand to her lips nervously. "I've got to do something."

Lily exchanged a glance with Sirius, who just shrugged, but James sighed loudly and plopped into a chair. "You're not going to throw another party, are you, mum?"

"Well, that all depends..." Mrs. Potter replied, gazing down the length of the table to where James's father sat, reading the morning edition of the Daily Prophet. "Christopher, dear?"

Mr. Potter sighed and looked over the top of his paper. "Yes?"

"I was wondering...you've been so busy at the office lately, and...well, you haven't had time to really see your friends..."

Mr. Potter sighed again, sounding very much like James. "We had the Blacks and the Lupins over yesterday," he reminded her.

"Oh, I know dear, but really, what about all your other friends? When's the last time we really had a party? Uncloaked the ballroom and everything?"

Lily blinked. Ballroom? This place had a ballroom, too?

Mr. Potter looked at his wife's pleading face, and then sighed in resignation. "When do you want to have it?"

Mrs. Potter smiled and squealed like a little girl. "Oh, New Year's Eve, I think! Oh, it'll be marvelous, dear!" she swooped down on her husband with kisses. "Well, I've got a lot of planning to do, and there's so little time! You all can just sit down and have a nice breakfast, and—well, if you have any questions, I'm sure James can answer them for you!" Mrs. Potter hurried out of the dining room and disappeared down a hallway.

"Dad, not again," James complained as several platters of food suddenly appeared on the dining table.

"Not now, James."

"Remember the last time you let her do this?"

"Not now, James."

"The house-elves were cleaning up for a week!"

"James!" Mr. Potter barked.

"Sorry," James mumbled, and spooned some scrambled eggs onto his plate. "Just saying..."

* * *

Melody gulped nervously and began pacing around her room. How was she going to tell them...how, how, how? How in the world was she _ever_ going to explain this to her uncle? Well, of course, she'd explain it to Catalina first, but...

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Her uncle was going to kill her.

She knew there'd been something fishy from the start, she knew it, but...she was too trusting, that's what it was...yes, much much much too trusting...

But how to explain it? How? How to explain how she'd...lost it? Well...okay, she hadn't exactly _lost_ it; in fact, she knew exactly where and when it had gone missing, but that was entirely _not_ the point.

And now all of it...all of it, all of it, all of it...well, it was all gone. All except for the small brown bag in the corner of her room that no one touched, that everyone liked to pretend wasn't there, like some sort of dirty family secret, which Melody really didn't appreciate, because honestly, it was just...

But no, no, no, that wasn't important right now. Not at all. What was important was figuring out how to tell Catalina...well, how to tell Catalina that...

TAPTAPTAP. "Melody, dear?" The heavy doors to Melody's room opened slowly, and Catalina entered gracefully. Melody sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at her uncle's mistress miserably.

"Why, Melody, what ever is the matter?" Catalina asked, tilting her head in an expression of both curiosity and concern.

Melody stared at the floor for a long time. Then, "It's gone," she croaked. "All of it."

"Gone? What...what's gone, Melody? You're not making any sense."

"All the...all the dresses, all the shoes...all the clothes, all the...everything, it's all gone, he took it all."

"_What_? He? Who's he? Who took it? It..._all_ of it?"

Melody nodded sadly. "All of it. Except...not the jewelry. He didn't find the jewelry."

"_Who_, Melody? Who was it?"

Melody looked up at Catalina, her big blue eyes full of hurt, disbelief, and shame. "Luc," she replied softly, still in shock. "He took it all."

* * *

"Oh, Lily dear, do you have any idea where James is?"

Mrs. Potter caught Lily in the hall in front of the indoor gardens just after breakfast.

"Um...no," Lily replied "Not at the moment, but he's supposed to meet me here in ten minutes."

"Ah! Well, good good good...listen, would you be a dear and send him to see me up in the ballroom in about half an hour? I need to consult him about the guest list...and Sirius, too, if you see him..." Mrs. Potter paused for a minute and looked at Lily, as if considering who she was talking to. "And you should come too, of course...I realize you've never seen the ballroom..." she trailed off, a very distracted look in her eyes, as though she were thinking about a million other things.

"I'll be sure to do that," Lily assured her, and she nodded and smiled at Lily rather absently.

"Well, half an hour then!" she said, nodding and walking off briskly.

Lily waited twenty minutes for James, and when he came, it was with Sirius, a handful of cookies, and Lily's little brother.

"Can we go see the gardens again?" Dean asked excitedly.

"Actually, no," Lily replied. "At least not at the moment. James's mom wants him and Sirius to help her with something in the ballroom...something about a guest list, I think."

James groaned. "Oh, great...well, this way, then, it takes a while to get to the ballroom."

It did. Fifteen minutes, nearly, and up more staircases than Lily could count. Was there an end to this place?

"This place is really backwards," Sirius commented as they reached the last flight of stairs. "Everyone has to enter by way of the Grand Staircase, so they can be announced properly, but the Apparating Room is a floor below the top of the Grand Staircase, so they had to build _this_ staircase so people could enter properly, but during parties no guests are allowed into the main house, so there's a Concealment Charm they have to use, and the staircase that actually leads into the rest of the house has to have about ten extra steps for the charm to work...and then there's _another_ staircase around here somewhere that leads into the gardens, and that's about forty steps shorter than it should be, so that makes all the rest of these staircases longer to compensate...it's crazy how magic balances itself out sometimes, isn't it?"

Lily stared at him, her head spinning. "Wait..._what_?"

Sirius laughed.

"Where in the world did you learn all that?" Lily asked. "Isn't this supposed to be James's house?"

"It _is_ my house," James clarified. "Just because I understand how it works and Sirius doesn't..."

"I understand how it works just fine!" Sirius protested. "Lily's the one who's confused."

"I am too," Dean piped up. "Why are there so many staircases?"

James sighed. "It's not really important," he said as they reached the doors to the ballroom. "Let's just get this over with, shall we?" he suggested, yanking open one of the heavy cherry doors and holding it open for the rest of them.

Lily stepped into the ballroom and nearly fell over. Like everything else in Potter's Cottage, it was unexpectedly large and unexpectedly beautiful. The Grand Staircase was...well, grand. The steps were made of a soft marble and covered, in a wide strip down the middle, with deep red carpet. An enormous crystal chandelier, the size of a small car, hung from the ceiling, and bathed all corners of the cavernous room with light. The room was decorated in golds and reds and the rich, dark browns of all-natural wood. Clouds of dust and magic floated lazily around the room, and the whole place felt very full of both.

Lily got a feeling of intense...ancientness...from the place; she felt as though the walls were watching her, as though they had been watching the entire room since the day it had been built, as though they had stood for well over a thousand years and were perfectly prepared to stand for several thousand more. She'd never gotten this feeling from Potter's Cottage before, but then...she'd really only spent time in the gardens, the library, the dining room, and the main sitting room. She got the feeling, from this room, that Potter's Cottage was much, much older than it appeared to be, and that more of it was kept Cloaked than Lily really cared to think about. She got the distinct impression that the ballroom was only one very small portion of the much larger building that existed, outside of and even within the current, visible realms of the rest of Potter's Cottage.

She also got the distinct impression that this 'cottage' wasn't simply a 'cottage', and, in fact, didn't belong to the Potters at all. There was something much older here than the Potters and their cottage, something from a very long time ago...maybe it was residue from ancient magic that hadn't been entirely cleaned up, maybe it was the kind of magic that couldn't be cleaned, erased, or removed, no matter how hard you tried or how powerful you were. It was very...very...well, in a strange way, very much like Hogwarts, and very strongly like the Gryffindor Common Room.

Which, in fact, made sense. Hadn't Mrs. Potter said during the summer that the Potters were descendants of Gryffindor? Lily had never considered that the Potters were actually living in Godric Gryffindor's house...but no, it wasn't a house...it was...well, the Potters could call it a cottage all they wanted, but Lily now felt strongly that it was Gryffindor's Castle they were living in, rather than Potter's Cottage. She'd have to take this up with James later.

"Ah, James! There you are!" Mrs. Potter cried, spotting him as he began his descent of the Grand Staircase, with Sirius, Lily, and Dean in tow. She walked briskly across the ballroom to a desk hidden in a corner, and James and the rest followed her to it. "Okay," she said, frowning and staring at a piece of parchment.

"Now, I've already got the Blacks and the Lupins and the Pettigrews down, if only they can make it back from Denmark in time...I'd invite your parents, Lily dear, but I'm afraid they'd feel a bit lost in all the magic...and besides, you really need a wand for this sort of thing anyway." Mrs. Potter smiled apologetically at Lily before turning back to her parchment, and said, "I just hope the snow clears up before New Year's so I don't feel terribly embarrassed about it...of course, you Lily dear, are invited."

"Enough about that," James said impatiently. "Who else have you got?"

"Oh, right...well, the Diggorys, the Crouchs, the Zabinis, the Patils, the Pettigrews, the Figgs...who am I forgetting?"

"The Vaughans," James began. "The Henrys, the Dickinsons, the O'Reillys..."

"And don't forget the Perkins's!" Sirius reminded her. Mrs. Potter scribbled this all down, nodding as she wrote, and Lily stood to the side awkwardly, feeling incredibly stupid and useless as Sirius and James rattled off names methodically.

"The Johnsons and the Kingleys—" James added.

"And the Wards, Bagleys, and Hollenbecks—" Sirius interrupted.

"Don't forget the Floyds and the Flahertys!" James warned.

"Right, and then of course the McNabbs...anyone else?" Mrs. Potter looked up expectantly, her eyes darting back and forth between Sirius and James anxiously.

"What about...what about that new bloke at the Ministry, works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department?" James suggested. "Dad hired him just a few weeks ago, after that incident with the biting teapots, didn't he?"

"Oh, yes, what was his name...started with a 'W', didn't it?...Werrens? No, that's not right...Witcop? Wearing? Welling? Waybrook? Welsworth? It had an 's' in it, didn't it?"

"Weissel?" Sirius suggested. "Weisley?"

"Weisley!" Mrs. Potter exclaimed. "Is that it? No, no, no, but it's really close...Weisley, Wesley, We...Weasley, that's it!" she cried, scribbling the name down. "Oh, good, that's very good, James, now who else? There have to be more...oh dear! I know who I've forgotten, all those poor dears in the Restriction for Underage Wizardry Office...they certainly have it boring right now—there's a lot of other things to be worried about—" she scribbled down several more names, and then scanned over her list. "Anyone we've forgotten, yet?"

James and Sirius didn't speak for a moment, and Lily, who had been contemplating about speaking for the last few minutes, did so.

"Well, I'd say invite Melody, but she's in Switzerland right now with her uncle," she said.

"Melody? Melody who, dear?" Mrs. Potter asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Oh, you know, mum—Melody! Melody Cauldwell. Her uncle's really rich or something..." James informed her, shrugging.

"Cauldwell?" Mrs. Potter muttered, thinking about it for a moment. "Oh, Cauldwell! Yes! Hans Cauldwell! Of course, Hans... Switzerland was the hot spot this Christmas, wasn't it? I'd nearly forgotten...well, it's not that important now, is it? After all, what with one thing and another going on in the world...and Christopher being Minister of Magic and all...society functions are boring, anyway, and I'm sure James would much rather be here, so..." she trailed off rather sadly. "Well, no time to dwell on that!" she said suddenly, perking and forcing herself to do so visibly. "Everyone worth seeing is going to be coming here in a week anyway...well, I'll owl Hans too, and...I think the Malfoys are in Switzerland at the moment as well...oh James, don't make that face at me!"

It wasn't just James—Sirius and Lily were looking quite revolted at the thought as well. Mrs. Potter rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Anyway...so I think that's most of the people from Britain, but...do you think we should invite anyone from America?"

James groaned. "Oh, mum, not those bloody Americans again, you've got to stop inviting them to your parties..."

Mrs. Potter glared at James fiercely. "My sister married an American, James, and I'll not have you refer to my brother-in-law that way. Their friends are perfectly respectable, and I am free to invite them if I wish! However"—she glanced down at the guest list—"I think this list is getting rather long, so I'm going to only just invite her, and those charming friends of hers—the Deckers, I think they were."

James rolled his eyes and looked annoyed at the thought. Mrs. Potter shook her head at her son.

"Oh, honestly James, enough of your friends are going to be there as it is, you don't have to associate with them if you don't want to—although I would greatly appreciate it if you'd be nice to their daughter, she's about your age... Well, I think that settles the guest list, thanks so much for all your help, I'll just send this off with one of the house-elves...you kids go off now and have fun!"

With that Mrs. Potter shooed them out of the ballroom, and Lily, James, Sirius, and Dean, didn't see any sign of her until dinner that night.

* * *

The next week passed in a fantastic blur. Lily, James, Sirius, and all the house-elves were put to work to help prepare for the ball. Lily (although she had no reasonable clue as to how it had happened) had been put in charge of the infamous guest list, and spent most of her time locked up in a small office, receiving owls from as far away as Egypt, bearing letters accepting Mrs. Potter's invitation to the party. Lily's family left in the middle of the crazy week—the sun had finally come out and melted most of the snow away, but Lily had kind of missed that occurrence; she'd been far too busy with the guest list.

All in all, Lily had been rather relieved to have an excuse not to go home. She wasn't sure she could take too many more fights with Petunia, curious stares from Daisy, or, no matter how much she loved him, the constant stream of questions from Dean. She'd said good-bye to her family almost distractedly, thinking, as she showed them out the door, about the owl she'd just received from the Flahertys (who had accepted, and who she'd forgotten to write down).

Nearly everyone did accept; only a few people owled to say they were sorry they couldn't come. Lily jumped for joy when she received Melody's uncle's owl of acceptance, but the next minute she was sorely silenced as an owl from the Malfoy's confirmed their presence at the ball as well. It didn't matter, though; as many people as there were coming, Lily was positive she could avoid Lucius Malfoy—at the very least, she was assured that Snape wasn't coming, and that was enough to bring a smile back to her face.

James and Sirius were mostly in charge of decoration. Lily had been almost afraid to visit the ballroom with the completed and revised guest list, after all the owls had arrived—she'd half expected to see the place swarming with blue bubbles and hung with ridiculous pictures of—of—oh, she didn't know, poodles or something. However, Lily was pleasantly surprised to find that James and Sirius had fulfilled their duty magnificently; the ballroom was decorated now with rich red and gold tapestries, exquisite paintings, and hundreds of gorgeous fairy lights. It reminded Lily vaguely of the decorations in the indoor gardens, and also of Christmastime decorations at Hogwarts—the atmosphere here lay somewhere between the two.

And after the guests were accounted for, and the ballroom was mostly decorated, and the food preparations had gone underway, Mrs. Potter began fretting about wardrobe. James and Sirius both had suitable things to wear, but Lily had never in her life even heard of dress robes, and was at quite a loss as to where she could get any. Mrs. Potter took care of this, though, three days before the party. She called in a professional tailor, which Lily objected to profusely, and even as her measurements were being taken, Lily swore she would pay Mrs. Potter back.

James's mother simply waved her protests aside, insisting that the robes would be on her, that it was mere pocket change (which Lily highly doubted it would be—but then, considering the house Mrs. Potter lived in, it may very well have seemed pocket change to her), that she didn't have a daughter, and couldn't Lily just allow her to have a bit of fun? Lily couldn't argue with the last bit, especially not after she saw the material the tailor was planning to make her robes out of. It was the most beautiful fabric Lily had ever seen—It was a shade of green that matched Lily's eyes, with silver ivy plants embroidered (or something along the lines of embroidered-Lily wasn't quite sure what to call it) shimmering in a diagonal pattern all across it, so that if the material were made into robes, the ivy would appear to be winding around Lily in circles.

The tailor spent a day and a half making it, and then, when Lily put it on and looked at herself in the mirror, she almost fell over in shock. It was the most beautiful piece of clothing she had ever worn. She didn't even look like herself, wearing it. She looked much...older, much prettier, much...well, she didn't know what she looked like, exactly, but she knew she definitely wanted James to see her in it. The tailor flitted all around her as she marveled at herself in the mirror, making tiny adjustments with the hem, taking it in a few places at the waist, adjusting the neckline...

A low wolf whistle came out of nowhere, and Lily spun, with great shrieks of protest from the tailor, to see Sirius leaning against the wall. Lily flushed and looked away awkwardly, but Mrs. Potter seemed delighted to have him there.

"Oh, it looks fantastic, doesn't it?" she raved.

"I'll say," Sirius said, sounding impressed. Lily bit her lip and looked at him nervously.

"You don't—you don't think it looks silly, do you?" she asked, wondering why she was doubting herself. Sirius nodded, earnestly.

"You'll knock him dead, Lily-bean," he assured her, and Lily blushed furiously at the 'him' implied in Sirius's sentence.

"It's simply...exquisite!" Mrs. Potter cried, clasping her hands together in delight.

Lily smiled and turned back to the mirror, and thought to herself privately that she couldn't have agreed more.

* * *

Her parents were insane. Bloody insane. They were Portkey-ing themselves all the way to bloody old fantastic England for a simple, stupid party. And on top of that all, she had to wear a _dress_. She detested dresses. Well, okay, no, it wasn't technically a dress, that was a "Muggle term", but honestly, it looked like a dress, it felt like a dress, and it wasn't a normal, sensible pair of blue jeans, so she wasn't about to go around calling it a "dress robe".

Eve Regine Decker stared at her reflection in the mirror hatefully as her mother cooed over the ugly, frilly blue piece of fabric Eve was wearing. The thing had poofy sleeves, a bow that tied in the back, and matching hand gloves. Eve hated hand gloves. They were ridiculous, and pointless, and...Eve looked like she was twelve.

"Don't you think it looks nice?" her mother asked, smiling happily.

"No," Eve said flatly, crossing her arms and glaring at her reflection.

"Eve, dear, don't cross your arms like that, you'll wrinkle it," her mother protested, grabbing Eve's arm to pull it away, but Eve yanked her arm out of her mother's grasp and turned away, keeping her arms firmly crossed.

"I don't _care_ if I wrinkle it," Eve informed her mother. "I hate it."

Eve's mother sighed. "We've been over this before, Eve. You won't let me buy you a new one, and this one still fits, so you're just going to have to live with it."

"Fine," Eve said crisply, and stalked out of her mother's room. So she would wear the dumb thing—but she was going to make a few adjustments to it first.

* * *

"How long d'you think we'll be able to stay up here before my mum notices we're missing?" James asked, taking his bouncy ball out of the pocket of his deep red dress robes. Before Sirius had a chance to respond, however, a house-elf ran into James's room, looking frantic.

"Sir! What is you doing in here, sir?" the house-elf squeaked, distraught. "The Mrs. is looking for you, she's worried sick about you, they is starting introductions, sir, and you isn't there!"

"Oh, bloody hell," James swore under his breath, and shoved the ball back into his pocket, running out of his bedroom and toward the ballroom with Sirius close on his heels. "The one time I'm actually being introduced at a ball, and I forget all about it," he called back to Sirius, dreading the telling off he'd be sure to receive from his mother, and Lily as well, as she was supposed to be introduced with him.

"Go figure," Sirius called up to him. "I would have thought you'd be there early just to drool over Lily."

"I do not drool over Lily!" James protested, taking the stairs up to the ballroom two at a time.

"You're going to tonight!" Sirius informed him knowingly.

"What, were you spying on her or something?" James demanded, stopping to catch his breath as they came to the top of the stairs. Sirius grinned.

"There was no spying involved, Prongs. I just walked right in and there she was...looking dead sexy, too, I might add."

James punched his friend in the shoulder before taking out his wand and tapping eight times on the door in front of him. It changed color, and he opened it, entering not the main ballroom, but the small entrance hall that he was supposed to have been in ten minutes ago. His mother spotted him immediately and ran over, reprimanding him for being late, and then shoving him toward the door, informing him that introductions were starting in one minute, and that she had to be down on the floor of the ballroom with his father already, and thanks a lot to him for making her late. She hurried off and James looked around frantically for Lily, who he spotted over by the other door, the one that led into the ballroom, clutching a small green handbag in her right hand and fidgeting nervously, and then she looked at him and James's heart stopped.

She wasn't mad at all, which was the last thing he'd expected. Instead, she looked absolutely, positively, and utterly terrified. (And also extremely beautiful.) She crossed the distance between them in a few short seconds and threw her arms around him, giving him a very tight hug.

"You prat," she whispered into his ear. "I thought you were going to leave me here all alone. I didn't have a clue what I was doing."

"Sorry," James whispered back, squeezing her tightly, and then pulling away, leading her toward the door again. He took her hand. "It'll be fine, Lily, don't worry."

She nodded at him, but her eyes were large and she was biting her lip apprehensively, staring very fixedly at the door, which James propped open, and he saw Lily's face go white as she stared out into the expanse of the ballroom.

"I can't do this," she squeaked, and turned around, trying to escape.

"Whoa!" James said, grabbing her around the waist. "Calm down, Lily, it's just a party, and no one's even here yet!"

"Oh, you liar!" Lily cried, still struggling to get away.

"Lily, look at me," James said, trying to calm her down, but she shook her head frantically and refused to look him in the eyes.

"There are people out there," she informed him. "On the balconies. I know it. I saw them. And there's people in here too, and I'm just going to make a fool out of myself, and trip on the stairs, and I can't do it!"

"Lily," James said, softly but harshly, feeling slightly exasperated. "Look at me."

Lily shook her head again, but she had at least stopped struggling.

"Look. At. Me," James ordered, and she gulped and reluctantly looked into his eyes. "You're making more of a fool out of yourself right now than you will walking down those stairs. You're not going to fall. If you do, I'll catch you. If you don't, I'll throw myself down after you and we'll both look like idiots. You're going to be fine, okay?"

Lily shook her head at him again, and he glared at her. "Don't shake your head at me!" he commanded. "Listen to me. You. Are. Going. To. Be. Fine. Nod your head at me."

Lily swallowed again, and reluctantly nodded at him.

"Good. Now, we have to go," James said as he heard their names being announced. "But we'll take those steps as slowly as you want, and you can squeeze my arm until it falls off, okay? Let's go."

Lily turned reluctantly around and snaked her left arm through his right, clinging onto it almost painfully. He led her to the top of the stairs and they began the long descent to the ballroom. James wanted to just take Lily and shake her for being such a ninny! What in the world was _wrong_ with her? She acted as if she didn't flit up and down these stairs a hundred times a day! Honestly! She'd probably gone down these stairs more in the past week than James had for the past six months!

But there was nothing to say for that now, because Lily's hand was shaking, ridiculously, in the crook of James's arm, and she was acting as though walking down these steps was more nerve-wracking than—than—than having Dumbledore catch you out of bed after hours after having just pulled a highly illegal prank on Snape, for heaven's sake! The corners of James's mouth twitched at the memory, and it was all he could do not to burst out laughing. However, he kept his composure and concentrated on the ridiculous nitwit of a girl next to him, who was finally calming down as they reached the last step. She did slip a little, as they both stepped to the bottom, and her face turned a brilliant shade of red, almost as red as James's robes, but by then three other people had already been introduced and no one was paying attention to her.

"It's okay," James whispered as they walked over to James's parents. "No one noticed, you did fine."

Lily nodded, but her head inclined toward the floor slightly as Mrs. Potter greeted them with a warm smile.

"Good job, James," she said, and then to Lily, "You look beautiful, dear."

James smiled in agreement, but he didn't think Lily saw it; she was now curtsying to James's father—where in the world had she learned to curtsy?—and James was vaguely missing the feel of Lily's hand on his arm. He nodded at his father and then took a place beside his father. Lily snaked her arm into his again, and he smiled slightly, and then turned his attentions to the next guest arriving.

* * *

This was extremely nerve-wracking. Lily had been looking forward to the ball all week, but now that it was happening, she felt very stupid—and the introductions weren't even halfway through yet! She smiled and nodded dumbly at all the guests James was so amiably greeting, and tried to feel graceful instead of extremely awkward in her too-tall heels and slightly-too-tight dress. At least James was still a good head taller than her; that was comforting, at least, and he didn't seem to mind her linking her arm through his, so she just kept it there, for comfort.

Sirius came down about halfway through the introductions. He came right behind his parents, and unaccompanied, and Lily was very glad that she'd had James to accompany her down the staircase, even if she did have to stand here and greet everyone. Sirius gave her the nicest greeting so far that night, aside, perhaps, from Mrs. Potter's.

"Don't be nervous," he told her, as he passed. "You look lovely."

Lily smiled at him, genuinely, and then she glanced at James, feeling an immediate pang in her stomach. He was smiling at the next guests—the Floyds, or whoever—and didn't seem to have noticed how Lily looked tonight at all. He hadn't made one nice comment about her outfit so far, and she suddenly felt very stupid and ugly, despite Sirius's comment. So what if Sirius noticed? James's was obviously blinded to her, no matter what he had told her a week ago. If he couldn't even think to make one lousy comment—

"The respectable Hans Cauldwell, and Miss Melody Cauldwell of..."

But Lily didn't quite catch the rest; it wasn't important! She grinned openly as she saw her best friend being accompanied down the stairs by a rather large man in very elegant black robes. Melody herself was wearing robes of deep blue, and she looked even more gorgeous than usual. Unlike Lily, Melody looked extremely comfortable in her surroundings, and glided down the stairs next to her uncle with the grace of a cat. Lily almost couldn't believe the change in the behavior of her normally loud, rude, obnoxious, and rather odd friend. She looked rather...demure as she curtsied to Mr. Potter, and then to James, which James nearly laughed at, but as she nodded respectfully at Lily she grinned broadly, and Lily was rather relieved to see that Melody still had a mischievous look in her eyes, underneath all those good manners. Lily grinned back.

"You look awesome," she informed Melody, and Melody raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow at her.

"I think perhaps you look a bit more," she said, and then followed her uncle off, giving Lily a suggestive eyebrow wiggle in James's direction as she did so.

Lily blushed fiercely, and turned back to the long stream of guests yet to be greeted.

* * *

Remus Lupin wasn't particularly fond of parties. However, any party was all right when you were off in a corner with your best friends, thinking up evil things to do to the mince pies. Peter, James, and Sirius had hid themselves at a table in a remote corner of the ballroom, and had been alternating between poring over a very special piece of parchment, which Peter hadn't seen since Christmas holidays had begun, and thinking of ways to disrupt the banquet table.

Melody was off somewhere instructing Lily on how to mingle, and occasionally finding both girls dance partners, and Remus could sometimes see the girls dancing on by; he wasn't looking for them, really, but whenever they did James and Sirius stopped talking and began drooling, so it was rather hard to miss.

All four of the Marauders knew it was rather rude, and ungentlemanly like (although it was rather a joke to consider any of the four of them a gentleman) to have boxed themselves off in a corner, but they hadn't been properly united for nearly two weeks, and knew it was only a matter of time before Mrs. Potter came over and calmly (although probably rather hostilely, as well) told them to get off their arses and dance a bit. Remus wasn't disappointed; after another five minutes of poring over the Very Special Parchment, he saw Mrs. Potter coming over in their direction with a calm, dangerous smile on her face.

"Boys," she said, as sweetly as she could manage. "I think you've been sitting here quite long enough, and I think there are some girls at this party who would like to dance with you."

James hastily grabbed the parchment off the table and shoved it in his robes somewhere, standing. "Of course, mum," he said, nodding at her. "So sorry."

Mrs. Potter raised an eyebrow at her son, which translated basically into "yeah, right" and walked away. The rest of the Marauders sighed and stood up, and followed James into the ballroom, into the hustle and bustle of the main party.

* * *

Well, okay, this was slightly more fun than staying home and writing owls to her best friend, Claire—but only slightly. Especially after the adjustments she had made to her dress. It now no longer had poofy sleeves or a bow, and she'd swapped the little blue hand gloves for longer, more elegant ones. She was still wearing a stupid dress, but now at least she looked sixteen instead of twelve.

Eve Regine Decker was swapping jokes with Melody Cauldwell and Lily Evans, both of whom had absolutely horrible senses of humor. They both loved horrible puns, which Eve was full of—her dad loved jokes, all kinds, and he had a joke magazine delivered to him by owl post every day.

"Okay, okay, I have one!" Lily announced. "It's my favorite: Why did Mozart kill his chickens?"

"Why?" Eve asked, dreading the response as a pleased grin grew across Melody's face. Melody joined Lily in the last part of the joke.

"Because they kept saying 'Bach, Bach, Bach'!" the girls cried, and then dissolved into a fit of giggles. Eve rolled her eyes at them, and then racked her brain for another joke.

"Okay, I have another one," Eve said, and both girls composed themselves and looked at her expectantly. "So, a guy walks into a bar with a newt on his shoulder, and he tells the bartender his name is Tiny. And the bartender asks, 'Why do you call him Tiny'? And the guy answers, 'Because he's my newt'!"

Lily burst into giggles, and Melody joined her shortly, smiling appreciatively. "Oh that's great!" Lily cried, clapping her hands together, and then all the girls jumped and spun around as they heard a groan behind them.

"That was horrible," said a boy with messy black hair, who was accompanied by three other boys, all of whom looked to be about Eve's age. They were all fairly nice-looking, especially the one to Messy Hair's right, who had black hair as well and an extremely attractive smile. However, he wasn't the one who caught Eve's attention. There was a slighter, smaller, shyer looking boy, who stood to Messy Hair's left, and had brown hair, and nice features, and whom Eve liked immediately without knowing why.

"Oh, honestly, James, you don't have a sense of humor!" Lily accused, looking rather more agitated than necessary. Messy Hair—who was apparently named James—frowned at Lily, and seemed about as perplexed at Lily's slightly hostile attitude as Eve.

"Forgive both of them," Melody said, stepping in. "They're having a lover's quarrel, or...something," she explained to Eve, ignoring the indignant shrieks of protests from both Lily and James. "Anyway, you kind of already know James—Potter, that is—but this is Sirius Black," Melody said, indicating the extremely attractive one. "This is Remus Lupin," she continued, motioning to the brown-haired boy Eve had noticed earlier, whom Eve smiled at now. "And this right here," Melody finished, "is Peter Pettigrew. All of you, this is Eve Decker. She's from America."

The boys all mumbled their hellos, all except James, who was ignoring everyone but Lily.

* * *

"What's wrong?" James demanded, looking very confused.

"Nothing!" Lily replied, refusing to meet his gaze. "Nothing at all, but you're being very rude to Eve, and--"

"Oh, sure, Lily, that's what all this is about," James said sarcastically, and shook his head at her, but he turned to Eve anyway. "Very nice to meet you," he said curtly, nodding at her. "Would you all excuse us, please?" he asked, and then steered Lily away from her friends.

"Now what's wrong?" James asked, tilting her face toward his and probing her eyes for an answer.

She shook her head. "It's nothing," she lied. "I'm fine."

"Lily, if you were fine, you wouldn't be acting like you were about to cry."

"I'm not going to cry," Lily insisted, her voice cracking slightly. She was such a bad liar.

But honestly...she'd gotten all excited about this, all excited about wearing this dress, about fixing her hair, and having Mrs. Potter help her with her make-up...she'd walked down to the ballroom tonight feeling gorgeous, like a princess, expecting James's jaw to drop, or for him to stare at her like she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, or at least stumble over his words trying to tell her she was pretty, not just...ignore the fact that she'd gotten all dressed up. Sure, it didn't have to be perfect, it didn't have to be like in a fairy tale, she supposed, or like in a book, but...shouldn't he have said _something_ to her by now? Didn't he even _care_?

It didn't matter if Mrs. Potter said she looked great, or if Sirius thought she was lovely, or even that Melody had told her how nice she looked—James hadn't said a word, he hadn't given a damn, and he—he—

"Lily," James said softly. "Please tell me what is going on."

She glared up at him, her eyes filling with tears. "If you don't know…" she said, shaking her head at him. "If you can't realize what an idiot you've been, what a complete and total _git_ you are, then I am not about to—"

"Whoa, hold on a second! Lily, I told you I was sorry about being almost late, didn't I? And I am, too, I'm really sorry, I—"

"No!" Lily cried. "It's not about that at _all_! James, I—" she cut herself off and stared at the ground. "You haven't even looked at me, all night," she said miserably. "I—you—you haven't said one word about my dress, or, my hair, or...anything. And last week you told me that you cared about me, and I thought that at least you'd notice I'd tried to look nice, and—" she cut herself off and swallowed, then looked up at him again. "I—" But she couldn't finish. The look on James's face was too much. He looked dumbfounded.

"Lily, you're insane," he croaked, grabbing her arms and staring at her. "Do you not realize that you're the most beautiful girl in this entire room?"

Lily swallowed again, and narrowed her eyes at him, confused. "But—" she protested. "I can't be. I mean, I'm _not_, and—"

"You _are_ insane, Lily. Almost all I've done all night is think how beautiful you are, and...I didn't tell you once, did I?"

Lily shrugged and stared at the floor. "I guess it doesn't matter, I mean—"

"Oh, for heaven's sakes, Lily, don't be a twit. Obviously it matters to you, and…" he grabbed her arms again, impulsively. "I was speechless when I saw you," he admitted. "You're...you're..."

Lily lifted her eyes to his, and bit her lip. "Pretty?" she ventured.

"You're stunning," James said, giving her a lopsided grin, and Lily suddenly felt warm from her head to her toes.

* * *

It was five minutes to midnight. Lily and James had been dancing around together, grinning like idiots, since at least eleven, and Sirius was running out of time. He'd promised himself he'd ask Melody to dance, promised himself he'd talk to her, promised himself he'd do something to control the crazy feelings he had every time he saw her. Peter and Remus were giving him a pep talk, encouraging him to go over to the banquet table where she was standing, holding a glass of champagne and making small talk with one of the McNabb brothers, which Sirius did not like the sight of at all.

"Come on, just go over and ask her to dance," Peter chided.

"Yeah, go on, Sirius, have a go at it," Remus insisted. "And if she says no, at least you'll know what hitting rock-bottom feels like." He whacked Sirius encouragingly on the back and smiled. Sirius gulped, and Peter glared at Remus.

"You are _not_ helping him, Moony."

"Sure I am! Look at him, he's ready to go!"

"He looks kind of sick to me..." Peter said doubtfully.

"Nonsense!" Remus cried, knowing full well that it was the truth, but Sirius had been shoving Remus at girls practically since the first time they'd met, so he didn't feel guilty about it. "Off you go then, Padfoot! Be brave, stand tall, and don't fear incapacitating flesh wounds!"

Sirius stared back at Moony with an extremely odd look on his face, and then sighed, screwed up his courage, and walked over to Melody. She was laughing at something the McNabb boy had just said, and Sirius felt a very strong urge to punch him in the gut and tell him to stay away from her (if he knew what was good for him). Sirius took a moment to reflect on the fact that perhaps he'd seen too many Muggle movies last summer, with the aid of his flying motorcycle, and then shoved the thought away, because Melody had turned to him, and was introducing him to the McNabb boy. Sirius nodded briefly at him, and then looked at Melody again, and she raised her eyebrows expectantly at him.

"Would—" he began, stumbling rather dumbly over his words. "Would you like to dance?"

Was it just Sirius's imagination, or did Melody's whole face light up? It was probably just his imagination...in fact, he was probably getting horribly dizzy and his vision was just blurry...he'd probably pass out any second….

"Of course," Melody replied, and then excused herself from her conversation with McNabb and allowed Sirius to lead her to the dance floor. The orchestra was playing a waltz; that was simple enough, and one of the few dances Sirius could carry off without looking like a total idiot. He wasn't really a bad dancer, but he'd never bothered to learn most of the dances people did at these sort of functions, so sometimes he came off as looking rather stupid on the dance floor.

"I didn't know you knew how to dance," Melody said, as he led her around the dance floor.

"I could say the same about you," Sirius replied, and Melody smiled at him.

"I bet you didn't know I knew how to curtsy, either, did you?"

"No, that one caught me by surprise," Sirius agreed. "I didn't know you'd turned into such a…well, when you came back from Venezuela, you were spouting Spanish and still turning your hair blue. This is...different."

Melody blushed and looked away, shaking her head, which cause her sparkly silver earrings to jingle. "I knew you'd think I was silly," she said, looking uncomfortable.

"Silly?" Sirius echoed in disbelief. "Melody, this is the least silly you've ever been."

Melody looked up at him, half-smiling, half-glaring. "Oh, you know what I mean."

Sirius smiled at her, and—was it just his imagination, or did she blush again? Very uncharacteristic behavior...but oh well, she still looked beautiful.

"How are your midnight studies going?" Sirius asked, changing the subject abruptly.

"Astronomy? Well, it—ow!"

Sirius squeezed her hand rather harshly, and she glared up at him before truly answering his question.

"I think I'm about ready for some new spells," she said, "and I'll need to practice my blocks on someone in a week or two."

"I'm always here if you need me," Sirius reminded her.

"I know," Melody said, "but James is a better dueler, so...I think I'll ask him to help me this time."

_Ouch_.

But Sirius didn't have time to think on it, because just then the waltz ended, and he and Melody stopped dancing. They both clapped politely for the orchestra, and then turned their attentions to the Grand Staircase as Mrs. Potter began speaking from the top of it.

"It's one minute to midnight!" she announced, and a cheer went up from the crowd of witches and wizards below her. "I hope you all have your wands at the ready!"

Sirius pulled his own out of his robes, and saw Melody next to him, do the same. He had his spell in mind, but he didn't quite plan on letting Melody do hers. He had something much better in mind...

"I want to thank you all for coming," Mrs. Potter was saying, "and may the feast and the festival go on well after the new year has been chimed!" She stopped a moment and looked at her watch. "Here we go! Ten...nine..." she began, and the rest of the crowd joined her in the countdown.

"Eight..." Sirius said, hoping he wasn't going to make a complete ass out of himself. "Seven...six...five..."

His stomach was twisting all over the place, up down, sideways, backwards, forwards—hell, his stomach was _investing_ ways to twist, and looking at Melody's sparkling blue eyes was _not_ helping his situation.

"Four...three..."

He moved just a little closer to Melody, swallowing nervously.

"Two..."

Sirius gripped his wand nervously, and the incantation for his spell flew out of his mind. Ah, well, he didn't really need it anyway.

"One..."

And as everyone else yelled out their spells, as wands went up into the air, as magical fireworks burst and clocks chimed and the thrill of the New Year erupted around them, Melody Cauldwell and Sirius Black both dropped their wands and grabbed for each other, giving each other the oddest, most wonderful, unexpected-yet-completely-planned, fiercest kiss either of them had ever had.

Sirius was shocked and pleased, and...a whole bunch of things there weren't words for. He kissed Melody more times than he could count, and slowly, and for as long as he could possibly manage. Then the orchestra started up again, and he was brought abruptly back down to earth, and he pulled away from Melody reluctantly, his arms wrapped securely around her waist.

"Happy New Year," Melody whispered, giving him the lightest of kisses before stooping to pick up her wand and walking abruptly away.


	10. The Gamekeeper's Hut

A/N: Ha ha, hee hee, ho ho, hoo hoo!!!! I UPDATED!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!! I'm excited! Can you tell I'm excited? Oh, I'm excited. I promised myself I would update before summer ended, and here I am! Here it is, FINALLY! Chapter Ten!!!

Just a few notes before we begin:

I apologize if the end of the chapter sucks. I did my best.

There are quite a few Quidditch games in this chapter. Two of them happen to take place during the wintertime. I am full aware that Quidditch games do not actually take place during January and February, but you know what? I just don't care. That is the way it is in my universe, so just deal with it.

Also, I realize this chapter ends in a very evil place, and that it does not actually end at the end of Sixth Year, but…deal with it. This is how I decided to write it; if you don't like it, go find another fic, don't whine to me. I like it how it is. It just _feels_ right. (Also, it feels like one o'clock in the morning and I want to go to bed. So….there.)

Thank-you section is at the end of the chapter.

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to several people. First, this chapter is dedicated to Harmony Slytherin for cackling evilly about my evil plot points and helping me to sort out the chapter. Second, this chapter is dedicated to Anar, who has put up with my griping about my entire life ALL summer and is still in contact with me…and who is a true and loyal of fan of "Eyes…" and reviews at least once for each chapter, if not twice. And, last but most certainly not least, this chapter is dedicated to Star*dust, who listened to me gripe and whine about this chapter, and looked over parts of it for me, and answered questions for me, and was online today almost as late as I was listening to me as I finished the chapter, which I appreciated.

Okay, that's all, now READ!

Chapter Ten

The Gamekeeper's Hut

It wasn't Lily's fault. It really wasn't. She hadn't _meant_ to get into a fight with James, but if he insisted on acting immature, then Lily insisted on yelling at him for it. And it didn't help that the Flaming Tulips they'd been taking care of in greenhouse four had caught her hair on fire, and she was now looking rather...singed. No, that certainly hadn't helped. But James had been looking altogether too perky, and Lily had been altogether too disgruntled, and sneaking up behind Lily with a Filibuster's Wet-Start, No-Heat Firework and setting it off had NOT been a wise decision on James's part. 

So it wasn't Lily's fault that half the students in sixth year had witnessed her yelling at him on the front steps, and telling him that she had absolutely no patience for useless fireworks or useless boys who insisted on setting them off right above her head, and that she would be _very_ happy to turn him into Mr. Filch for detention. Lily had chosen to close this _wonderful_ conversation with the sentiment that she would very much like to see James go off into the Forbidden Forest, get lost, and never come back again. 

Lily really wasn't having a very good start to the term.

*              *              *

"What are Lily and James arguing about NOW?" Sirius Black asked, elbowing through the large crowd in the Front Hall in an effort to catch up with Melody Cauldwell.

"Who knows?" Melody said over her shoulder, shrugging. She was easily five steps ahead of Sirius, gliding through the crowd as though it were made of water.

"Well, YOU'RE Lily's best friend. I thought you'd have at least SOME ide--" Sirius cut off as he was sideswiped by a group of first years, most of whom only came up to his waist.

"Sirius, stop playing with the children," Melody said, exasperated, looking up from her bag, in which she had been looking for a mirror. Sirius stumbled over to her, looking winded. "_That_ was dignified," Melody said amusedly, taking a quick glance around before Summoning a mirror from the depths of her bag. 

"You know, technically I should take points from our house for that," Sirius said, frowning.

"Technically I should be taking points from myself," Melody replied, fluffing her hair and perfecting her make-up. "But oh well." She shrugged and clicked the compact closed, dropping it into her bag.

"Since when did you become so concerned with make-up?" Sirius demanded as they began their ascent to Gryffindor Tower.

"Are you suggesting that there was a time when I WASN'T obsessed with my appearance?"

"Yes," Sirius said, immediately. Melody looked up at him, surprised, and he shook his head at the generous amounts of eye make-up she'd layered on. "Last year," he said. "Last year you never wore make-up. You even ate those magical suckers that turned your hair blue. You haven't had one of those for months."

Melody tore her gaze away from Sirius and stared at the floor as they reached the top of the stairs. She could feel him staring at her, and felt that if she were to meet his eyes, he would find all the flaws in her carefully woven web of lies, insincere smiles, caked-on beauty, and feigned weakness, that connected to the truth in very few places and had taken her six months of laboring to create. In six months, Melody had painstakingly transformed herself into the kind of twittering idiot she'd always hated, looked down upon, and feared becoming. And now that she'd become one, she...in a weird, twisted, sick sort of way...she liked it.

She didn't have to WORRY anymore, she didn't have to TRY so hard...hell, she didn't even really have to THINK.....Well, okay, she did have to THINK, but...it was a different KIND of thinking. It was shallow and flirty, sly and cunning in a greedy sort of way. 

It was a race, sort of, between all the girls there, to land the richest husband, the smartest, the most formidable, the handsomest, the most powerful (both magically and in the Ministry). Unfortunately for most of the twittering idiots at the parties, however, the Minister of Magic's son was nowhere to be found. Melody had occasionally wondered why James never came to "high society" functions, but then figured the Minister was probably too busy to come with his family, and that Mrs. Potter didn't want to go without him.  It wasn't as though they weren't INVITED...

But back to the matter at hand...how was it Sirius always managed to see right through her? It wasn't FAIR! She'd managed to fool everyone else...except Luc. But she didn't want to think about Luc--she still felt humiliated. She was just glad her uncle had managed to cover up the scandal, and had offered to take her to America for the summer. 

"Look, Sirius...people change. They grow up. It happens. Just...get over it." Melody picked up her pace and Sirius hurried after her. She could feel him staring at her. It was rather unnerving, actually. She stopped and whirled to face him, opening her mouth to demand that he stop staring at her, but instead shrank under his gaze, closed her mouth, and leaned rather meekly against the wall. 

Sirius glared at her, hard, and evaluated her for a moment. "Bull. Shit," he said, angrily. "This isn't just you 'growing up'. This is you completely changing who you are just so you'll fit in better at those ridiculous 'society functions', and it's disgusting."

Melody stared at the ground as huge pink spots blossomed in her cheeks. 

"Melody, don't do this to yourself," Sirius said, softly. "There's enough confusion inside you as it is, with your drive for revenge pulling you one way and your drive to seem perfectly normal pulling you the other....you don't need to create a fake you to escape from all of it."

Melody narrowed her eyes. Was he right? Was that what she was doing? Oh, what did it matter! What did Sirius know about her life, anyway? What right did HE have to tell her what to do or not do? He didn't have to live her life...his was practically handed to him on a silver platter, damn it, and she wasn't, for one second, going to let him make her feel guilty for trying to get a little bit ahead in the world using the only thing she really had---beauty. She glared up at him, and straightened her shoulders.

"What do you know about it, Sirius?" she asked nastily. "It's my business what I do, not yours, and you just need to keep your nose out of it!"

Melody shoved him aside angrily and stalked down the hallway alone, unsuccessfully trying to suppress the lump rising in her throat and the tears burning behind her eyes. "Oh, damn it all to hell!" she cursed herself, and ducked into the nearest bathroom to dry her eyes.

*              *              *

"Stupid!" Lily cried, tossing the pillow she'd been holding to the floor, angrily. She was pacing around the girls' dormitory, feeling quite angry and humiliated and stupid and rather unnecessarily upset about what had happened between her and James. "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid! James is STUPID!"

Amelia Atkins, who had just been about to step into the dormitory to grab a book, froze, looked at Lily, thought for a moment, and then turned around and left the room, shutting the door securely behind her.

"ARGH!" Lily yelled in frustration. She stormed over to the window seat and sat down in a huff, crossing her arms and staring out the window moodily. Oh, damn those teenage hormones! Honestly, she was sixteen, she didn't have to overreact like this all the time! 

She focused on a person walking across the Hogwarts grounds, not so much because she was interested in who they were or what they were doing, but because she was angry and needed something to focus on. The person walked around in a large circle, and then toward the greenhouses, and then doubled back, and then walked in a circle again, and then picked up several snowballs and threw them in the general direction of the school, and then walked in a large circle for several minutes, kicking up snow quite furiously, and then he turned and began walking, decisively, toward the edge of school grounds. It took Lily a moment to realize that she'd identified the person as a "he", or, who, in fact, that he was. It was James, Lily realized, suddenly, and he…

Oh, God damn that stupid, idiotic prat—he was headed right for the Forbidden Forest!

At first Lily was just angrier. Oh, just let him go in there and die, what did she care if…if he died? She froze for a moment, thinking. The Forbidden Forest…it was dangerous, and full of…deadly creatures, and all kinds of horrible things, and James…James was heading straight toward it! Straight toward impending death and danger!

Oh, hell, now Lily sounded like a ditzy heroine in a romance novel. Seriously, it was the hormones talking.

But ridiculous hormones or not, it would be Lily's fault if James got hurt…if he went into the Forbidden Forest and never came back…if he…he…

"James, you idiot!" she yelled. Those thoughts alone were enough to propel her out of the window seat, through the entrance to the Ravenclaw Common Room, and all the way downstairs, out the front doors, and halfway across the front lawn. Lily's heart beat faster and faster as she propelled herself across the grounds, kicking up snow and ignoring both the bitter cold and the fact that she'd stupidly forgotten her cloak. She could see James up ahead, still stalking angrily toward the Forbidden Forest.

"JAMES!" Lily cried, once she was within hearing distance. James glanced over his shoulder, glared at her, and then continued stubbornly toward the forest. "JAMES, YOU IDIOT!" she yelled, gaining on him. He didn't acknowledge the insult. "JAMES, _STOP_!" Lily cried, finally catching up to him. She slowed down, panting, and caught his arm, trying to tug him to a halt, but it didn't work. He pulled his arm out of her grasp and continued walking.

"Oh, come on, James, I wasn't serious!" Lily insisted, trying to get him to look her in the eye. She skipped in front of him and turned around, walking backwards so she could face him. "Please stop, James," she begged. "I don't want you to go off and get hurt or—or—or worse, just because we had some stupid fight, and…will you please look at me?" Lily asked, pained.

James refused to look at her, and Lily felt her heart sinking as they got closer and closer to the Forbidden Forest. "James," Lily began, but she didn't finish her sentence, because just then she tripped over a tree root buried in the snow and shrieked as she began falling over backwards.

James caught her, instinctively, and kept both arms wrapped securely around Lily's waist as she steadied herself. Lily looked up at him and he finally met her gaze, lowering his arms to his sides again.

"James, I—" Lily began again.

"Shut up, Lily," James said, shaking his head and smiling at her. Lily narrowed her eyes.

"Why are you so happy?"

"Because. My girlfriend is an idiot."

"I am NOT your girlfriend."

"Oh. I thought you were going to say you weren't an idiot. But as least as long as you're not denying the obvious, it's okay then."

"I'm not an idiot, either!"

"Sure you are," James said, still smiling. "You're not wearing a cloak."

"I—" Lily considered this for a moment. "Yeah…well…so?" she retorted. James laughed. "At least I didn't decide to go into the Forbidden Forest!"

"Hey, _you_ told me to go there!"

"I did not! I said I'd like to see you go there and never come back again, but that is NOT the same thing."

James snorted derisively. "Sure it isn't, Lily."

"No, it's not! I'm glad you agree."

"You know what, Lily, I think you LIKE arguing."

"I do n—" Lily paused for a moment. "Well…" she shrugged, and then shivered. "I'm sorry," she said, after a moment. "I didn't mean it. You know that, right?"

James looked down at her for a minute, and then gave her a lopsided grin. "Yeah, I know. Just wanted to see if you'd notice if I tried to go."

"James!" Lily punched him lightly on the shoulder and frowned at him for a second. "Give me a hug," Lily said softly, wrapping her arms around his neck. James complied easily, wrapping his arms around her waist again and giving her a good tight squeeze. Lily leaned back and looked at James for a minute, stroking his cheek with her thumb almost absently. And then she did something very uncharacteristic.

She kissed him.

*              *              *

Lily really was a very good kisser. James often overlooked this in light of the fact that she rarely kissed him; he was always the one kissing her, and…well, that wasn't really important, was it? Because Lily really was very warm and her lips were very soft and nice, and kissing her kept him a bit warmer than usual. He slipped his arms around her waist, and pulled her closer to him, and—realized she was shivering.

"Lily," he said, pulling away.

"Oh, don't do that, James, it's so cold!" Lily cried, wrapping her arms around his torso and pressing herself against him, still shivering.

"You really are very stupid sometimes, you know that?" James said, shaking his head. "Here, take my cloak."

Lily shook her head. "Uh-uh. That means I'd have to move. I'm too cold to move."

James tipped her chin up with his finger and kissed her fiercely, just enough so that it shocked her for a second and she loosened her grip around his waist. He whipped off his cloak before she could object and placed it around her shoulders. Lily didn't argue, but instead wrapped the cloak tightly around her and gave him a kiss on the cheek. James responded with another, full-on kiss, which actually rendered him rather senseless for a few moments, and as a result he didn't hear the voice yelling at him until Lily had broken the kiss.

"James," she whispered, looking over his shoulder, her eyes very wide. James turned around to see the large form of Hagrid, the gamekeeper, standing in the snow in front of his hut, looking rather annoyed.

"OY! What're you two doin' out here? Are you out of yer bloomin' minds?"

"Um...perhaps?" replied James, smiling devilishly. Hagrid, to Lily's surprise, rolled his eyes.

"I shoulda' known it'd be you, James.... You must be Lily," he said, nodding to the girl in James's arms. She blinked and nodded, looking rather startled. "James talks about yeh all the time!" Hagrid said, smiling. James sincerely hoped his ears were already too red from the wind for Lily to notice how warm (and presumably, in normal circumstances, pink) they were becoming.

"Well, you lot look like yeh're gonna freeze ter death! Here, come in, have a spot o' tea before yeh get back up to school," Hagrid offered, motioning them toward his cabin.

"Er...come on then," James said, releasing his hold on Lily but tugging on her hand, and Lily, looking rather unsure, nodded. They delved through the snow together toward the hut, hands entwined, and welcomed the pleasant warmth of its interior as they stepped inside.

"_Back_, Fang!" Hagrid said, and James could see him trying to restrain his pet, a rather young (but still extremely large) boarhound, who looked rather excited at the prospect of visitors.

"Ooh, puppy!" Lily said, letting go James's hand and dropping to her knees to pet Fang. James blinked and looked at her as though she were rather insane. Hagrid beamed intensely.

"Yeh--yeh like Fang, then? I was afraid some of the students wouldn' take ter me havin' such a large pet--"

"Oh, no, he's _wonderful_," Lily assured him, scratching behind Fang's ears. James shook his head, incredulous, and plopped down in Hagrid's large chair, situated near the fireplace, where a cheery fire was crackling in the grate. That girl never ceased to be bipolar.

"Well, I'll just make that tea then--" Hagrid said, humming as he fixed up a pot. Lily was now attempting to teach Fang to sit, shake, and roll over. James shook his head at her again, still looking amazed.

"Sometimes I just don't understand you," he muttered.

Lily looked over her shoulder at him and frowned. "What? I like dogs! _What_? Would you not look at me like that _please_?"

"All righ' you two, that's enough," Hagrid intervened, setting down several cups of tea and a plate of what looked like treacle fudge on the small table placed in between the chair in which James sat and the sofa situated on the other side of the room. After patting Fang's head enthusiastically, Lily bounded over to the couch and sat down, seizing a cup of tea, and looking more enthusiastic than James could ever remember seeing her. Fang followed her, wagging his tail eagerly and sitting down next to her, setting his head in her lap and drooling emphatically all over her robes.

"So how come yeh never brought Lily ter see me before, James?" Hagrid asked, sitting down next to Lily on the couch and having his own cup of tea. James felt rather panicked, but Lily shrugged and set down her cup of tea.

"Well, he wasn't really in a position to introduce me before, now was he? I mean, he didn't really get to know me until some time last year," she informed Hagrid, seizing a bit of fudge, "so he didn't really have the chance."

"Well, I certainly remember when he started talkin' about you," Hagrid said, chuckling, as Lily picked up her teacup again, "an' after you poured the pumpkin juice on 'is 'ead he couldn' _stop_ talkin' about you fer a week, an' then--" Hagrid cut off, noticing James's horrified expression.

Lily was staring at James, eyes very wide over her cup of tea, which was frozen in mid-sip. "Is that right?" she asked, setting down the tea and looking extremely interested in hearing the rest of Hagrid's anecdote. "Please continue."

"Er—care for a bit of fudge, James?" Hagrid asked abruptly, looking rather flustered. James accepted happily, shoving a rather large bit of the fudge in his mouth, an action which he immediately regretted, as now his jaws were firmly clamped together and he was having a bit of trouble chewing.

"Oh, no, don't change the subject, the one we were on was _fascinating_," Lily said, looking at Hagrid expectantly.

"Um…yeh care for a bit more tea there, Lily?"

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes, taking another sip of her tea. "No, I'm fine, thank you," she said, sounding rather disappointed. James, through his mouthful of fudge, managed to heave a sigh of relief. Lily glared at him as she drained the rest of her teacup. James glanced nervously at his watch.

"Er—I ffink we shoufff goff back to shkool, Wiwy," he said, talking through the fudge and managing to swallow a bit of it. Lily, glancing at her own watch, nodded.

"Well, thank you for the tea," she said, standing and nodding at Hagrid.

"Oh, it's nothin'," Hagrid assured her. "An' yeh can come by an' see me an' Fang anytime, if yeh'd like."

Lily smiled. "Yes, I would," she said, as James rose and finished eating his fudge. They said good-bye and left the cabin. As they began the walk back up to the school, Lily turned to James with a raised eyebrow.

"Been talking about me, James?"

James's face colored a bit, and he shrugged, running a hand through his hair, purposely making it stick up so it looked rather windswept. "Well, there's only so much to say about Quidditch, you know."

Lily laughed. "I find that hard to believe, coming from you. And quit doing that to your hair, it looks stupid."

James frowned, flattening his hair again. That girl…honestly…

*              *              *

Lily sat in the library, hunched over a foot-long roll of parchment, scribbling away madly at her Potions essay ("The Uses of Gillyweed in Potion-making"), surrounded by several large piles of books, three already-finished essays (one of them still glistening with wet ink), several quills, two inkwells, and a small pile of bite-sized Honeydukes chocolate, hidden under several crumpled rolls of parchment, in case Madam Pince swooped by to make sure Lily wasn't defacing any of her precious books. 

Quite honestly, Lily was rather enjoying herself--for some reason, she had an odd desire to study. She supposed it had something to do with last year's O.W.L.S. (and the corresponding homework), which had been so brutal that now she was extremely used to studying and essay-writing, and actually felt rather incomplete if she didn't spend several hours a night on homework. The result (taking into consideration the fact that Lily really _didn't_ have several hours' worth of homework every night) was that her essays and research for the essays was more thorough than ever, and her writing was getting tinier, too, so that she was able to fit more information in a smaller space. Her notes were more extensive and complex than ever, and her study habits as finely tuned as Lily expected they'd ever be, and after scoring a hundred and five percent on one of her Charms tests, Lily began to feel that Melody might rather have a point when she said that Lily was going to be Head Girl.

Humming softly, Lily popped a chocolate in her mouth and flipped through several pages in her Potions book to check some facts she'd put in her essay. After assuring herself the facts were right, she scribbled down several things she remembered reading in _Properties of Perfect Potions_ about mandrake root's reaction with gillyweed, and then sat back to survey her essay. It was already an inch over the required length--all she really needed was a closing paragraph, but she was itching to add several paragraphs about the full moon's effect on most plant life and why it didn't affect gillyweed in the slightest.

Lily glanced at her watch. Wendy and Lin wouldn't be there for another twenty minutes, but Lily still wanted to go back over her Arithmancy essay and add some things to it...maybe if she hurried.... 

Lily bent over her parchment, scribbling madly, stopping only to dip her quill in ink, and ignoring the slight cramp beginning to form in her hand. She finished the essay and shoved it aside hurriedly, seizing her Arithmancy essay and adding feverishly to that.

"Good gad, woman, it's the middle of January! Exams aren't for another six months! Snap out of it!"

Lily frowned and looked up from her essay, annoyed, to see Sirius Black standing over her. She rolled her eyes and returned to the paper, ignoring him.

"No, I'm serious!" Sirius said, and Lily rolled her eyes again, not lifting her quill from the parchment. "You need to get out more--experience some fresh air--drop a Dungbomb or two--"

"Sirius," Lily said, but he ignored her.

"--knock over a suit of armor, terrorize some first years--"

"Sirius."

"--fall asleep in class--"

"Sirius."

"--get a detention or two--"

"Sirius!"

"--randomly lock doors as you walk down the corridors--"

"Sirius!"

"--sneak to Hogsmeade and buy a few butterbeers--"

"SIRIUS!"

"--what?" 

Lily sighed and looked up at him, exasperated. "I am trying to do my homework. Will you _please_ leave me alone?"

"Oh. Homework. That," Sirius said, surveying the books and papers strewn around her. Instead of leaving, however, he pulled out the chair across from Lily's and sat in it, moving several piles of books aside so he could see her properly. "This is what I'm talking about, Lily," he said, surveying all of Lily's study materials again. "You need to let the homework go. Relax. Enjoy yourself. Watch a little Quidditch!"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Quidditch? Sirius, the next game isn't for another week and a half."

"So? You can get Wizarding Wireless Network inside Hogwarts! You could listen to a game!"

Lily rolled her eyes again and shook her head, leaning over her parchment. "Sirius, I don't really care about Quidditch," she informed him, scribbling down a few words. "I do, however, care about homework...a fact which I believe I've mentioned before."

Sirius did not speak for several moments, which suited Lily just fine, as she had time to scribble out a final sentence to her essay during the silence. She stacked all her essays into a neat pile and then glanced up at Sirius, who was staring at her, eyes wide, mouth opening and closing like a fish.

"Not....not...not like Quidditch?" He spluttered. "How--how--why--how is that _possible_?"

Lily sighed. "Sirius, you know perfectly well how it's possible. I don't have time for this."

"Why not? Got a hot date? You can't have _more_ homework....can you?" he asked, looking rather horrified at the thought.

Lily smiled in spite of herself. "No, Sirius, I don't have more homework, but I am going to help some third years with theirs, so like I said, you need to leave me alone."

"Humph," Sirius said. "I see how it is..." He glared at her for a moment, and then shrugged. "Well, I guess I'll be getting out of here then, if there's going to be more work done," he said, shuddering. 

"'Bye, Sirius," Lily said as Sirius stood, clearing some of her books off the table and tucking her finished essays neatly into a deep blue folder, which she dropped into her bottomless bag. 

"'Bye," Sirius said, pushing his chair in. "Don't work yourself too hard, Lily-bean!" he called over his shoulder as he left.

Lily stomped her foot indignantly but didn't yell after him not to call her "Lily-bean", because she really didn't feel like getting kicked out of the library today. Sirius shot a devilish grin at her before ducking out of the library. She glared after him for a moment, and then sighed and finished clearing off the library table--she rather doubted Wendy and Lin would need _Advanced Transfiguration_ or _A Scholar's Guide to Arithmancy, Level Four_.

The aforementioned third years rushed into the library several moments later, Wendy looking rather flushed and Lin looking rather exasperated.

"I saw Sirius in the hallway!" Wendy announced, bubbling over with excitement. Lin looked ready to throttle her. Lily raised her eyebrows. 

"I thought...weren't you going to get over him?" she asked.

Wendy blushed furiously, staring down at the table as she took her seat across from Lily. "Well...I'm _trying_..."

"No, she's not," Lin snapped. "She keeps doodling his initials all over her Transfiguration notes."

"I do not!" Wendy lied, going very red. Lin snorted.

"Yeah, right, and I saw you in History of Magic, too--'Mrs. Wendy Black'--_honestly_--"

Wendy let out a shriek of indignation. "Well--well--so what?" she spluttered. "I'm not as bad as you, you tipped your cauldron over when Anthony Hall asked you if you had any extra beetle eyes!"

This time it was Lin's cheeks that flushed a brilliant shade of scarlet. "Well at least he's in my _year_--at least I don't write him _love letters_--"

"Hey! Hey!" Lily intervened. "Girls, calm down! We're here to study, not argue about boys!"

Wendy and Lin looked at Lily rather sheepishly, mumbling apologies, and got out their homework. Lily smiled and shook her head. Lord, sometimes they reminded her so much of herself and Melody it was scary...

"So, what do you have for homework?"

"Transfiguration," Wendy said, sighing and heaving a large book onto the table.

"History of Magic," Lin added, looking equally put-out at the thought of homework.

"And Potions," they added together, both wearing equal expressions of disgust. Lily frowned. 

"I_ like_ Potions, thank you very much...but since you both seem to hate it so much, let's start with that essay and get it out of the way. What are you all studying now?"

"Shrinking Solutions," Lin replied, pulling a quill and some parchment out of her bag. "Can I borrow some of your ink, Lily? Thanks--I lost mine--"

"Okay," Wendy said, "so...'Discuss the Properties and Uses of Shrinking Solutions in Everyday Life'," she read. Both third years looked up at Lily expectantly. Lily raised her eyebrows. 

"Oh, no," she said. "I am _not_ walking you through this...this is about what _you_ know, remember?"

Wendy frowned. "You did say you were going to _help_, didn't you?"

"Well, yes, but I'm not going to do your work _for_ you...what do _you_ both know about Shrinking Solutions?"

"Um...they shrink stuff?" Lin suggested lamely. Lily sighed.

"Well, that's a _start_...and that is one of the properties of the potion...why don't you both start with that and list some examples?"

Lin sighed and started writing out a sentence, but Wendy stared at her blankly. "Examples...?"

"Oh, come on, Wendy," Lily said, frowning. "Like...a Shrinking Solution will turn a toad into a tadpole, that sort of thing."

"Who's turning toads into tadpoles?" came a voice, and Lily looked up to see Mimi Ramirez walking toward her, clutching a library book and looking around with a rather distant look on her face.

"Professor Thorne, apparently," Lily replied. "Want to join us?"

"I--no--" she replied, still sounding distant, but she stopped at their library table and frowned down at them for a moment. "You haven't--you won't have--you don't happen to have--"

"What, Mimi?" Lily asked, cutting her off. "Just spit it out."

"You haven't seen Remus Lupin anywhere, have you?" she asked, frowning and scanning the library again. Lily shook her head.

"No...I saw Sirius in here a while ago, though...not that that helps..."

Mimi sighed. "No, not really...well, thanks anyway, Lily...I'll see you later," she said distantly, and then left, still frowning.

Lily watched her retreat with an amused expression on her face. "Well, then," she said. "She's certainly preoccupied with something..."

"Who was that?" Wendy asked curiously.

"That was my friend Mimi...she's in Ravenclaw as well," Lily replied. "But I wonder what's up with her...she's normally much more...I don't know, energetic."

"I guess she's worried about Remus Lupin," Lin said, shrugging. "He sure does disappear a lot..."

"Does he?" Lily asked, blinking. She really hadn't noticed.

"Sure," Lin said, shrugging. "He goes away sometimes...no one really knows where. There are rumors, though...loads of people think he's a vampire...we think he goes off to Romania every month to meet the rest of his family and feed off people, and--"

But Lily clucked her tongue impatiently and frowned at both girls. "That's ridiculous! He hasn't got _fangs_ or anything...and anyway he's not from Romania. You shouldn't go around spreading rumors about people," she admonished.

Lin shrugged and both girls looked rather sheepish. "It was just a rumor," she mumbled.

"Well...never mind that," Lily said decisively. "Let's just concentrate on homework, shall we?"

The third year girls sighed but began scribbling dutifully away at their essays.

*              *              *

"I agree with Sirius," Melody declared several days later, joining Lily in the courtyard during break.

"Agree with Sirius about what?" Lily asked, digging through her Bottomless Bag for the flagon of hot chocolate she knew she had stored in there _somewhere_...it was the middle of January and freezing cold, after all.

"_Quidditch_!" Melody said emphatically. "You don't get _nearly_ excited enough about Quidditch."

Lily rolled her eyes. "It is only a game, you know," she informed her friend.

"Only a game? _Only a game?_" Melody demanded. "That--that--that's like saying Wronski was only a Seeker! That's awful!"

Lily shook her head at Melody pityingly. "Dear," she said, patting her friend on the shoulder, "Wronski _was_ only a Seeker. Now, if you'll excuse me--" she began, turning back to her Bottomless Bag, but Melody shrieked loudly, causing Lily to drop her bag and several people to turn and stare that them.

"_WHAT_?" Lily demanded, annoyed, stooping to pick up her bag.

"I can't believe you just _said_ that!" Melody shrieked, looking horrified.

"Well, I did," Lily informed her calmly, "and I'll say it again. _Wronski--was--only--a--Seeker_."

Melody clamped both hands over her mouth, looking deeply shocked and offended. "James!" she shrieked, spotting him across the courtyard. "Sirius! _Come--here!_"

Lily sighed, preparing herself for a lecture about Quidditch. James and Sirius ambled over, James fiddling with his hair again. 

"What can I do you for, Melody?" Sirius asked, sticking his hands in his pockets casually.

"This girl is _crazy_," Melody informed them, pointing an accusing finger at Lily. "Do you know what she said?"

"Nooo," James said slowly, "but we could guess."

"Yeah, we could do that," Sirius agreed. "So...did she turn you into a pig?"

Melody glared at him. "Do I _look_ like I've been turned into a pig, Sirius?"

Sirius shrugged, grinning. "Just thought I'd ask..."

"Did she insult Quidditch again?" James asked, grinning at Lily.

"Yes!" Melody said. "_Exactly_. But you'll _never_ believe this--she said--and I quote--'_Wronski was _only_ a Seeker.'_"

Sirius looked rather offended ("How can you_ say_ that!" he exclaimed), but James looked rather unsurprised.

"Well, what'd you expect?" he asked. "She's about as anti-Quidditch as we are pro-Quidditch--and besides, I wouldn't expect her to understand the rules, anyway--they're probably way over your head, right, Lily-bean?"

"Oh, for heaven's _sake_!" Lily snapped. "This is _ridiculous_--it's only a stupid _game--_and since _when_ have I been to stupid to understand _anything_, James?"

James shrugged, looking slightly uneasy. "It was just--just a joke, Lily--just a tease--"

Lily rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter," she assured him, waving her hand dismissively, "but I don't have time to stand here and argue about a silly _game_--I'm going to class."

*              *              *

Over the weekend, signs were posted in all the common rooms announcing the date of the next Auror Training Meeting, which caused a great buzz of excitement among all the Sixth Year Prefects. The meeting was set for the first Wednesday after the Quidditch Match (which all the Quidditch players were extremely grateful for) at nine o'clock in the Great Hall.

"Well, that's something to look forward to," Mimi commented glumly to Lily in the Ravenclaw Common Room as they read the notice together.

"You don't sound very excited about it. What is _with_ you lately?"

Mimi just shrugged. "It's nothing," she assured Lily. "Look, I'm going to...go...got some things to do. See you later," she said vaguely. Lily watched her as she left, feeling rather bewildered.

"Where's she going?" Susie asked, coming up behind Lily with Matt, whose socks were playing the March of Carmen.

"Not a clue," Lily said, shaking her head. "She sure has been acting weird lately, though...don't you think?"

"I guess so," Susie said, shrugging. "She hasn't been around a whole lot, if that's what you mean..."

"Listen, Lily, we just wanted to know if you'd like to help us charm this banner we're making for the Ravenclaw team for the Quidditch game next week--" Matt began, but he didn't get to finish his sentence.

"Oooh! NO! Not more Quidditch! What IS it with everyone and stupid QUIDDITCH?" Lily yelled, frustrated. Matt blinked.

"Um...well...er...that is...I mean to say...if...er...if you really don't want to, I guess that's okay, I mean...we can always just ask someone else..." Matt said, backing away slightly, and looking rather shocked.

"Lily, are you okay?" Susie asked, looking genuinely concerned. 

"Yes...no...yes...I mean, I'm fine. I'm just really sick of hearing about Quidditch. Yesterday Melody yelled at me because I said Wronski was just a Seeker, and...oh, please, not you, too!" Lily cried, groaning at Matt's incredulous look.

"Well...you can hardly blame her..." he said.

"Oh, for heaven's sake! It's just a GAME!"

"But it's a really _good_ game," Matt assured her. "You should get into it, it's really fun."

"Yeah, and it's really exciting!" Susie chipped in. "Especially when it's your House team, because then you know all the players--"

"--and plus it's live, you don't get that a lot with professional Quidditch," Matt added.

"Look, I'm just not interested!" Lily insisted. "It's fun and all when it's your House team, I guess…and I know I had some fun cheering for Ravenclaw last year…but, really…it's not as important as everyone's making it out to be." She paused a moment, looking rather uncomfortable, and then said, "And besides...if I were interested in Quidditch it would make James far too happy. And anything that makes James happy isn't good at all."

Susie and Matt exchanged significant looks.

"_What?_" Lily demanded. "Would you stop _looking_ at me like that? Come on--WHAT? Look--if I help you charm your stupid banner will you stop looking at me like that?"

*              *              *

"You know, Lily-bean, we all think this aversion to Quidditch is quite unhealthy," James commented on Tuesday, sinking into a seat next to Lily in Potions class.

"Yes," Sirius agreed, sitting down next to James, "we think this represents some kind of psychological condition involving repression in your childhood...did your parents refuse to give you dolls as a child?"

Lily seriously considered banging her head against the table in front of her. "Sirius. James. Dr. Freud--whoever it is I'm talking to here," she said, sounding thoroughly worn out. "I--do--not--care--about--Quidditch. PLEASE stop bothering me about it!"

"But..._why_ don't you like Quidditch?" James asked.

"Because it's just a stupid _game_," Lily whimpered, sincerely wishing that they would all just leave her alone.

"Have you given it a chance? Do you really even understand the rules?"

"I don't see how this is really any of your concern. I don't have to like Quidditch if I don't want to, so will you all please just get OFF it?"

"Suit yourself, Lily-bean, but I really think you should give it a chance," James said, shrugging and slinging his bag back over his shoulder, getting up and joining Remus (who had apparently returned from Romania or wherever) and Peter across the dungeon.

"Sit with us at the Quidditch game," Sirius offered, standing as well. "We'll explain all the rules to you."

"NO," Lily said coldly, setting up her cauldron.

"Come on, Lily-bean, it'll be fun!" he assured her. "See you on Saturday!"

Lily clenched her teeth together and glared at him as he walked away. If they weren't going to leave her alone about Quidditch, this was going to be one very LONG week....

*              *              *

Lily, for the life of her, could not understand why she had agreed to sit with James and Sirius during the Quidditch match. And not just Sirius and James, but Remus and Peter and Melody and Mimi and Matt and Susie and half of the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Houses in turn. 

Okay, well, she hadn't promised all those people _specifically_, but she knew which section of the stands Sirius and James usually sat in (top and center, where all the boisterous, die-hard fans liked to sit), and she wasn't looking forward to it at _all_. She dreaded the coming Saturday more than she'd dreaded Christmas holidays with Petunia...and that was saying something.

Why, why, WHY had she listened to any of them? It didn't have anything to do with James. It really didn't. Not at all. It was just to get James to shut UP about her and Quidditch that she'd agreed to the whole arrangement.

Really.

*              *              *

Saturday dawned cloudy and bleak, with light flurries of snow in the early morning hours, the sun peeking in every so often to melt away what little snow had fallen. Lily bundled up before heading down to breakfast, carrying her cloak with her to the Great Hall. The response to her choice of clothing was much more dramatic than she'd expected. 

"Lily!" James cried, sounding scandalized, as he and Sirius (who were, oddly, dressed in bright blue robes) bumped into Lily just outside the Hall.

"What?" Lily asked, feeling slightly alarmed.

"Your CLOTHES!"

Lily looked down quickly, examining her black school robes. "What? What about my clothes? Do I have a stain or something? A rip?" she asked, frowning, unable to find a problem with her robes.

"Lily!" came another voice. "What's with the robes? Where's the spirit?"

Lily turned to see Matt and Susie approaching, Matt carrying the banner they'd decorated last weekend folded up under his right arm.

"What IS it with you people?" she demanded. "My robes are FINE, and now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and eat breakfast."

"But Lily!" James called after her. "Where's your spirit?"

"You must have spirit!" Sirius chipped in.

"No, I must have _food_," Lily corrected them, veering off toward the Ravenclaw table, but James and Sirius followed her.

"You can have spirit and food at the same time," James reasoned. "You need to be more...colorful."

"Oh, no," Lily said, taking a seat at the Ravenclaw table and sincerely hoping James and Sirius would leave her alone now, "I assure you, all I need is eggs."

James and Sirius, who didn't seem to be able to take the hint, sat down on either side of her, and Lily groaned as the Ravenclaw students already at the table gave Sirius and James funny looks and began whispering about them. Sirius ignored this splendidly and began shoveling food onto his plate and then into his mouth with such rapidity that Lily wasn't entirely sure he wasn't eating directly from the bowl, and just pretending to slap the food on his plate first so he could eat with the serving spoon.

"You must show support for your House team!" James insisted, snatching a piece of bacon on the plate nearest to him and shoving it in his mouth. "Unless of course you plan on cheering for Slytherin?"

Several of Lily's fellow Ravenclaws gave her dirty looks, and Lily scowled. "Of course I'm not cheering for Slytherin," she muttered sourly, scooping scrambled eggs onto her plate, "but I don't have to be _colorful_, either."

James sighed and shook his head. "Lily, Lily, Lily," he reprimanded. "You have so much to learn."

Lily sighed, feeling that, at this point, it was rather useless to try and remind him that she didn't _care_ if she learned.

"You should definitely be blue," Sirius interjected, amidst all his food-shoveling. "You should be wearing something blue."

"Yes! Blue!" James agreed brightly, taking out his wand and fingering it thoughtfully. "Now, what was that wonderful spell that Melody used...?"

"NO," Lily said firmly, shaking her head. "We are NOT using that spell, it took a whole day for Madam Pomfrey to get me back to my normal color."

James sighed disappointedly. "Fine, suit yourself," he said, snatching another piece of bacon. "We'll see you in the stands. Come on, Sirius," he directed at his friend, who took a last bite of potatoes before standing and following James over to the Gryffindor table, where he promptly sat down and began shoveling food in his mouth again with such rapidity that one might assume he hadn't eaten for ten days rather than ten seconds.

The Ravenclaw Quidditch Team entered then, silently, and sat down to eat together, as usual.

"Why do they do that?" Lily asked of Susie and Matt, who had come to join her.

"They're keeping focused," Matt replied, biting into a biscuit. "They usually talk team strategy in the Common Room on game days so they don't waste time on it right before the game and can get really focused in the locker room."

"Oh," Lily said, rather surprised with herself that she'd cared. James and Sirius were really starting to rub off on her...this was bad....

"Hi, Lily!" chirped Mimi, who sat down on Lily's right. "Ew...who was eating _here_?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Feeriuff," Lily replied between a mouthful of potatoes as the plate magically wiped itself clean. Mimi, still looking doubtful, swapped the now-clean plate in front of her with the one next to it before she began serving herself food.

"You seem perky," Lily observed. "What's been going on? You've been so distracted lately...I've been worried about you."

"Oh, it was nothing," Mimi said dismissively, buttering a biscuit. "Don't worry about it."

Lily raised her eyebrow skeptically but didn't press the subject.

"Will the Quidditch teams please proceed to their locker rooms at this time," came the voice of Madam Hooch across the Hall. "And the lot of you need to tuck in before the game starts," she added, surveying all the students still eating before turning and swooping out of the hall.

The Ravenclaw team rose mutely from their seats and filed silently out of the hall, ignoring the hollers and cheers directed at them from the Ravenclaw fans as they left. (Lily didn't feel particularly inclined to holler at them, but after a nudge from Matt banged her fork halfheartedly against the tabletop before resuming eating.)

And then it was time for Quidditch. With a great sense of dread, Lily got up from the table and donned her cloak, following her friends out of the hall and to the front doors of the school, where she took a deep breath before stepping out into the crisp, cold weather, and what was almost certainly to be a morning of recreational torture.

*              *              *

"OW!"

"Sorry--pardon me--coming through--ow, sorry--excuse me--sorry--pardon me--" Melody Cauldwell shuffled along the long row of the stands in which Lily, James, Sirius, Peter, Remus, and Mimi were seated (although not in that order; Lily was sandwiched between Sirius and James and she'd kind of lost track of where everyone else was). She plopped down quite a few seats away from Lily and waved at her friend rather awkwardly with a hand she was also using to clutch several sausages she'd swiped from the Great Hall before settling back to watch the game.

Lily sighed and sat back herself, trying to enjoy being squashed between James and Sirius in the freezing cold with, as of yet, no entertainment to account for, but failed miserably. It really was too cramped and crowded here for Lily to enjoy anything.

"You excited, Lily-bean?" Sirius asked. Lily glared at him and was just about to tell him not to call her Lily-bean when the entire crowd suddenly rose to its feet around her and began cheering madly. Lily, confused, struggled to her feet and tried to peer over the mass of cheering people in front of her to see what all the fuss was about. She didn't get a good look, however; the second she gained her balance, the crowd sat just as abruptly as it had stood and she was yanked rather unceremoniously back into her seat.

"Okay, Lily-bean, now get ready, this should be a really good match!" James said from her right. Lily sighed and stared blankly at the pitch, where the game was about to start.

"Now, you see the person in blue who's flying around those goalpoasts over there?" Sirius asked, pointing, and Lily nodded. "That's the Keeper. He tries to—"

"Oh, for heaven's SAKE, Sirius, I know the general RULES!"

"Oh. Well, then. That's good, now I can actually watch the—WHAT WAS THAT? YOU CALL THAT A PASS? OH, COME ON! I COULD SEE THAT INTERCEPTION COMING A MILLION MILES AWAY!" Lily jumped at Sirius' yelling and turned to James, bewildered, but he was shouting just as indignantly.

"What in the WORLD is going on?" Lily demanded.

"Your Chasers are falling apart, that's what," James informed her.

"But—the game just started!" Lily cried.

"Exactly," Sirius agreed. "It's pathetic! All this hype about the Ravenclaw team this year, but I don't know, it doesn't look like much to me…"

"Hey!" Lily cried indignantly. "Are you insulting my team?"

Sirius shrugged. "If you'd pay attention you'd see that—WHAT ARE YOU DOING? CAN'T YOU SEE A FEINT WHEN IT'S COMING?"

Lily clamped her hands over her ears to protect them from Sirius's shouts, and the enormous booing of the crowd around her, as Slytherin registered their first ten points on the board.

"That's because you're not looking at Archer," James reasoned. "She's really the only good Chaser they've got; Gorbes and Fulley are only there for show."

"There's a point," Sirius conceded. "At least they have some good Beaters, though, Johnson's pretty tough, let me tell you, and you know without the Beaters—"

"The whole team's lying on the grass with bloody noses. Don't I know it," James agreed. "And besides that—FOUL!"

Lily jumped as a stream of profanities launched from James's mouth and streaked out toward the Quidditch pitch, where something very bad had apparently just happened.

"Wait—what—who--?" Lily asked, thoroughly lost and confused now.

"Slytherin nearly just decapitated your Keeper, that's what," Sirius informed her.

"Eyes ON the game, Lily," James advised from her other side. "If you don't pay attention it's not going to—YES! FINALLY!"

Lily clamped her hands over her ears again and huddled in her seat as the crowd erupted into wild cheering and hollering. Evidently Ravenclaw had scored.

Lily sighed and focused her eyes on the pitch as the crowd around her calmed itself, and tried to make some sense of the blue and green blurs on it. After a few minutes, the blurs began to make sense, and Lily kind of understood what James and Sirius were hollering madly about…but only kind of. She even attempted some indignant hollering herself. "FOUL!" she shrieked as a Slytherin Beater deliberately launched a Bludger toward Alina Archer's head.

Sirius and James both looked at her curiously. 

"Foul?" James asked. "Where?"

"The—the Bludger," Lily said, pointing at the field and looking at James rather confusedly. "The—it went right at Alina's head—she—doesn't that--?" 

James looked at her for a moment, amusedly, at the befuddled expression on her face, at the slight swinging of her flaming red hair as she looked back and forth desperately between James and the pitch, and then he burst into laughter.

"Oh, Lily!" he cried.

"What?" Lily asked, lowering her hand finally and looking at him uncertainly. "What did I say? What did I do wrong?"

"Nothing, it's nothing," James assured her, recovering. "That wasn't a foul, Archer was in possession of the ball, it was just the look on your face…oh, Lily, you amuse me sometimes."

Lily had just opened her mouth to make some kind of response, feeling rather abused and unloved, when James leaned over and kissed her cheek, sliding an arm around her waist as he did so. Lily blinked and blushed involuntarily, and allowed James to babble senselessly to her for most of the rest of the game, until, at about mid-afternoon, she saw it--a glint of gold, hovering just over the goalposts at the Ravenclaw end.

"THE SNITCH!" she cried, pointing, and Sirius and James looked at her with equal expressions of surprise.

"The Snitch? Where?" Sirius demanded.

"_Right—there_!" Lily cried, waving her finger madly, and watching in awe as she followed the Snitch's movement from above the goalposts to just above the Ravenclaw Keeper's head, and then down by the front of his broomstick.

"Are you sure, Lily?" James asked, squinting at the field. "Where, exactly, is it?"

"It's _right_ _there_!" Lily cried, still pointing. "By the middle goal post…" Lily's eyes stayed glued to the pitch as the Snitch flitted in and out of the goalposts on the Ravenclaw end.

"I don't see it," said Sirius doubtfully.

"Me, either. I think you're imagining things, Lily," said James Potter, Gryffindor Seeker.

And then both boys watched in awe, fascination, and horror, as the Ravenclaw Seeker made a sharp dive from far above the pitch and flew all the way through the goalpost to grab the glittering golden ball, securing both the Snitch and Ravenclaw's win in his outstretched hand. Lily crossed her arms and looked back and forth between Sirius and James with a smug, amused expression on her face.

"Ha!" she said triumphantly. "Told you so."

*              *              *

BANG!

"Aaaack!"

"What WAS that?"

"Who's setting off fireworks?"

"My hair! You burned my hair!"

BANG! SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

"Make it stop! Make it STOP!"

"What the bloody hell? Sirius, what in the world are you DOING?" James demanded.

"It's not me, it's this dang-blasted wand, I dropped it on the floor in the hallway and this third year picked it up for me, and it hasn't been the same since! You know how my stupid wand gets!"

"Oh, my LORD, Sirius, what's that NOISE?"

Sirius sighed and looked up at Lily, who had just entered the near-full Transfiguration classroom, where they were meeting for the Auror Training Session, and now had her hands clamped over her ears.

"My wand!" he shouted over the din of his whistling wand, which was now emitting bright blue sparks and scarlet clouds of smoke in addition to banging and screeching noises. "It's very temperamental. Doesn't like when other people touch it. 'S been veeeeeery touchy lately….must've been that third year…" he muttered, trailing off and examining his wand, trying to figure out a way to make it calm down.

"Third year?" Lily repeated, feeling rather alarmed. "Who?" She KNEW third years—third years who liked Sirius—third years who—

"Dunno," Sirius replied, shrugging, cutting off Lily's train of thought. "Just this girl who picked up my wand in the hallway for me. Nice thing to do, really, but I'm rather beginning to wish she hadn't."

"Me, too!" cried Melody, who was looking very upset and waving her own wand frantically at her hair, which, Lily noted, was looking rather singed.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS COMMOTION?" bellowed another voice, and all excess noise in the classroom quickly vanished as Professor McGonagall stalked down the aisle between the middle two rows of desks in which Sirius, Lily, and James were standing. Sirius desperately fiddled with his wand, attempting to stifle the noise, but to no avail.

"Mr. Black, there appears to be something wrong with your wand," she informed him, rather calmly considering all the ruckus it was making, and she plucked the wand from Sirius's fingers, rather unceremoniously whapped it hard against the nearest desktop several times, after which action the whistling, banging, and issuing of fireworks and smoke from its tip ceased, and handed the wand back to Sirius.

"Now then," she said, looking very composed, turning her attention to the class. "Today's session will be a practical one, so everybody get your wands out, and stand still, while I remove these desks…good, there we go…and now will everyone please welcome Mr. Alastor Moody, an Auror, who will be hand-picking the group of students that go on this mission…no, Miss Bankett, it won't be decided today, that will come later, you can put your hand down. Now, Alastor…I'll hand this over to you."

"Right," said Alastor Moody, and he made his way to the center of the room. He had a rather frightening look about him; he was tall, with long black robes, and his right cheek had a rather large chunk taken out of it. "So you want to be Aurors, do you?" he growled. "Or do some of you just want this on your job transcripts?"

Nobody really wanted to answer.

"Well, this"—he pointed, indicating his cheek—"is one of my battle scars. One of the first, actually, and I can tell you without hesitation that it _won't_ be the last. So if any of you are feeling a bit squeamish about losing an eye or an arm or a leg—I suggest you get out now."

Nobody moved, although several students were now looking as though they'd like to.

"Right then," Moody continued. "You'll step forward, one by one, and we'll see how you respond to the unexpected. You there," he said, pointing straight at Lily, who suddenly felt extremely conspicuous and unprepared, "come forward."

Lily glanced back at James for a moment, her bright green eyes wide with astonishment and apprehension, before stepping into the center of the room to join Moody. She fiddled with her wand nervously, her hands quickly becoming damp and then slick with sweat. She looked at Moody uncertainly, and barely had time to think before he roared,

"_Impedimenta_!" and a curse flew out of his wand toward her.

"Aaah!" Lily shrieked and ducked reflexively, letting the spell sail over her head and harmlessly into the wall.

Moody looked at her evenly for a moment, then—

"_Rictusempra_!"

which Lily managed to block, while at the same time summoning up her own spell.

"_Expelliarmus_!" she yelled, and a jet of light shot across the room at Moody, who blocked the spell nicely.

He smiled crookedly at her, and Lily, feeling rather giddy and successful, smiled back, feeling a brief moment of triumph, before—

"_Petrificus Totalus_!"

"Aaah!" This time there was no brilliant block, only the spell, and Lily's shock, and her petrified body suddenly on the floor. _Damn it!_ she thought to herself, with feeling.

"_Finite Incantatum,_" came Moody's voice from above her head, and her body suddenly relaxed, and Lily felt, for the first time, the impact with which it had hit the floor.

"Ow," she moaned, accepting Moody's hand to help her to her feet.

"Don't let your guard down," he growled at her. "You, there!" he barked, pointing at Peter Pettigrew, who by this point was shaking like a leaf. "You're next."

Lily hastily removed herself from inside the circle and hid herself behind James and Sirius, feeling rather as though she'd like to avoid looking anyone in the eye for several hours.

"You did good, Lily-bean," Sirius whispered to her over his shoulder as Moody promptly flattened Peter onto the floor.

Lily mumbled something incomprehensible as Peter trudged back to the group, a defeated look on his face, and Melody charged forward to take on Moody.

"I'm out for sure this time," he said glumly, as Melody nearly fell over trying to dodge one of Moody's spells.

"Nah, you did fine," Remus assured him. "I bet most of the people in this room couldn't have blocked that curse."

"Melody's doing all right," Peter mumbled, as Melody, brow screwed up in concentration, fired two spells at Moody in succession, one of which was blocked and the other of which rebounded on her, Petrifying her on the spot.

"See?"

As it turned out, Remus was right. Most of the people Moody called forward didn't make it past the first spell, and even then it wasn't long before he took most of them out. There were a few who lasted a bit longer than Lily had, but Lily, in all honesty, by about midway through the group, was really rather feeling a bit cheerful about how she had "responded to the unexpected". She and Melody had done about the same; they both managed to successfully avoid two curses and fire at least one of their own back at Moody. As Moody continued through the group, the students were shocked to see him fire the Imperious Curse several times. No one so far had been able to fend it off.

 James, Sirius, and Remus, because of the direction Moody had decided to go in around the circle of students, ended up being last. Remus avoided only one curse before going down and didn't manage to get off any of his own, James furiously blocked four successive curses before attempting to land two of his own and having his wand disarmed by Moody, and Sirius…well, Sirius's brush with Moody was the longest of all.

He dodged two of the curses before Moody landed a whopper on him—the Imperious Curse.

"_Jump_," Moody growled. "_Jump_."

At these words the class looked expectantly at Sirius, whose eyes were glazed over, and waited for him to jump. 

Sirius did not jump. Instead, he sat, rather unexpectedly, on the floor. 

Moody looked more surprised than any of the students, and looked at Sirius rather as though he had lima beans shooting out of his ears.

"_Stand_," Moody commanded.

Sirius promptly stretched out on the floor.

Moody looked more startled than ever. "_Roll over_," he said, to which Sirius promptly vaulted to his feet and stood, looking blankly at the wall.

Now Moody looked rather alarmed and fascinated at the same time. "_Say 'blue',_" he said, with a tone in his voice that suggested he really rather Sirius didn't say 'blue' at all.

"Yellow," Sirius said immediately.

"_Finite Incantatum,_" Moody muttered, and Sirius wandered back over to James and Lily without being told. Moody looked rather perplexed. "Well," he said. "The list will be posted tonight. You may…leave," he informed them, sounding extremely distracted and staring with his eyes unfocused at the wall as the students filed out of the classroom, whispering excitedly about the session—and especially about Sirius.  
  


*              *              *

Peter, as it turned out, did not make the list. However, neither did Remus, which seemed to cheer Peter up considerably. James and Lily both did, though, as well as Melody and Sirius; also on the list were Mimi, Matt, and Adam Johnson from Ravenclaw, Arabella Figg from Gryffindor, Frank Longbottom, Gertrude Nessom, Michael Watts, and Naomi Collins from Hufflepuff, and such unpleasant names as Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Sally Parkinson, and Vivian Horvath from Slytherin.

In the end, only about half that list would be able to go, but even to have made it this far was something of a fantastic accomplishment for the sixth years.

*              *              *

On the last Sunday of January, Lily was to be found curled up in a large cozy chair in the back of the library, reading an edition of _Quidditch Weekly_ (which she'd stolen from James's bag that morning in Potions) tucked inside her copy of the _Daily Prophet_ so as to avoid ridicule from James, Sirius, or any other Quidditch-playing persons who seemed to enjoying taunting Lily madly about her newfound interest in the sport. Of course, the whole point of sitting in a large chair in the back of the library was to _avoid_ being found, but this hardly seemed to matter, as her friends always managed to find her no matter where she hid. It was no different this Sunday; the moment Lily lost herself in an extremely interesting article about the Tutshill Tornadoes (a team which Lily was growing increasingly fond of for no apparent reason and despite their rather lame overall record), Melody plopped into a chair beside Lily and sighed pointedly, forcing Lily to look up from her magazine.

"Yes?" she asked, rather impatiently.

"Lily," Melody began, in a tone of voice that suggested she was ready to have a rather long-winded conversation centered mostly around herself and her insecurities, "do _you_ think I'm shallow?"

Lily blinked. "_What_?" she asked, thoroughly confused. "_Shallow_? Who called you _shallow_?"

"No one called me shallow," Melody said defensively, although it was very obvious someone had, otherwise she wouldn't have been worrying about it.

"Uh-huh," Lily said, in an extremely skeptical tone of voice.

"You haven't answered my question," Melody pointed out, resting her head on the arm of her chair and looking up at Lily rather glumly, as though she knew the worst was coming.

"_Melody_," she said, in the same exasperated tone of voice she used when Mimi began complaining that she was 'fat' and needed to lose weight, "you are _not_ shallow. You hang out with me, for heaven's sake, and I'm a complete _dork_."

"You're not a dork!" Melody exclaimed, sounding rather surprised.

"Shh! Don't try to take my dorkiness away from me. I am _proud_ to be a dork."

Melody rolled her eyes. "If you say so, Lily."

"And I do."

Melody smiled and then sighed, looking miserable again. "Lily, are you sure I'm not—"

"Melody! You're _not shallow_. What _is_ all this? Where did this _come_ from?"

Melody sighed. "It's nothing, really, it's just Sirius—" She cut herself off suddenly, little pink spots appearing in her cheeks. "It's nothing."

Lily threw back her head and groaned. "Melo-_dy_! You do _not_ have to take everything Sirius says to heart!"

"But what if he's _right_?" Melody cried. "What if he's _right_ about me? You know how Sirius is! He may act like a total idiot, but he sees _through_ people. At least…at least he sees through me," she said softly, staring at the floor.

"What did he _say_, exactly?"

"Nothing," Melody mumbled, staring pointedly at the floor.

"Melody," Lily said matter-of-factly, "_I_ know you're going to tell me what he said, _you_ know you're going to tell me what he said, we _both_ know why you came down here in the first place, so just spit it out already!"

Melody sighed resignedly. "He said…he said I'd changed. He said I worried about my appearance more than I used to. He said it was all those parties I went to with my uncle, that I'd been changing just to fit in, and that I wasn't being me, I was only confusing myself, and—oh, Lily, what if he's _right?_" she cried desperately.

"Well," Lily said slowly, considering. "Let's think about this logically. Melody…you're a teenage girl. You have a right to develop a healthy interest in make-up. I realize this isn't the _entire_ point, but I wouldn't stop wearing make-up just to make Sirius happy."

"But it wasn't really about the make-up, Lily…that was only part of it. That was just the starting point. He—"

"Let me finish!" Lily said, holding up her hands. "Look, I know…I know you came back from Venezuela spouting Spanish, and I know at Mrs. Potter's party you were, to put it bluntly, more dignified and elegant than I've _ever_ seen you, but all _tha_t means is you have enough grace to compose yourself in front of adults."

Melody looked at Lily helplessly. She didn't understand. She couldn't see that Sirius was right. She couldn't see through all of Melody's lies and petty scheming. 

"_Melody_," Lily said, now sounding irritated. Apparently she knew Melody enough to tell when she wasn't listening. "Putting on a dress and some make-up and going to a few parties is not enough to change who you are."

Melody blinked and shook her head at her best friend. "Yes," she said softly. "It is."

Lily raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Melody, no one can change you unless you _want_ to be changed. Now, what is it you think you're going to accomplish by going to these ridiculous 'society functions' with your uncle all the time?"

Oh. So Lily did get it. Kind of. Melody shrugged. "Money, I guess. For my family. And…connections to Voldemort. For my father. And…the attention, I guess. For me."

Lily smiled suddenly. "Melody. Listen to yourself. You're the exact same person you were last year. The only thing that's changed is how you're playing the game. You have more resources now, can't you see that? I know you want to avenge your father, but now you've got something more than midnight dueling practices backing you. And if you want to hold onto that…no one can blame you for it. Not even Sirius."

Melody considered this for a moment. "Oh," she said softly. "Well, that sounds a lot better than it did when Sirius said it."

"Of course it does," Lily agreed. "Sirius was probably just insanely jealous."

Melody considered. Oh. That. Well…that made sense, too.

*              *              *

The beginning of February was met with a bout of the flu, and half the school was walking around with the aftereffects of Pepperup Potions steaming out their ears. Lily, to her intense relief, managed to avoid the illness—she had no desire to walk around for a day looking for all the world like her head was on fire. James and Peter, however, were not so lucky. James walked around for an entire week with his head steaming, and during one Charms class managed to use up an entire box of tissues. Sirius (and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, for that matter) chose to give James a rather wide berth when he walked to class that week, as none of them had any desire to be sick for the match against Slytherin that was to take place the following week.

As it turned out, James was not the only Quidditch player to be struck ill. All of the Slytherin Chasers came down with the flu, and even Eric Chang, the commentator, was struck with the sickness. Chang, in fact, was so ill that he had to spend several days in the hospital wing, and when he came out three days prior to the Quidditch match had lost his voice spectacularly and was in no condition to commentate anything—and, in fact, was under strict orders from Madam Pomfrey not to.

Gossip rippled through the school about who would replace Chang as commentator. Dozens of volunteers crowded Madam Hooch in the hallways, begging for the position. Hooch finally chose a commentator, privately, and refused to disclose the new commentator's identity until the day of the Quidditch match.

And no one was more shocked than the Gryffindor Quidditch Team's Captain when, on game day, the players took the field and it was Lily Evans who sat in the commentator's box, with an emerald green beret perched jauntily on her head and a magical silver megaphone glinting in her hand.

"What in the hell is she doing up there?" James demanded of Sirius as Madam Hooch instructed the players to mount their brooms. "And what the HELL is she doing wearing a GREEN beret?" he fumed.

"I haven't the faintest idea," Sirius replied, shrugging, as Madam Hooch put her whistle in her mouth. "But this should be fun and interesting."

*              *              *

"And the Quidditch players take the field!" Lily announced, feeling extremely excited and nervous and altogether thoroughly amused by the shocked expression on James Potter's face.

"Playing for Gryffindor today are Black, Cauldwell, Figg, Fletcher, Brown, Appleton, and Potter! And for Slytherin, we have Parkinson, Horvath, Jones, Fallmouth, Lestrange, Strasser and Malfoy! And Gryffindor in possession—Fletcher to Figg, Figg to Appleton, back to Figg, she shoots—and a save by Strasser! Now Fallmouth taking the Quaffle up the pitch—dodges a Bludger—a pass to J—no, it's a feint, and he scores, ten points to Slytherin!"

  
Lily wasn't _really_ cheering for Slytherin. She just wanted to annoy James.

"Gryffindor in possession—and it's Appleton, Fletcher, Appleton, reverse pass to Figg—she shoots—and we're tied at ten!"

Meanwhile, James was fuming silently on the pitch. He was circling high above the playing field like a vulture, pretending to look around for the Snitch but really just shooting evil glares at Lily. "Cheers for Tornadoes—commentates game—wears _green beret_—" he muttered angrily.

"HEADS UP, JAMES!" Sirius yelled, and James jerked his broom out of the way as a Bludger went whistling past his leg. It was at this point that James decided he had better get his head in the game. He quickly focused his attention on the action below, successfully dodging a second Bludger as he flew down closer to his teammates. His Chasers were doing all right; they were two goals up on Slytherin now; his Keeper was really in fine form today, despite that first goal, and Melody and Sirius…well, they were being Melody and Sirius, doing the work of about ten Beaters and giving Gryffindor the definite edge as usual.

Lily seemed to sense this.

"…and while the Gryffindor Beaters are doing a fantastic job of bombarding their opponents, both Seekers continue to be completely useless as we begin our second hour of play…"

Both Seekers turned to glare at Lily as she continued to commentate, but she ignored them fantastically. Sirius laughed heartily as he whizzed by James to whack away a Bludger, and James glared at him as well. The game continued in the usual fashion for a while, except that the Slytherin players were growing more and more frustrated by the Gryffindor team's success, evidenced by their Beaters' decision to ignore the Bludgers and simply start swinging their clubs near people's heads.

"…and it appears the Slytherin Beaters have given up on strategy and decided to swing their clubs at anything that moves, including their own players—WHAT? Professor _McGonagall_, it's the _truth_!" Lily cried as the Transfiguration teacher turned to scold her.

"Anyway, Gryffindor scores yet again, no shock there—Strasser, are you even paying attention anymore?—and both Seekers continue to be completely useless, despite the fact that the Snitch has been hovering in the scoring zone for the last five minutes, although I'm not going to tell you wh—hey, _Professor_! I'm trying to _commentate_ here! Give me that!" Lily cried, and her commentating was briefly interrupted as she played tug-of-war with Professor McGonagall over the megaphone.

James's eyes rapidly scanned both scoring zones, and he saw a tiny glint of gold at the Slytherin end. DAMN! How did that girl do it? He glanced quickly over at Horvath, the Slytherin Seeker, who was hovering near the middle of the field and much closer to the Snitch than he, and, after a second of thought, dove purposefully into his own scoring zone. Horvath streaked after him, and he pulled out about halfway there, giving Horvath just enough time to realize he was faking and pull out herself. She whirled around on her broomstick and shot him a sharp glare, and he just shrugged and glanced over at the Slytherin end, where, thankfully, the Snitch was no longer to be seen.

"So, nice feint by Potter," Lily continued, dancing just out of reach of McGonagall, having retrieved her megaphone, "and the game drags on, Gryffindor scoring AGAIN—nice one, Arabella—and the Slytherin team gives up all hope and forefeits."

There was a great roar of disapproval from both the Slytherin players and fans at this comment. 

"MISS EVANS!" Professor McGonagall shouted, so loudly her voice was picked up by the megaphone and distributed across the stands. "UNBIASED COMMENTARY! DO YOU HEAR ME? UNBIASED!"

"Oh, come on, Professor, they don't have an ice cube's chance in a dragon's den, it's utterly hopeless! At this point forefeit would be less humiliating!"

"_UNBIASED_!"

"There was nothing biased about that, it was the _truth_! And—HEY! WHO LAUNCHED THAT BLUDGER? THAT SHOULD BE A PENALTY!"

The Slytherin Keeper was glaring at her fiercely, holding one of the Beater's clubs and fuming. Lily glared stonily back at him as the Bludger he had hit into the stands reversed direction and flew back toward the pitch.

"All right, Strasser, I see how it is, but don't forget we have class together on Monday and then we'll see who—hey! Professor!"

McGonagall was jumping up and down, trying to snatch the megaphone from Lily's hands and failing miserably, and then she got out her wand and attempted the Summoning Spell on it, at which point Lily felt she'd have a better chance of keeping her megaphone by running than just by standing there allowing McGonagall to grab at it.

"So, the game continues, and Slytherin has possession of the ball—I think—" she said uncertainly, scurrying down a row of Hufflepuff students. "Yes, they do, it's Jones with the Quaffle—not that it'll make a difference, there'll be an interception any second now—" she declared, as Arabella expertly swiped the ball from midair. "And Gryffindor'll be scoring again in a minute—" DING! "Another ten points to Gryffindor! What's the score now, a hundred and ten to twenty? Something like that," she continued, jumping down to the bottom row of the stands and streaking through the Slytherin section as fast as her legs can carry her. "Don't kill the messenger, guys! Come on, it's just the truth! HEY! HANDS OFF THE SCARF! SORE LOSERS!" Safe in the Gryffindor section, for the moment, Lily paused for breath and continued her commentary.

"And—wow, that was miraculous, Slytherin scores—that's okay, Anthony, you can just take a breather now, Potter's bound to start looking for the Snitch SOME time soon…" At this point, Lily decided she really wasn't so safe in the Gryffindor section after all (half because the fans were glaring at her and half because McGonagall had finally caught up with her). She scurried over to the Ravenclaw section.

"And Gryffindor's in possession, again...wow, a block by Strasser, that's amazing, and it's Slytherin in possession, no, Gryffindor, no, Slytherin, no…okay, it's tug-of-war between Fletcher and Fallmouth, come on, boys, let's get a move on before there's a—no, too late, there's a penalty. As they take their penalty shots, I would like to point out the location of the Snitch yet again, it's right by the stands on the—Professor! How lovely to see you!" Lily cried, then turned and dashed in the opposite direction of Professor McGonagall, who had managed to catch up with her again. "Well—I can't really see the pitch right now—in a bit of a hurry—but I can bet you Gryffindor made their shot—and Slytherin didn't—" (a quick glance at the scoreboard confirmed her suspicions) "—and—now—we sit around and wait—while Gryffindor scores some more—and the Beaters get really tired—and Slytherin gets—rather violent—" she huffed, beginning to feel out of breath, "—and then—we wait—and—wait—and wait—for the Seekers to realize—the Snitch—is right by—Mundungus Fletcher's head—" (at this point both Seekers dove for Mundungus, who yelled loudly and dove out of sight) "—nope—gone now—too late—ha—"

Lily reached her original seat and stood for a moment, breathing heavily, trying to make sense of the game in front of her. "So…Gryffindor leads Slytherin, a hundred and thirty to thirty—and the game had better end—pretty soon—because I just don't think—I'm cut out—for this kind of exercise—today," she panted.

And then received a humongous shock as James turned abruptly in midair and dove right for her. It took Lily a moment to register the fact that the Snitch was hovering right in front of her face before James snatched it out of the air, stopping his broom abruptly. He smirked at her and gave her a kiss on the nose before turning around to fly back to his teammates.

"I don't believe it," Lily breathed into the microphone, her green beret slipping sideways off her head. "James Potter caught the Snitch. It's over."

It was at this point that Professor McGonagall caught up to her again and snatched the megaphone away for the last time.

"MISS EVANS!" she bellowed, for the entire school to hear. "DETENTION!"

*              *              *

There was no Quidditch in March. At least, not in school. Most of Lily's free time was occupied by the Wizarding Wireless Network and its many wonderful broadcasts of Tornadoes games. James, a Wimbourne Wasps fan, did not entirely approve of this behavior. Other than a few scuffles over Quidditch and a few grueling Potions tests, however, March passed without much event.

The February snows melted away into drizzly, cold, rainy, near-springtime weather, and the sun peeked in more and more frequently above the castle, chasing away some of the lingering chill in the dungeons and warming the walls of the greenhouses. Altogether, the castle was becoming much more pleasant to inhabit. There were still a few freak flurries of snow, but none of them stayed on the ground longer than an hour or two before they were melted away by sunshine.

And so winter melted away into spring and March faded away into April, which, as it turned out, was a much more interesting month.

*              *              *

Lily had not been expecting owl post on the morning of April second. She now subscribed to _Quidditch Weekly_, but that had come a few days ago, so she was rather surprised (although not unpleasantly so) when her owl dropped a letter right on top of her bowl of cereal. Lily frowned as she retrieved the letter from her bowl of soggy corn flakes (not at her owl's aim, which was usually bad, mind you, but at her mother's handwriting on the front and the unusual thickness of the package), and opened it carefully. Inside were a small note from her mother and another envelope, this one with several postage stamps and Lily's address scribbled on the front, and a postmark from America on it. Intensely curious, Lily scanned the note from her mother before ripping open the second envelope. It was a letter from her cousin Willow in America!

Mimi sat down next to Lily as she began reading the letter from her cousin—a rather lengthy article; she'd written four pages, front and back. 

"Letter from my cousin," Lily mumbled, immersed. "Lives in America. Haven't seen her since I was six. Same age as me. Muggle, though, no idea I'm a witch."

"Oooh," Mimi said, with interest. "What's she have to say?"

"Lots of stuff. Tell you in a minute."

Mimi nodded and occupied herself with her toast until Lily finished the letter.

"Mostly just normal teenage stuff," Lily announced, folding up the letter. "Stuff about Aunt Maple and Uncle Cooper, stuff about…high school, I think she called it, and her Muggle friends and things like that."

"Where does she live?"

"New Jersey," Lily replied, then sighed rather wistfully. "I haven't seen her for ages…I _wish_ she still lived in England, but then her mother did marry an American businessman…I don't have that many relatives, you know; my dad was an only child, and Aunt Maple is my mother's only sister, and I think Uncle Cooper had a brother but…I think he died a couple years ago in this Muggle war they're having in Vietnam…really horrible…and all my grandparents have been dead for ages…so Willow's really the only cousin I have, and I never get to see her, she ought to be more interesting than dumb old Petunia and anyway, she _obviously_ doesn't hate me…"

"Wow," Mimi said softly, eyebrows raised. "You never told me all that before."

Lily shrugged. "I guess it just never came up."

"That's, like…really sad," Mimi said. Lily blinked and gave her a look.

"And why is that?" Lily asked, surprised.

"Well…I don't know…it's just…I have such a big family, and I see them all the time…well, when I'm at home, anyway, and…I couldn't imagine only having one cousin, I have a _ton_ of them, thirty or something ridiculous like that…and I have two brothers and two sisters, and a whole bunch of grandparents and great-grandparents and uncles and aunts and great-uncles and great-aunts, and…sorry. Am I making you sad?"

Lily laughed. "No! I just…I couldn't _imagine_ being related to all those people…how in the world would you keep _track_ of them, first of all, and secondly, how could you stand being _around_ them all the time, my family drives me crazy!"

Mimi shrugged. "Couldn't tell you that. I guess I'm just…used to it, or something."

Their conversation was brought to a rather rude halt as the first bell rang, signaling it was almost time for class. "Damn," Lily said. "I have to go…Arithmancy's pretty far…see you in Charms!" she called, slinging her Bottomless Bag over her shoulder. "Damn, this thing is getting heavy," she muttered as she left the Great Hall. "Better put a Weightlessness Charm on it one of these days."

(A/N: Famous last words…kind of.)

*              *              *

The next day at breakfast everyone was gossiping about the new edition of the _Daily Prophet_. On the front cover was a large, ominous photograph of a skull with a serpent coming out of its mouth hovering in the night sky over England. Last night, apparently, there had been a huge attack by Voldemort on a small Muggle village just outside of London. So far, the Ministry of Magic had found no survivors, only bodies. The bodies of parents, children, and grandparents, all stiff as boards, dead as doornails, and _Avada Kedavra_-d to death.

"_Wizards at the scene of the crime_," stated the _Prophet,_ "_have become rather reluctant to speak Voldemort's name, a name which only a few years ago was held in lower regard than even Jack the Ripper's. Now, however, the 'Voldemort' threat appears more menacing than ever, and many Ministry of Magic employees have began referring to the infamous wizard as "You-Know-Who", rather than speak the name of England's most dangerous criminal. After last night's attack on Duncrop, however, it appears their superstitions are not entirely unfounded. Velma Vestion, reporting from London.._"

"Wow," James whispered over his copy of the _Prophet_. "A whole village. Can you imagine?"

"Yeah," Sirius said, quietly. "Pretty horrible. But…if they didn't leave any survivors, I guess there aren't many people left to mourn them…small villages like that, usually it's only a couple families, you know? So…so it could have been…worse," he finished lamely.

Suddenly there was a shriek from halfway down the Gryffindor table, and Sirius and James looked over to see a young girl, a third year at most, with a long tumble of black hair, staring down at the table with her hands clamped over her mouth. Great shining tears spilled onto her cheeks suddenly, and she shook her head, still staring insistently at the tabletop (on which there must have been a _Daily Prophet_), before vaulting out of her seat and running out of the Great Hall. She was quickly followed by a blonde girl, who looked to be about the same age and was clutching a rolled-up edition of the _Daily Prophet_ in her hand.

Sirius and James looked at each other, rather dumbfounded.

"Unless, of course," Sirius said, "one of the people in the village happened to go to Hogwarts."

"Of course," James replied, still rather shocked.

And he was even more shocked when he saw Lily gather up her things and run out of the Hall as well.

*              *              *

Lily followed Wendy's blonde ponytail as it bobbed down the hallway. The third year was in a feverish pursuit of her best friend, who seemed to have disappeared. Both girls rounded a corner and Lily spotted Lin way up ahead, running madly toward what appeared to the dead end of a hallway, but she blew through a tapestry hanging on the wall and into a secret passageway, which Lily and Wendy both followed her through. Lin led them up and up and up, until they were in an area of the school Lily didn't recognize, and Lin collapsed beneath a large, highly inaccurate portrait of a glade of fairies, who all flitted to the edge of the portrait to look down at Lin.

Wendy ran over to Lin and fell to her knees beside her. Lily hung back a bit, feeling awkward, not entirely sure why she'd come. "Lin, I…" Wendy began, but Lin shook her head, sobbing.

"Don't," she said. "Just—don't—say—a—a—anything!" And with that, she fell spectacularly to pieces. Wendy put an arm around her, looking rather as though she didn't know what else to do. Lily bit her lip and shifted her weight uneasily. Wendy glanced up at her, finally, looking very said, and shook her head, looking as clueless as Lily felt. Lily set down her bag gently and walked over to Wendy and Lin, sitting down across from them.

For the longest time, Lin just cried. Words didn't seem to have any more meaning, so no one spoke. Lily felt as though Lin had crossed a great void, and she and Wendy were standing on the other side, trying to reach across and finding their arms were much too short for it.

Lin looked, a few times, as though she would have liked to speak, but couldn't manage it, and just ended up shaking her head and then burying it into her hands, crying again.

The bell rang, but no one moved. After a while, Lin's tears dissipated a bit, enough so she didn't keep her head buried in her hands. Lily supplied several Kleenex for her to blow her nose on, and Lin leaned back against the wall, staring out in front of her, eyes unfocused and teary, still silent.

"Lin," Wendy attempted again, but Lin shook her head and Wendy fell silent. Lin sniffed and leaned her head on her friend's shoulder.

"I can't believe they're gone," she whispered. "Just…like that. All…gone!" she cried, and succumbed to another bout of crying. Lily bit her lip and stared at the girl, feeling very concerned and useless.

The bell rang again, but none of them got up. After about fifteen minutes, Lily heard footsteps, and looked up to see Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall walking down the hallway.

"Miss Waters," Dumbledore said softly, crouching down to meet Lin's eye level. He reached out and touched her shoulder gently. Lin looked up at him with teary eyes and tried to control her crying.

"D—d--don't m--make me g--go to cl--class," Lin choked. "P—p—p—please."

Dumbledore shook his head. "No, of course not. But we can't have you hiding up here. Come with me." 

Lin nodded and wiped at her eyes, rather pathetically, and Wendy helped her to her rather unsteady feet. Lily rose to her feet beside them, feeling even more out of place than before.

Then Professor Dumbledore, in a gesture that surprised everyone including Lin, scooped the young girl in his arms and carried her decidedly down the hallway. 

"Poor dear," sighed Professor McGonagall, watching as the headmaster carried her off. "We need to get you two back to class," she said sadly, turning to Wendy and Lily. "Come on."

Wendy shook her head stubbornly. "I want to stay with Lin."

Professor McGonagall shook her head firmly. "Professor Dumbledore is going to have a few words with her, and you two are to go back to class immediately. You will be able to speak with your friend later."

"But—" Wendy protested yet again, and Professor McGonagall sent her a sharp look that shut her up. Wendy sighed. "Fine," she mumbled, and both girls followed their professor down the hallway.

*              *              *

Everyone looked at Lily with intense curiosity when she entered Potions thirty minutes late, but she shook her head at all the questions and refused to speak about anything unrelated to Potions. After class, James caught up with her and pestered her all the way to Ravenclaw Tower, where she was headed to drop off her bag before going to lunch—it really was getting too heavy for her to carry everywhere.

"I don't want to talk about it," Lily said for the hundredth time as they neared the Tower.

James sighed. "Fine. But I want to talk to you. Do you want to take a walk?"

Lily shrugged. "Sure. Why not? Tiddlywinks," she said, and the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower opened before her.

"Aha! Now I know your password!" James said, smiling. Lily shrugged.

"Doesn't matter. We're changing it tomorrow."

"Damn!"

Lily smiled. "Hold on. I'll be right back."

James waited for her as she dropped her back off in her room, and then they walked out to the grounds in silence.

"So," Lily said, as she and James meandered toward the lake, "what did you want to talk to me about?"

James took her hand, and Lily looked up at him, rather surprised. "Lily," he said, looking rather serious.

"Yes?" Lily asked, feeling rather alarmed.

"I…I just…well, you saw the _Prophet_ this morning, obviously."

"Right," Lily agreed, nodding, and staring at their intertwined hands. Funny how lovely that felt.

"Seems like the attacks are getting worse."

"They are."  
  


"Feels like the world is changing, a little."

"I guess."

"I just…if anything happened to me, or…to you, I'd…I'd want you to know…" he gulped, looking rather uncomfortable and embarrassed. Lily put a hand on his cheek and met his gaze.

"I know, James," she whispered, then hesitated for a moment before speaking. "And don't…don't think I don't want you to know that about me, either."

James nodded, then looked at her solemnly for a moment before closing the small space between them and kissing her.

Funny how lovely _that_ felt, too.

*              *              *

April crept by slowly. Classes became long and arduous, and Lily was grateful for the small reprieves Saturday mornings gave. She'd become so thorough in her work that it all took longer than usual, and as a result she was usually cooped up in the library during Saturday evenings and through all of Sunday. Saturday morning was a time for her to relax.

On one particular Saturday--the Saturday before the Hufflepuff/Slytherin Quidditch match that would decide who advanced to the Quidditch Cup (if Slytherin managed to scrape together a win, they would advance; if not, Ravenclaw would face top-seeded Gryffindor for the Cup)—Lily was curled up in a chair in the Ravenclaw Common Room, reading a book about Potions (just for fun, which Mimi found insane) and listening to the soothing patter of rain against the windows. Mimi, apparently, was not so satisfied.

"I'm bored," she whined. "I hate rain. Rain is so boring. It's Saturday and I can't _do_ anything!"

"Why don't you paint your nails again?" Lily suggested, not looking up from her new Potions book.

"No," Mimi groaned. "I'm tired of paining my nails."

"Do you have any homework?" Lily asked, although she knew this would lead nowhere; Lily wasn't even prepared to start her own homework yet.

"How can you _say_ that? I feel like I'm still sitting in Thorne's Potions class!" Mimi shuddered. "It was _awful…_"

  
Mimi did have a point. Professor Thorne had been pretty brutal yesterday.

"Sorry I brought it up," Lily said. "Well…do you have anyone you need to owl?"

"I don't _feel_ like writing a letter," Mimi sighed, leaning backwards over the side of her chair and staring at the floor.

Lily groaned and set her book in her lap, agitated. "You sound like my little brother! What do you _really_ want to do?"

Mimi sighed again. "Watch a movie," she admitted glumly.

"Hmm," Lily said. She knew the feeling. It was hard to shake Muggle habits sometimes. "Well…you could read a novel. I know it's not the same, but.." she shrugged. "It's _something._"

"Well, I would, but…the library doesn't really carry any sappy romance novels."

"That's true," Lily agreed, racking her brain for a solution. "Oh! I know! I have a little romance book in my bag upstairs. It's under my bed. You can read it if you want"

"Cool," Mimi said, leaning back up and jumping out of the chair, running up the stairs to the girls' dormitory. "_Lily_!" came her distressed cry a moment later.

Lily groaned again and set down her Potions book. She trudged up the stairs to the girls' dormitory. "What?" she demanded of Mimi, who was tugging hopelessly at something stuck under Lily's bed.

"I—can't—get—it—out," panted Mimi, plopping onto the floor. Lily frowned.

"There's no way it's _stuck_," she informed Mimi, looking at her Bottomless Bag. "It's enchanted with an Anti-Expansion Spell so it doesn't get all huge and bulky."

"Yeah, well, I think whoever enchanted it forgot to put on a weightlessness spell," Mimi said. "That thing is _heavy_!"

Lily cursed under her breath. "Damn," she said, more loudly. "I've been _meaning to do that…well, I can't enchant it if I can't see it. Help me get it out from under the bed, would you?" she asked, and she and Mimi tugged at Lily's beloved bag. It slid out rather easily, and Lily pulled out her wand, setting the charm on it as quickly as she could, and then, to avoid Mimi's whining at her further, Summoned the novel from the depths of her bag and handed it to her (currently annoying) friend. _

"Thank you, Lily!" Mimi said happily, plopping down onto her bed with the book.

"Oh, no!" she cried as Lily reached the door to the dormitory. "I've already _read this one!"_

Lily groaned. This was going to be a very _long_ afternoon…

*              *              *

On Sunday the weather cleared up spectacularly, and nearly the entire school was sprawled out on the lawn enjoying the sunshine. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were lounging by the lake with their feet in the water, and Lily, Mimi and Melody walked around together, discussing nothing and everything and procrastinating their homework.

Sirius and James hailed them over, and they joined the boys by the lake, where James was taking a great deal of enjoyment lazily playing with the Golden Snitch, which he had somehow nabbed, and Peter was watching him in awe as he let the Snitch float a foot or so away before snatching it from the air. Mimi and Remus got into a conversation about Astronomy, Lily and Melody were discussing plans for the summer (Melody's uncle had recently owled her to invite her to America and Melody wasn't entirely sure she still wanted to go), and Sirius was watching James and Peter's reaction to James with detached amusement.

Lily, after about fifteen minutes of Peter's insane gasping and applause at James's reflexes, gave a rather annoyed sigh and shot a look at James.

"What?" James asked, grinning cheekily and grabbing the Snitch out of the air without even looking at it.

"You know what," Lily snapped. "That thing with the Snitch is getting annoying. Just put it away."

James grinned widely. "Maybe I will," he said, releasing it again. "And maybe I won't." He moved to grab the Snitch again, but his fist closed on thin air, and he blinked and looked in extreme surprise and shock at Lily, who was holding the struggling golden orb in her hand and staring at him smugly.

James gaped at her. "You—how did you—"

"You're not the only one with good reflexes around here, James," Lily informed him, smirking.

"But—but that's—you—that's _fantastic_!" James cried. Sirius and Melody looked equally impressed. Peter was practically beside himself with astonishment. Remus and Mimi were still deeply in conversation and completely oblivious to the whole affair.

"You should play Quidditch, Lily," Sirius suggested.

"Not _should_—you _have to!" James insisted._

Lily looked back and forth between Sirius and James in alarm. They both had glints in their eyes that Lily did not at all like.

"Whoa," she said, holding up her hands. "Don't you two go getting _any ideas. I just __watch Quidditch, I don't __play it."_

"But you _should_," Sirius insisted.

"I agree," Melody chimed in. "That was _fantastic_, Lily. And all those times you've spotted the Snitch—I'd say you're better at it than James!"

"Hey, now!" James protested, pink spots appearing in his cheeks. "I wouldn't say _that."_

"I would," Melody countered. "She took the Snitch right out from under your nose. You can't get much better than that."

All three turned their eyes on Lily hungrily.

"No," Lily protested. "_No_! Absolutely _not_!"

"I thought you _liked_ Quidditch, Lily-bean," Sirius reminded her.

"I _do_!" Lily insisted. "I _love_ Quidditch! But I just love _watching _it!"

"You'll change your mind," James assured her.

"Hey! I can't _fly_, remember?"

"That can be fixed," Sirius said quickly.

"Guys—no—the answer is _no_—don't _look_ at me like that, I am _not_ going to play Quidditch! Guys! _Stop_!"

*              *              *

Friday was not turning out to be a very good day for Lily. After spending a long night studying for a Charms test, she overslept and ended up late for Charms (oh, the irony!), where she nearly didn't finish the exam within the class time. By lunch, she was feverishly hungry, and didn't perform very well near the end of Herbology class as a result—she nearly got her arm bitten off by the Venomous Tentactula and managed to get Gertrude's hair caught on fire.

By the time Lily stormed into the dormitories to drop her bag off before lunch, she was in a very foul mood. She tossed the Bottomless Bag on the bed and tossed her wand carelessly on top of it (it was getting rather dirty and she needed to polish it; she wouldn't remember if she just kept it in her pocket) before leaving the dormitory for lunch (an occasion which, thankfully, passed without much event). Upon her return to the dormitory, Lily discovered that her wand was no longer on top of her Bottomless Bag.

"DAMN IT!" Lily yelled, figuring the stupid thing had fallen _into _the bag rather than landing on top of it. Well, she was certainly in no mood to look for it now—it took long enough for her to find large books in that bag, why bother looking for a small, think stick of wood? She'd never find it without someone else's help.

"I hate today," Lily said dispassionately, and then crawled into bed and pulled the covers over her head, and eventually fell asleep. 

She woke, abruptly, at 11:13 PM, for no apparent reason, and suddenly remembered that she needed to find her wand. Feeling groggy and vaguely in need of brushing her teeth, Lily leaned over the side of her bed and groped for her bag. She located it and dragged it toward her, pulling it far open and peering inside. There was a little light in the dormitory, but not much, so she couldn't see very well, but that hardly seemed to matter, as her eyes refused to focus, so she just groped blindly for her wand, yawning. 

Lily's hand hit several books, a few rolls of parchment, and even her quill, which tickled her hand, but she was having no luck finding the wand. Sighing, she forced her eyes to focus, and peered into the back again. Her eyes were sharp, and she picked out the figures in her bag rather more clearly than she'd expected. Quill, book, book, book, ink bottle, parchment, book, book…book, book, book, another quill…wait, no…that wasn't a quill, that was her…wand! Success! 

Lily reached her hand in eagerly for the wand, but instead of grabbing it she simply buried it beneath a large pile of books. Apparently her fingers weren't as awake as her eyes.

"_No_!" Lily moaned. "This is _not_ happening!" She stretched her arm out and grabbed for it, but to no avail. "Damn," she whispered, and poked her head into the bag again, searching for the lost wand. She spotted it…it was _way down in the bag, but if she leaned over a little more, maybe she could get it. No, not yet…a _little _more…just a __little farther…no, she still wasn't getting it…. Lily wriggled over the side of her bed a little more, stretching her hand as far as it would go, but her arm simply wasn't long enough. She leaned over as far as she possibly could, so she almost lost her balance, and the tips of her fingers made contact with the wand. Lily leaned over just a _little_ bit more so her fingers could close around the wand, and…_

And lost her balance, finally, toppling over the side of her bed and falling headfirst into her Bottomless Bag, fingers closed firmly around her beloved wand.

*              *              *

"Where's Lily?" Mimi asked of Matt and Susie the next morning at breakfast.

Matt shrugged. "Like I know. Don't you sleep in the same dormitory?"

"Well…yeah, but when I woke up this morning she was already gone."

"I haven't seen her, either," Susie said.

"Huh," Mimi said, frowning at her oatmeal. "Well…I don't imagine she'd miss the game. I know she's not commentating again, McGonagall would kill her, so she can't be there already…"

"Knowing her she's just finishing up some homework or something," Matt said.

"There's a thought," Mimi said.  "I suppose you're right. Oh, well…I s'pose we'll see her on the pitch…"

*              *              *

The game ended quickly, with a Hufflepuff triumph, 160-30, and Lily did not come.

Mimi was rather concerned.

*              *              *

It was rather dark in a Bottomless Bag, Lily noted, holding onto the velvet wall of her bag, mostly for comfort, and staring rather forlornly into the dark. She would have lit her wand up, but she didn't think it would do her much good. What would she see…a way out? Not likely. Probably she'd just see the black abyss that formed the theoretical "bottom" to her bag and begin feeling utterly depressed.

Of course, she could light her wand up to read a book…there was no shortage of them in here…

"Hello?" Lily called into the darkness. "Is anyone there? I'm stuck…HELLO?"

Her voice echoed into the abyss. There was no reply.

*              *              *

"Lily!" Mimi called, striding into the girls' dormitory immediately after the game. "Are you in here? LILY!"

A muffled shriek came from somewhere near Lily's bed. 

"Lily?" Mimi asked, whirling around, but all she saw was Lily's Bottomless Bag, laying rather haphazardly at the foot of Lily's bed. "Huh," Mimi said, frowning, and walked over to Lily's bed, picking up the bag. "Maybe James'll know what's become of her…maybe this has a tracking charm on it or something…" Without thinking, Mimi slung the bag over shoulder and left the girls' dormitory.

*              *              *

James, as it turned out, had absolutely no idea what had become of Lily, and was about as clueless as Lily. They sat discussing this for some time in the library before, quite suddenly, a loud voice met their ears.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Mimi and James both jumped, and James stared with horror and fascination at the Bottomless Bag Mimi had carelessly tossed on the floor.

"LILY?" James said incredulously, pulling open the bag and peering inside.

"JAMES! GET ME OUT OF THIS THING!" Lily cried, looking up at him desperately.

Mimi couldn't help herself. She burst into hysterical laughter and was extremely unhelpful as James tried to figure out how to get Lily out of the bag.

"Lily, I can't reach you," James called down to her.

"You're not just going to LEAVE me here, are you?"  
  


"Of course not!"

"Well, GET ME OUT!"

"Lily…_how_?"

"I DON'T CARE! Summon me if you have to!"

"That's not a bad idea, actually…"  
  


Mimi recovered from her bout of laughter. "You can't be serious," she said, sounding rather alarmed.

"You bet I am," James replied seriously, pushing up his sleeves, and, before Mimi could protest further, shouted "_Accio_!" and, with a great, painful-sounding _SMACK!_ Lily flew right into him and pushed him backwards onto the floor.

Mimi blinked at them, and they both lay there for a moment, motionless.

"Ow," James moaned, after several minutes of contemplation.

Lily grunted in agreement. Then, after a second, she pushed herself off of James's chest and rolled onto her back on the floor next to him. After a moment of consideration, she spoke as well.

"I missed the Quidditch game, didn't I?"

"Yeah."

"Damn."

*              *              *

**End Sixth Year.**

*          *          *

A/N: Ha ha ha. And there you have it! Liked it? Loved it? Hated it? REVIEW!!!!!

Just a note: THIS STORY IS NOT OVER, I repeat, THIS STORY IS NOT OVER! IT CONTINUES _UP UNTIL LILY AND JAMES ARE MARRIED AND HAVE HARRY!!!!!_

_PLEASE_, DO NOT ASK ME THIS QUESTION AGAIN!!!!! I don't mean to be crabby, but I have had SO many people ask, and I REALIZE it is a LONG time between updates most of the time (and this is all my fault, I know), but I've announced the fact that "Eyes…" continues MANY times, and I think at the end of the last few chapters, and I am TIRED of repeating myself! *pants* Anyway…

And now, *almost* my favorite part of the chapter, it's the thank-you section! A huge, gargantuan, colossal, exorbitant, whopping, stupendous, grand, plentiful, sweeping, skookum (according to thesaurus.com, this is a word) THANK-YOU goes to (in no particular order except which I find them on my review page on ff.net):

**Elfe de chocolat**—I love you. I love your reviews. You have no idea. Even though they were short, they were still so full of wonderful things I feel like giving you a hug. You used the word EVILISHLY, for heaven's sake! That's the GREATEST WORD EVER! I LOVE it! And you said Yeehaw! I LOVE YOU!

Amelia 

**Dinis**

**BrightEyesGirl**

**Star*dust3ANNOYEDW/AUG.2**—Love your screen name, dear. You're in the dedication, and I can't think of anything else to say. Hope you were amused, and that there wasn't too much fluffy stuff in there for you.

Steph 

**Marmell Adium**—Glad it made you laugh.

**Crazee-canadian-goalie119**—I do NOT sound like J.K. Rowling! My GOODNESS! I might be good, but I'm not THAT good. (I appreciate the compliment, though.)

Goalies8goalies 

**Erica the Flying Tree**—I just have to ask: how is one a flying tree? Must be interesting. I want to be a flying tree! But then I might have to change my screen name, and that would just be a big miss. Do you know, I think I may be the only Sierra Charm in the entire internet? So if you see a Sierra Charm somewhere it's probably me. Of course, I could be wrong. I haven't been everywhere on the internet. Obviously.

**Dark Empress Bell**—I love the length of my chapters. In fact I wish I would make them longer. Especially this one. It should have been longer, especially after the wait. But if you don't like the long chapters you might not get this far anyway. Ah, well…

Kat44 

**Ilovedraco5**

**Moiraine of Avalon—**Loverly review. As a matter of fact, I have considered publishing some of my writing…I wrote a novel when I was twelve, and I was all intent on sending it in, but then I procrastinated too much before editing it, and now I can't look at it without wanting to tear it to shreds and rewrite the whole damn thing from scratch, only better…*sigh* That's how it goes.

Veronica 

**Fate2**

**The Great Offenders**—YOU HAVE A SISTER NAMED TUESDAY??? SERIOUSLY??????? Wow. That's…that's cool. Among other things. And…had the Potters thought of Floo Powder, how were the Evans's supposed to get their car back to their house?

**TrinityMalfoy527**

**Fugitive**—Ooooh, a five-star rating! Yayness! And…yeah, if you want faster updates, you are soooooo looking at the wrong author. But believe me, I'm working on it.

**Katoozy**—Yay! You're so enthusiastic! I feel loved!

**Wildcat ohrya**—I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!! Seriously! You are one of my very best and most loyal and most faithful reviewers, and I love you to death forever and ever…and your reviews are so LOOOONG and wonderful and…..I LOVE YOU!

Reader4life 

**Megan**—hmm….actually, you know what's funny about Lily being in Ravenclaw is now I seriously think she should have been in Gryffindor, but…..*shrug* That's how it goes. Glad you appreciated it though. ^_^

**Alyssapie**—ARE YOU COMPLETELY INSANE? YOU PRINTED OUT THIS ENTIRE STORY? Wow. My mom would KILL me if I printed out this entire story…and it's MINE…I feel loved. And I loved your review. It was very fantastic. I apologize this chapter took so long to post. I hope you enjoyed it. ^_^ 

Carolinus Took 

**Wraith5681**—Interesting you mention Tropical Fishy. I was actually in correspondence with her a while ago….crazy Aussie…but she appears to have faded out of the fan fiction world, she hasn't updated "Just as Long as We're Together" in years; I don't think she'll ever finish it. But I e-mailed her a long while ago to ask permission to borrow a plot point from one of her L/J fics….pretty sure it was "The Flower and the Stag"…anyway, it'll come up in the next chapter. Sorry if I didn't e-mail you, you asked me if I wanted to hear your storyline, and I definitely want to hear it…although I realize you may have asked me this in March; my apologies…

ChellBell 

**Bubblegum*girl**—LOL, no, that was NOT the end. This story goes up until Lily and James get married!!!!! We're only at the halfway point!

**LivEvil**—I don't like Luc either. That was the point. ^_~

Raspberry Lip Gloss 

**Lily Lupin the first**—James and Lily are definitely still working on their relationship. I have no idea what Melody and Sirius are doing right now. Avoiding talking to each other about it, most likely. They were hardly in this chapter. I apologize. Eve Decker will return and become important to the plot, but not until spring of Seventh Year. And she will not be coming to Hogwarts. Remus will get a girlfriend, I promise. He has not had one yet, but I'm working on that, too.

**Britz**—Hee hee hee. Thought you'd like the New York/Quodpot comment. Bwa ha ha. I'm so evil.

**Jtyw**

**SquirtCrsh**

**Celine**

**Hpfreak**

**Black Ice**

**Lama**

**Pinkchicklet**—I was not insulting Canada. Melody was actually insulting America, if I remember correctly. My apologies. I figure I can get away with poking some fun at my own country, but I didn't intend to offend you.

**Professor Weasley**

**Everblue3—**Hmm. About the sequel. It wasn't actually a sequel. I actually wrote that one first. "Eyes…" is technically the prequel, but it doesn't really look that way, does it? I loved your review, though. Extremely well written, as far as reviews go. I stink at reviews. Yours was superb. Glad you like my characters. I do try. And some of the characters introduced in the last chapter WILL come back; others probably won't. It's amazing I remember things from past chapters; sometimes I seriously forget, especially little details, and I have to go back and look and look and look….ugh…curses on me for writing them so long…but then I like them that way…*sigh* Glad you enjoyed it. ^_^

**Bixxxou**—Sorry. Everybody has to grow up sometime. They're still young yet, though. There was a fight in this chapter. It's all good. Sorry the long chapters and long waits between updates throw you off, though. I need to work on that.

**Mystikalolo**—Erm. Don't think there's going to be any more pranking from here on out…or at least, not as much as there was before, but I think parts of this chapter were pretty amusing in their own right…I had fun writing the Quidditch games and Lily falling into her Bottomless Bag, anyway. So, no more pranks planned, but the story will still be amusing in its own right. Can you handle it?

Chocolate Taco 

**Bibliagrl—**We WILL see more of Eve, but not for a long while. She'll pop up at least once more in this story, but her main role doesn't come until "A Lily Story"…or, no, really, it's the sequel to "A Lily Story", but…hopefully I'll get there _eventually_…

Izzy-bh—Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone's on me about the updates…I'm sorry, but I'm just not good at it. I wait till I get inspired, then I write the chapter in like two weeks and post it at one-thirty in the morning (look, the clock says 1:28 AM right now, as I type) and am too lazy to proofread the end. But the first part is proofread, at least. I promise. I've read it over several times. I apologize, though, for the inconveniences. I'd get a beta-reader but I'm too damn impatient. I'll work on it. For now, though, I hope you enjoy the chapter. 

Yeah, okay, that's all……..REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!


	11. Houses Divided

A/N: So I really wanted to get this chapter up before Christmas. And then...that didn't happen. So I decided it might be nice to get it up before New Year's. And then...that didn't happen either. So here I am, on the very last day of Winter Break, posting a very short chapter at two in the morning with sleep clouding my vision and the tapping of computer keys pounding viciously into my head. (Well, okay, not so much the last part, but whatever.)  
  
I apologize for the length of the chapter. Severely. I intended it to be much longer, and for the chapter title to make much more sense, but then I decided that none of it was important and I scrapped half of it and got to the good part very quickly. (And let me tell you, if I hadn't written that entire last scene in advance this chapter would not be getting posted tonight.) I'm excited, though, because finally, finally, FINALLY, after two years and ten chapters of exposition, WE HAVE REACHED THE PLOT!!!! The plot begins at the very end of this chapter. Trust me, you will recognize it when it comes.  
  
One last thing before we begin: Sadly, finals are coming up, and sadly, my grades are below par. So I will not be writing anything between now and the end of finals, and really, I wouldn't expect anything from me until at least February. But even then I wouldn't hope for February. Let's shoot for March, and then I might end up posting before my birthday...(which is in April)...or maybe I'll just post in May...hm...who knows? Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and I'll try and post before the end of the school year.  
  
Chapter Eleven  
  
Houses Divided  
  
The sun announced its exit from the land of the living in a blur of orange, pink, and purple, with a giant blood red streak of farewell painted across the sky. Lily sighed and leaned back against James, staring as the clouds became tinged with pastel pink and took on the appearance of giant cotton candy blobs. The moon began to glow faintly in the eastern part of the sky, and Lily drank in the beautiful scenery hungrily with her eyes, wrapping James's arms around her and sighing softly, feeling very mushy and romantic and silly all at the same time.  
  
"Isn't it beautiful?" she whispered.  
  
"Mmm-hmm," James agreed, sounding distracted. Lily twisted her head around to find that he was not gazing at the sunset at all, but rather at her.  
  
"James, you're not even looking at it."  
  
"I'm looking at the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," he replied, and leaned into kiss her. Lily closed her eyes and let him, but was disappointed to find that his mouth tasted rather like cotton. It was very…dry, and…not so warm, and…cottony…  
  
Lily pulled her head back, opened her eyes, and glared angrily at her favorite green pillow, which was lying innocently on her bed.   
  
Oh. So she'd been dreaming again.  
  
How annoying.  
  
If Lily didn't stop having dreams about James, then she wouldn't be able to put him out of her mind, and she would get distracted at work all the time, and she would just sit for hours on end wishing she could see him, and her summer would become completely unbearable. Although as far as Lily was concerned, it really wouldn't be much of a stretch to get to that point, seeing as how the summer was pretty miserable anyway.  
  
Lily rolled over in bed and let memories of the last few weeks at Hogwarts drift through her mind in a haze. Ravenclaw had gone on to beat the Gryffindors at the Quidditch Cup; Lily and James and Sirius and Melody and several others had all been tacked up on the new Auror Training List, which was to be decided with finality at the beginning of seventh year.   
  
Lily had scored top on nearly all of her exams, except two; James had beaten her in Transfiguration, and Severus Snape had beaten her in Potions. Lily frowned. She was still angry about that one. Her Purifying Potion had been absolutely perfect; just because she didn't spend her lunch hours lurking around the potions dungeon laying praise all over Professor Thorne didn't mean she didn't deserve top marks. Honestly. If you asked Lily (which no one ever did, mind you), Professor Thorne had a thing or two to learn about Potion-making himself.  
  
Quite suddenly Lily's alarm clock went off, and she jumped, and glared at the evil little piece of machinery as she turned it off. Never mind that she had been awake already; it was still an annoying thing to hear, and she had no desire to get out of her nice warm bed and shiver through an early-morning shower before work.  
  
Work. What a strange concept. What a strange thing to be burdened with, in the Muggle world. Her life at home was so radically different from life at Hogwarts that she had felt rather like a fish out of water when she'd first stepped into her house this summer, but to be working in a Muggle coffee shop alongside other Muggles and serving Muggles all day long...it was almost surreal. Every day she felt herself detaching a little from Hogwarts and magic and the life she'd grown so accustomed to after all these years. Slowly she felt herself growing distant from the magic of Potter's cottage, the charm of Hogsmeade, and the hospitality of Windkey. Slowly the dread and fear regarding "You Know Who" and his "Death Eaters" was seeping away, back into the world of magic.  
  
Here there was just earth, and sky, and spirit, and no magic at all except for the magic of life, and Lily, every day, was slowly discovering that it was not so bad to be a Muggle after all.   
  
And besides, if she thought of magic then she thought of James, and if she thought of James for more than a second she became terribly homesick for Hogwarts, or Potter's Cottage, or perhaps either, or both; there was some strange connection between the two, although Lily did not know what, but whatever quality it was that connected them, it made Lily feel at home.  
  
Lily's alarm clocked beeped at her again, and she fixed a glare on it that would have turned most other alarm clocks to stone; hers, however, kept beeping in a high-pitched monotone, and she was forced to pick it up and throw it across the room in frustration.  
  
Unfortunately, this action had no impact whatsoever on the clock's beeping. It smacked into the wall and dropped to the floor, where it lay beeping as insistently as ever, and Lily was forced to get out of bed and stomp across the room to turn it off. She sighed and dropped the alarm clock carelessly back on the floor before stumbling across her very messy room to the hallway, where Petunia had stuck her head out of her door.  
  
"What's all the noise?" she mumbled.   
  
"Just my alarm clock," Lily replied.   
  
"What'd it do?" Petunia asked sleepily.  
  
"Oh, nothing. It's just working again, that's all. Go back to sleep."  
  
"Well, you might consider getting a quieter one. It keeps waking me up, and I'm supposed to be having company tonight! I need my rest!" Petunia snapped before retreating into her room.  
  
Lily rolled her eyes and stepped into the bathroom, where she glanced at the clock on the wall and realized that it was fifteen minutes ahead of the one in her room.  
  
"Oh...bullocks!" Lily exclaimed, and set about taking her shower and brushing her teeth and all other sort of cleanliness-related activities before rushing into her room, fishing around for her uniform, throwing her wet hair into a messy bun, and sprinting out the front door. She ran three blocks to the bus station (where she barely managed to catch her bus), and arrived at work nearly on time.  
  
"Almost late again, Evans," her boss, Ian, said as she hurriedly punched in.  
  
"Almost, but not quite," Lily replied, smiling cheekily. "I like to be punctual. No sense in arriving too early, you know."  
  
"Is that like 'why do today what you can put off until tomorrow'?" asked another voice, and Lily turned to see Ethan, another employee, coming through the kitchen door with a tray of tall glasses.  
  
"Something like that, yes," Lily agreed, taking several glasses off the tray as he set them down and placing them on their proper shelf.  
  
Ian checked his watch. "Fifteen minutes till opening. Who wants to start brewing coffee?"  
  
Ethan and Lily looked at each other.   
  
"He does," Lily said quickly, pointing. "I'll get things set up out here."   
  
Ethan glared at Lily as she busied herself with taking down the chairs that had been stacked on top of their respective tables and arranging them in a more convenient manner. The coffee machine was a Thing of Purest Evil, and the only one who really knew how to operate it was Kiki, the general manager of the place, but she wasn't working today. Ethan hit the coffee machine until, with a squeal and a shuddering crunch, it began grinding coffee beans. The thing was ancient, and took forever to brew a pot of coffee, and in all fairness it should have been thrown out years ago, but for some reason it made even the oddest of coffee beans taste delicious, so it stayed.   
  
"So what's with you and this 'James' fellow you keep talking about?" Ethan asked, as he busied himself with making some decaf.   
  
"Oh, it's nothing," Lily replied. "He's just hopelessly obsessed with me, that's all." She grinned for a moment, imagining the look James would have had on his face if he'd heard her say that.  
  
"Well, I can see why," Ethan replied, glancing at her over his shoulder.  
  
Lily's cheeks went a bit pink. Ethan normally flirted with her, but this morning he was apparently feeling a bit more forward than usual. "Can you?" she asked, feeling amused and flattered.  
  
"I guess it's just too bad for him you're going to be stuck in a coffee shop with me all summer."  
  
"It is tragic," Lily agreed. "He'll never get to see me whip up a mocha. And I make a mean mocha."  
  
"Well, I'll give you that. But your mochas have nothing on my cappuccinos."  
  
"The steaming machine hates me!" Lily protested. "It knows I'm there! It won't let me make good froth!"  
  
"Sure, Lily. You just keep telling yourself that."  
  
"Oh, shut up," Lily snapped playfully.  
  
"All right, you two, enough flirting," Ian said, reappearing. "Shop's about to open. Let's get the pastries out."  
  
Lily and Ethan sighed and both made for the back of the store.   
  
"Zelda and Fran are both grumpy this morning, just so you know," Ian warned as they both disappeared into the kitchen.   
  
Zelda was the name of their walk-in freezer. Someone had once accidentally turned it to the coldest setting, and then the gauge had broken and nobody had been able to figure out how to lower the temperature, so everything was twice as cold as it should have been and it was usually very hard to get the door open. Fran was their resident chef, and she didn't like to be bothered while she was cooking, especially if it was before noon and she hadn't had her standard three cups of coffee yet.  
  
Lily and Ethan both put a hand on the door of Zelda and yanked with all their might. With a loud pop!, like that of a suction cup being pulled off of a smooth surface, the freezer door swung open. Lily and Ethan trudged into the depths of Zelda and recovered some of yesterday's pastries, which they stuck in the oven for a few minutes before bringing them into the main dining area and putting them on display.  
  
Ian left Lily and Ethan to handle the rest of the opening and went in the back to face the wrath of Fran (and to check up on the muffins she was supposed to have been making). Lily and Ethan ran around the shop as the clock ticked closer to six o'clock and placed sugar and butter packets on various tables.  
  
The clock clicked to six and nothing happened. Ethan and Lily continued to prepare the shop, brewing more coffee, wiping off counters, preparing the dining area, bringing more pastries and fresh muffins and donuts out from the kitchen.   
  
At six-fifteen their first customer arrived in the shop, accompanied by the tinkling of the bell that hung above the door.  
  
"Good morning," Lily greeted the man as he came in the door. His name was Thomas, and he came to the shop around this time every morning before heading off to work. He wore plain brown pants and a wrinkled work shirt, and he removed his tattered green hat as he approached the counter and tucked it under his arm, next to his rolled-up newspaper.  
  
"What'll it be this morning?" Lily asked, and he surveyed the glass pastry case, considering.   
  
"Donuts, I think," he replied, taking a seat at the counter. "Two of the glazed ones, and a cup of coffee."  
  
"Coming right up," Lily replied, taking two fresh donuts out of the case and filling a coffee cup right to the brim before placing it on a saucer and sliding it across the counter. "Just let me know if you need a refill, then."  
  
"Thanks very much," Thomas replied, taking out his newspaper and disappearing behind it.  
  
Lily punched his order into the computer and then stood at the counter, watching Ethan write the daily specials on the wipe-off board and feeling extremely sleepy. She supposed she could have been restocking the mini fridge with whipped cream and milk and chocolate syrup and the like, but she really didn't feel like moving, and besides, it was very interesting to watch Ethan write on the wipe-off board. He was a rather talented artist, and did the most fantastic little drawings of people drinking cups of coffee, which really fascinated Lily, as she was about as artistic as a rhinoceros was graceful.  
  
Unfortunately for Lily, she did not have the opportunity to stand around and watch Ethan draw on the wipe off board, because at that moment, Ian came out of the back looking very annoyed (probably because of one argument or another with Fran) and snapped at her to do some work, at which point she decided to fight with the coffee machine again, and eventually coaxed it into brewing her some more coffee. By the time she had finished with this, Ethan had already hung up the wipe-off board and they had several more customers. One of them ordered a mocha, and Lily was forced to run into the back to fetch some more supplies so she could make it.  
  
After all these customers were taken care of, Lily managed a look at the wipe-off board, and was rather surprised to find a drawing of herself on it. She was depicted as fighting with the coffee machine, and her hair was looking rather frizzy. Self-consciously, she patted her hair before turning to Ethan and poking him in the stomach.  
  
"My hair does not look like that," she informed him, frowning.   
  
"It does sometimes, when we get really busy," Ethan replied.  
  
"It does not," Lily protested. "My hair is…perfect!"  
  
Ethan laughed. "Of course it is, Lily."  
  
"Oh, and I expect because you're an artist you think you just notice everything," Lily snapped playfully.  
  
"Of course I do. It's my job," Ethan said, puffing out his chest. Lily whacked him with a spoon.  
  
"Cocky git."  
  
"Silly ass."  
  
"Arrogant buffoon."  
  
"Self-centered drama queen."  
  
"Yes, well, someone has to be," Lily replied dramatically. "Who else is the world going to revolve around, if not me?"  
  
"Oh, stuff it, you two," snapped another voice. Fran appeared, carrying a tray of steaming bagels. "You're making me sick."  
  
"And a very lovely morning to you, too, sunshine," Lily said merrily, smiling cheekily.  
  
Fran glared at her, and Lily continued smiling as she poured a cup of coffee. Fran really was very grumpy in the mornings, but for some reason she liked Lily, and she did not protest when Lily offered her the steaming cup of roasted almond blend. Fran was not so fond of Ethan, who she glared at before retreating into the kitchen. Ethan shuddered after she left.  
  
"That woman," he said. "Every time she looks at me, I swear she's plotting to somehow turn me into a newt."  
  
Lily snorted with laughter. "A newt?" she repeated, giggling. Ethan grinned. (He had a very handsome grin.)  
  
"Well, I imagine I'll get better if she does."  
  
"Indeed," Lily replied, a smile still twitching quite actively at the corners of her lips.  
  
"Speaking of newts," Ethan said conversationally, "how is your dear sister?"  
  
Lily laughed again. "Are you calling my sister a newt?"  
  
"Well she doesn't seem like much of a person…"  
  
Lily sighed, and began sorting silverware. "Oh, she's not all that terrible. We've just been fighting an awful lot. And besides," she added, smiling mischievously, "she's much more horse-like than she is newt-like."  
  
Ethan laughed, walking over to help Lily with her silverware. "Ah, yes, how could I forget? Dear old horse-face. So she's doing well, I take it? Eating lots of hay?"  
  
Lily laughed. "Not quite. She is having a party tonight, though," she remembered, pulling a face.  
  
"Oh, lovely," Ethan replied sarcastically. "Well, obviously neither of us are working tonight. What say we catch a movie?"  
  
"Really?" Lily asked hopefully.  
  
"Absolutely. I haven't got any plans, have you?"  
  
"I do now," Lily replied. Ethan smiled.  
  
"How about we get a bite to eat first?"  
  
"Sounds fine to me."  
  
"Meet you at the pub 'round the corner about seven?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"It's a date then?"  
  
"Sounds like it."  
  
Ethan smiled again, and if Lily weren't completely aware that she was entirely hung up on James, she probably would have felt a bit week at the knees. Because…she was entirely hung up on James, after all…wasn't she?  
  
Of course she was.  
  
***  
  
Melody was going to have an aneurysm. If her little sisters didn't stop playing with their new Exploding Snap game and her youngest brother didn't stop banging pots together and her other sisters didn't stop running around the house playing tag and her younger brother didn't stop stealing things out of the room she had to share with two of her sisters (the sisters who were playing Exploding Snap, in fact) and then hitting the aforementioned sisters with those things instead of packing for camp like they were supposed to…she was definitely going to have an aneurysm.   
  
Her mother had gone out and her stepfather was at work, and she was supposed to be helping some of her younger siblings pack for going away to camp, but none of them could stay in one place long enough to concentrate on packing.   
  
Life would be much easier if her sister Novolie (who was about the same age as Melody) were here to help, but she was at work, and Melody was very much out of luck.  
  
"That's IT!" Melody screamed as her tag-playing sisters ran into her room. "STOP IT!"  
  
Her sisters froze.  
  
"Just sit down, right where you are," Melody ordered. Her sisters sank to the floor, looking terrified. "Stay there until I get back."   
  
She stomped out of her room and slammed the door, and rounded up all her siblings in a similar manner, bringing them to her room, where she sat all of them down and glared.  
  
"Mom is not here. Steve is not here. I am in charge. You are all old enough to know how to behave yourselves, and this is ridiculous. Marie, Hannah, John, and Dexter all have to go to camp, and I have to help them pack, and the rest of you are going to go downstairs and put on a movie and for God's sakes be quiet, or else I take out my wand and hex you all until your arms are coming out the top of your head. Have I made myself clear, or do I need to repeat any of that?" Melody asked, so savagely that all of her siblings simply looked at her in terror and shook her heads, and the two youngest of them quickly got up and ran out of the room to go find a movie.  
  
"Okay, let's go pack," Melody said to her remaining siblings. They all got up and followed her silently into the next room.  
  
Three days, she reminded herself. Three days, and then it's off to America and I won't have to deal with any of this for the rest of the summer…  
  
***  
  
"All right, Dumbledore, is my great-great-grandson finally going to make something of himself or what?"  
  
"Your great-great-grandson? Please, Phineas, save it. If you're going to make it a Gryffindor, that's bad enough, but we don't want to go there. I mean, honestly, who ever heard of a troublemaker being Head Boy?"  
  
"Like the Ravenclaws are so much better this year?" Phineas demanded, puffing up his chest.  
  
"We have a few."  
  
"That's enough from you two. Slytherins are the only ones with any intelligence in this school!"  
  
"Well, you certainly can't rule out Hufflepuff!" piped up another voice. "We've got some good ones too."  
  
"All right, all right!" Dumbledore said, glaring at his portraits. "That's quite enough! As former headmasters, I would expect you all to be a little more objective."  
  
Phineas snorted. "That hasn't happened in previous years, why should we change things now?"  
  
Dumbledore sighed. "Point taken. Now, the Head Girl's been all sorted out already—"  
  
He was broken off by a great clamor of voices.  
  
"Silence!" Dumbledore commanded, and the voices quieted abruptly. "As I was saying, Lily Evans will be the Head Girl. It is the Head Boy that troubles me."  
  
"As long as it's not Sirius Black…" one of the headmistresses muttered, and Phinea glared at her.  
  
"Remus Lupin is good," one of the portraits suggested, but another shot him a dirty look.  
  
"You would suggest a Gryffindor."  
  
Dumbledore sighed again, very audibly, and the portraits attempted to contain themselves. "I would suggest a Gryffindor as well. I was thinking—James Potter, although he is a bit of a troublemaker himself."  
  
The portraits erupted in conversation. Dumbledore sat and watched for a few minutes, catching snippets of various arguments, before he nodded and made a decision.   
  
"It's lunchtime," he announced. "I'm going to have a sandwich."  
  
The portraits stopped abruptly. Dumbledore looked around at them expectantly, as if waiting for one of them to speak.  
  
"Well?" he asked. "What is it?"  
  
"The Head Boy!" one of them finally erupted. "Who is going to be the Head Boy?"  
  
"Oh, yes, that," Dumbledore said. "James Potter, I think. Now, if you will excuse me, I really am going to have a sandwich."  
  
As he left the portraits again erupted into conversation, and he smiled to himself as he closed the door. Maybe it was a mistake, to put Lily Evans and James Potter together in such positions. But they would have to give in and work together before the end, and it wouldn't at all hurt to have two of the most talented young wizards Dumbledore had ever met teach each other a few things.  
  
***  
  
Sirius's cousin had come for a visit. Visits from Bellatrix were never pleasant by any means, but now that she'd met this Lestrange character, they were positively unbearable. Bellatrix had met him at Durmstrang, where they'd both gone to school, and after graduating this spring she'd been able to speak of nothing else. Although she and Sirius were born within a month of each other, Bellatrix had gone to school a year early, and enjoyed lording this fact over Sirius's head, without seeming to realize that Sirius did not care.  
  
"So you've gotten a flying motorcycle, have you?" Bellatrix asked him rather nastily over tea. "Leave it up to you find a flying Muggle contraption rather than a proper wizarding one."  
  
"I have a broom, you know," Sirius said evenly, chomping rather violently on a crumpet.  
  
"Do you? Well I don't suppose your broom is any good, is it? At least not compared to Siegfried's. He has the latest model, some Nimbus thing, and a flying carpet he bought in Persia last summer."  
  
Yes, and carpets and brooms aren't Muggle contraptions at all, Sirius thought sarcastically, rolling his eyes as Bellatrix droned on about her beloved and unbelievably boring sweetheart Siegfried. After another few minutes of this rambling, Sirius was so out of his mind with boredom that he began coming up with imaginative ways to kill himself.  
  
Now, if I just grabbed that teapot and smashed it over my head…no, that wouldn't work. It might knock me out for a while, though, which would be good as well…he thought, his eyes straying around the courtyard. The edge of that railing looks pretty sharp, he mused, considering. I wonder if I could impale myself on it….  
  
He imagined James's voice in his head, telling him what a lame plan it was. Now come on, Padfoot, James would say, if you're going to kill yourself from boredom you should make it dramatic. If you're going to impale yourself upon a railing, at the very least you should hit yourself on the head with the teapot first, and then run screaming around the courtyard as though you've gone insane, and ram into the railing going full speed for dramatic effect.  
  
Sirius laughed aloud at this, and Bellatrix's eyes widened. She looked rather enraged, Sirius noted, slowly coming out of his imaginings.  
  
"Well, cousin, if you think the tragic death of Siegfried's great aunt is at all humorous, then by all means laugh, but I myself did not find it amusing."  
  
Sirius clamped his mouth shut and racked his brain for something intelligent to say. There didn't appear to be anything stored in his brain for this situation, however, so he simply stared at Bellatrix rather dumbly. Bellatrix glared stonily back at him.  
  
"I can see that you and Siegfried would not get along, as you obviously have something against his dead relatives."  
  
Now that's something I agree with you on, Bellatrix, Sirius thought bitterly, although for a purely different reason. I would not get along with Siegfried, but it would probably have more to do with the fact that you make it sound as though he has an extraordinarily large broomstick shoved up his ass than it would with any grudges I may or may not hold against his dead relatives.  
  
"I laugh at funerals," Sirius blurted out.  
  
Bellatrix's eyebrows raised up so high they were hidden by her bangs. "That's disturbing, Sirius. You should have more respect for the dead."  
  
"No," Sirius replied hastily, "you misunderstand. I only meant to say…I'm so horrible at handling death, I generally…laugh at funerals instead of cry. So when I hear really horrible stories, I just…laugh instead of being…sympathetic. I'm not very good with emotions," he said, impressed with his ever-improving bullshitting skills.  
  
"Well, I'm glad you're so aware of your emotional incapacitation, Sirius. It's refreshing," Bellatrix replied, an annoyed sort of glint in her eyes.  
  
Having a conversation with Bellatrix was often like having your bones ground up into dust by large cement blocks, and Sirius was just begin to feel that grinding sensation when his mother appeared in the courtyard and saved him from having to come up with a decent response to Bellatrix's not-so-veiled insult.  
  
"Mum! How spanking good to see you!" Sirius cried out, leaping up from the table. Bellatrix looked rather annoyed at Sirius's lack of manners, but he really didn't care anymore.  
  
"Hello, Sirius," Mrs. Black said, glancing at Sirius suspiciously out of the corners of her eyes. She had reason to do so, as Sirius rarely looked excited to see her except when he wanted something. "Good afternoon, Bellatrix," she directed courteously at Sirius's cousin. "How is tea?"  
  
"The tea is lovely," Bellatrix replied. "The company," she began delicately, "is rather—"  
  
"Distracted, mum," Sirius interrupted, and Bellatrix glared at him.  
  
"That is hardly surprising," Mrs. Black said dryly. "What's distracting you, Sirius?"  
  
"It's just…my motorcycle!" Sirius invented suddenly, realizing the second he blurted it out that this may not have been the right thing to say. His mother was not very fond of his motorcycle. "It's—it's been making funny noises, and I've been meaning to have a look at it. I might not be able to ride it again without proper repairs."   
  
"Oh, what tragedy," Mrs. Black replied sarcastically. "Well, you'll have time to look at it later. For now I think you should remember your manners and entertain your cousin."  
  
Damn it! Sirius thought, with feeling. "Of course, mum," he agreed hastily. "I was only saying—that's what's been distracting me. I didn't mean to look at it right now."  
  
Mrs. Black looked at him as though she rather doubted this, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she said, "I have good news. Your cousin Andromeda is going to be in town from tomorrow until Friday for a convention, and she's going to be staying with us." At this, Sirius visibly perked and Bellatrix visibly soured.  
  
"D'you think I could take her to meet James then?" Sirius asked. Mrs. Black sighed.  
  
"Not if you intend to take your motorcycle to get there, and only if Bellatrix goes too," Mrs. Black replied, looking at Bellatrix, who raised an eyebrow and looked at Sirius.   
  
"James who?" she inquired, looking quite as though she expected Sirius to blurt out some surname which she did not recognize, so she could sneer at him some more and mock his association with non-high society types.  
  
Too bad for Bellatrix that the next word out of Sirius's mouth was "Potter," and that James was the son of the Minister of Magic. Bellatrix's eyes widened.  
  
"You know the Minister of Magic's son?" she asked, suddenly sounding very interested. She was far too wrapped up in all the society nonsense—having "connections" and whatnot, and gaining "powerful allies". Having the Minister of Magic's son as a friend would gain her family a powerful ally indeed, and Sirius knew that this was what she was thinking as soon as she said, "I would love to go," and smiled rather too widely at his mother.  
  
Well, he'd won and lost that round. Having Andromeda meet James would be fun, but trying to get Bellatrix to leave James alone would not. Never mind that, though; Potter's Cottage was huge, and Sirius knew it almost as well as James, and all it took was a moment of distraction and a well-placed secret passageway and Bellatrix would never find them.  
  
If only it were tomorrow already, and Sirius didn't have to sit through an entire evening and morning of Bellatrix's droning...  
  
Well, Sirius supposed, beginning to plot out various ways in which to ditch Bellatrix once they reached Potter's Cottage, you couldn't have everything…  
  
***  
  
"Mum!" Lily yelled as soon as she got home from work. "I'm going out tonight!"  
  
Mrs. Evans appeared in the front hall with a cloth and a bottle of window cleaner in her hands and began attacking the small windows that lined either side of the front doorway. "Where are you going?" she asked.  
  
"Movies," Lily replied, kicking off her shoes. "I actually have some money now that Ian's remembered to give us our paychecks."  
  
"Who are you going with?" Mrs. Evans asked, sounding curious.  
  
"Ethan," Lily replied, removing her coffee-stained work apron and making her way to the laundry room to throw it in the washer.  
  
"Ethan?" Mrs. Evans repeated, following her daughter to the laundry room to throw her own dirty cloth into the washer. "Who's Ethan?"  
  
"Boy at work."   
  
"Is he…cute?" Mrs. Evans pressed, and Lily's cheeks went pink.  
  
"Mum!" she cried, tossing her apron into the machine.  
  
"What? I was just curious!" Mrs. Evans insisted, throwing her rag in on top of Lily's apron.  
  
"Have you forgotten about James?" Lily demanded as she threw in a little detergent and put the washer on the lowest setting before closing it and fiddling with the knob that made it start.  
  
"No," Mrs. Evans replied, "but you can still tell me if Eric's cute or not."  
  
"Ethan, mom. It's Ethan."  
  
"Right. That's what I meant."  
  
Lily smiled. "He is cute," she admitted. "But it doesn't mean anything. We're just friends!"  
  
"All right, all right," Mrs. Evans said, holding her hands up in defeat. "I believe you. But—speaking of James—" she began as they left the laundry room.  
  
"James?" Lily demanded, whirling around. "Did he owl me?"  
  
"No, actually…he…" Mrs. Evans looked as though she were trying to figure out how to word it.  
  
"What?" Lily cried, exploding with curiosity.  
  
"He…his…his head appeared in our fireplace this morning while you were at work."  
  
Lily burst into laughter. "Oh my goodness! Is he crazy?"  
  
"Well, it scared the heck out of Petunia, at the very least," Mrs. Evans replied. "He said he'd be back around…now, actually. But really, Lily, is that how wizards communicate?"  
  
"Sometimes," Lily replied, dashing into the living room and dropping in front of the empty fireplace, which quite suddenly burst into flames, and she scurried back a bit but kept her eyes fixed on the fire as James's head appeared in it.  
  
"Lily!" James cried, looking pleased. "I tried earlier, but you were at work."  
  
"I know, my mum just told me."  
  
"Ah. Well, good, because I wanted to—"  
  
"James, are you insane?" Lily demanded, cutting him off. "Not only is our house not connected to the Floo network, so I don't know how you managed that, but—"  
  
"How did you know about the Floo network?" James cried, cutting Lily off in turn.  
  
"I read about it," Lily replied quickly, "but that's not the point. The point is—"  
  
"They put that sort of thing in books?" James wondered aloud, not really paying attention to Lily.  
  
"James!" Lily snapped, and he focused his gaze on her.  
  
"Oh, right," he said. "Now, Lily, about the last letter you wrote me—"  
  
"No, no, no," Lily insisted. "This is highly illegal, James, and you shouldn't just be popping up in Muggle fireplaces, you never know who might see—"  
  
"Oh for heaven's sake, Lily, it's just your family, and they know all about wizards, I really don't see what—"  
  
"James!" Lily cried. "Are you really that dense? What if we'd had guests over or something? What if they'd seen you? I think that is a very serious concern. What would your father say if he knew—"  
  
"All right, all right, I won't do it again!" James interrupted, but his cheeks were very red. "I hadn't really thought of that," he admitted. Lily rolled her eyes.  
  
"Obviously."  
  
"Oh, hush, Lily, I did this for you."   
  
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Did you really? What was so important to talk to me about that you couldn't put it in a letter?"  
  
James looked as though she'd touched on the part of the conversation he was really interested in. "Yes, that," he said, furrowing his eyebrows in thought. "Lily, in your last letter—" He cut himself off, thinking.  
  
"In my last letter…?" Lily repeated, feeling confused.  
  
"You wrote…"  
  
"Yes, I wrote," Lily agreed. "Now, really, James, what is this all about?"  
  
"You wrote about a boy named Ethan," James blurted out.  
  
"Oh my Lord!" Lily exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air. "James, you are being a ninny!"  
  
"A ninny?" James repeated, frowning. "A ninny?"  
  
"YES!" Lily cried, annoyed. "What about Ethan?"  
  
James looked hurt. "I just…I was just wondering if you…if he…if you and he..."  
  
"Oh, for heaven's sake, James," Lily said, shaking her head at him. "If I could reach into the fire right now I'd hit you upside the head, and then I'd probably kiss you."  
  
James perked up considerably at this. "Would you?" he asked, sounding extremely interested in this proposal. Lily rolled her eyes.   
  
"Yes, James. I probably would," she replied, "if for no other reason than to reassure your pathetically insecure male ego."  
  
"Well then," James said. "Hold on there a moment."  
  
"James, what—" Lily began, but James's head abruptly disappeared, and she blinked, staring at the still-crackling fire. "What was that a—"  
  
She never had a chance to finish her sentence, however, because at that moment James fell out of the fireplace and right on top of her.  
  
"Sorry," he said, scrambling to his feet and offering a hand to help her up.  
  
"Sorry indeed," Lily replied, wiping the ashes off her work uniform. "Now I'm going to have to wash this, too!"  
  
"I said sorry," James sulked. Lily rolled her eyes. "So, uh…where were we?" he asked, and Lily rolled her eyes again.  
  
"Right here," she replied, hitting him upside the head. "James, you're ridiculous. Stop being so insecure," she ordered, then grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked on it, bringing his lips to hers. James was quite happy to respond to this action, and they had a very pleasant moment before it was interrupted by a rather unpleasant shriek.  
  
Lily and James jumped apart, and Lily looked up to see Petunia standing at the top of the stairs wrapped in a towel and looking quite horrified.  
  
"How did he get here?" she shrieked before running to the safety of her room.  
  
James and Lily looked at each other with wide eyes. "Maybe you should go," Lily suggested.  
  
"Perhaps," James agreed, digging some Floo powder out of his pocket and throwing it into Lily's fireplace. "I'll see you later, Lily-bean," he said, leaning in to kiss her quickly before stepping into the fireplace and bellowing "Potter's Cottage!"   
  
The flames engulfed him and as soon as he was gone the flames disappeared, leaving not even a pile of ashes on the bottom of the fireplace. Lily brought her fingers to her lips and sighed, staring at the fireplace rather forlornly.  
  
"Well," she said, closing the doors that prevented drafts from coming in when the fireplace wasn't in use, "that was random."  
  
***  
  
After several hours, a refreshing shower, and a brief skirmish with her sister, Lily managed to escape her house and walk to the bus station, where she rode into town and met Ethan at the pub. He looked absolutely smashing, even though he was just wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt, and Lily's stomach, quite of its own accord, decided to flip over when he smiled at her.   
  
Immediately images of James popped into her head, and she imagined him standing right behind her and glaring at both her and Ethan. In her mind, Lily glared at Imaginary James and informed him that Ethan was just a friend and that he knew perfectly well how much she liked him (him being James), and that he should bugger off so she could enjoy herself. Imaginary James promptly disappeared, and Lily sat down at the table.  
  
"Glad to get out of the house?" Ethan asked.  
  
Lily rolled her eyes at the thought of her sister. "You have no idea."  
  
Ethan grinned. "I bet I have some idea."  
  
"I thought you didn't have any siblings."  
  
"I don't, but at school...there are just some people whose necks I'd like to wring."  
  
Lily laughed. "Same here. Where do you go to school?"  
  
Ethan's face got mysteriously blank. "Boarding school," he replied. "It's not in England."  
  
"Where is it?" Lily asked, curious.  
  
"Finland, actually."  
  
"Why Finland?"  
  
Ethan shrugged. "Who knows? You'll have to ask my parents."  
  
Lily nodded. "I go to a boarding school too, actually."  
  
"Do you? Where's yours?"  
  
"Scotland."  
  
"Scotland...that must be nice. Much warmer than Finland."  
  
Lily smiled. "I imagine so, yes."  
  
"Must be nice not having Petunia in school with you anymore then."  
  
"What? Oh...yes...right, so nice she's away at university."  
  
Ethan looked at her curiously for a moment but didn't say anything. "I've brought a paper," he announced. "I thought we'd see what times the movies were."  
  
"Right," Lily agreed, and leaned over to peruse the paper. "Oh, that one looks good," she said, pointing, but Ethan wrinkled up his nose--which, Lily noted, was now extremely close to Lily's own nose...and also rather adorable. Damn it, why did he have to be so good-looking? James was handsome, of course, but Ethan was handsome on a completely different level than James. He was handsome on an "oh-my-goodness-you-look-like-a-god-and-I-will-gladly-bear-your-children" kind of level, whereas James was just...the kind of handsome that melted your heart. Or at least it melted Lily's heart. But that wasn't important. Lily was supposed to be checking out movie times, not Ethan.  
  
"Hm," she said, considering. "What about that one?"  
  
"Looks decent."  
  
"How about we go to the show that starts at ten till eight?"  
  
"All right," Ethan agreed, flashing a smile at Lily, which was extremely unnerving, as his face was so close. She blinked and froze, dazzled for a moment, before sinking back into her chair.   
  
"Good," she said vaguely, wondering just exactly what the hell was wrong with her. Ethan folded up the paper and tossed it on the seat next to him. The rest of the time in the pub passed in a rather confusing blur. They talked about music, and books, and had a rather halting and extremely brief conversation about sports before moving on to careers, which lasted a surprisingly long time, considering neither of them had any clue what they wanted to do, and considering Ethan was a Muggle, and even if Lily knew what she wanted to do, he wouldn't have a clue what she was talking about.  
  
The walk to the theater passed in much the same fashion, and the movie was horrible, so they spent the entire time making snide comments about the actors and laughing and getting yelled at by the people around them. Ethan offered to walk Lily to the bus station, and she gladly agreed, and they walked along laughing about the movie and swapping bad jokes and in general just being dumb teenagers. At one point, Ethan stopped suddenly and let his head fall back, and just stared up at the cloudless night sky.  
  
"What are you looking at?" Lily asked.  
  
"The stars," Ethan replied.   
  
"Well, I can see that," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "What about them?"  
  
"Come here," he beckoned, and Lily complied. "Look," he said, pointing. "Orion."  
  
Lily smiled. "Do you know a lot of constellations?" she asked, curious.  
  
"Most of them."  
  
"Show me," Lily commanded, feeling it rather unnecessary to mention that she knew all of them, even the ones that didn't appear in the northern hemisphere. It turned out Ethan did know most of them, which impressed Lily, as Muggles normally paid as little attention to the stars as they did to the ground under their feet.  
  
"That's fantastic," Lily said.  
  
"Well, it's a hobby," Ethan shrugged, taking his gaze away from the stars and placing it on Lily. He smiled, and Lily felt compelled to smile back.  
  
"You're fun, Lily," he said. "I could do this every night."  
  
Lily smiled wider, her cheeks burning red. "Thanks," she offered, feeling silly. "You're fun too, though."  
  
"Well, I'm glad you think so," Ethan said, still smiling, and Lily took a moment to note how incredibly symmetrical his smile was. James's tended to be rather lopsided, which she found rather endearing, but Ethan's was wonderful, too--no mistake about that, and--  
  
It took Lily a moment to realize how very, very close she suddenly was to Ethan's smile, and even longer to realize that his lips were now very, very close to hers, and--  
  
No, not just close, they were touching. Lily blinked, feeling confused. Ethan was kissing her. He was definitely, definitely kissing her. And she was definitely standing there like a fool, letting him. Indeed her lips were putting up no resistance to this action, although her eyes were still wide open and her brain was still feeling very confused, and taking its sweet time to process all this.  
  
Her brain made a very odd decision. Lily's eyes fluttered closed for just a moment, just long enough to experience the sensation of Ethan's lips on hers, and think, Damn, he's a good kisser, before her brain remembered that, despite the fact that Ethan really was a damn good kisser, she felt absolutely nothing else for him, and that she liked James far too much for this to go on.  
  
Gently Lily broke away, and stepped away from Ethan, who looked very much as though he'd like to repeat the experience.  
  
"Ethan..." she began, in a "let's-just-be-friends" sort of tone, and his face fell, as though he'd rather expected this but hoped that it wouldn't happen.  
  
"Yeah, I know," he said. "It's that 'James' chap, isn't it?"  
  
Lily nodded. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have...I shouldn't have let you..."  
  
Ethan shook his head. "It's fine. I thought I'd give it a try, anyway. I must admit I got a bit farther than I thought I would," he said, grinning crookedly at her. Oh, that's not fair, thought Lily. He's not allowed to have a beautiful crooked grin, too!   
  
If it weren't for the fact that at that moment a very strong image of James popped into Lily's head, and her heart filled with longing for him, she probably would have grabbed Ethan and kissed him again. As it were, however, Lily did nothing, and Ethan walked her the rest of the way to the bus station in silence.   
  
Ethan said good-bye to her rather normally, not too perky, not too depressed, and Lily would have thought that he was perfectly fine with her being absolutely gone over James, if it weren't for the fact that he stood at the bus station and watched Lily's bus drive away with a decidedly forlorn look on his face. Lily sighed and put her head in her hands as the bus turned the corner, feeling very, very confused.  
  
***  
  
America was much quieter than Melody's house, she would give it that. The money was weird, and everybody drove on the wrong side of the road, and nobody she'd met so far followed Quidditch, but at least it was quieter than her house. Of course, she hadn't been to New York City yet, and she supposed that would be a bit louder than home, but for the time being, she was enjoying the relative quiet.  
  
"Melody!"  
  
So much for quiet.  
  
"Yes?" Melody called from her bedroom. Her uncle had an absolutely amazing home just outside of Rochester, New York, and she had her very own, very large bedroom for the rest of the summer.  
  
"Ah, there you are," Catalina said, appearing in the doorway. "Are you all unpacked?"  
  
"Just about," Melody replied, plopping down on her bed and looking over at her nearly empty suitcase. "All I've got left are the shoes."  
  
"Good," Catalina replied, surveying Melody's wardrobe. She turned back to Melody and frowned. "What happened to some of the robes we bought you last summer? A few of them are still in fashion, I believe."  
  
"Oh," Melody said, "I left them at home. They wouldn't fit in my trunk." This, of course, was a blatant lie; Melody had sold nearly all the clothes she'd bought in Venezuela and given the money to her parents. She would have done the same with her winter wardrobe, had Luc not stolen it all. However, she preferred not to think about that, as it was still a rather embarrassing memory.  
  
"Hm," Catalina said, considering. "Well, Hans wants us to all have lunch in the garden, and then we should go shopping."  
  
Melody perked visibly. "Can I send an owl while we're out?" she inquired. "Uncle's been using all his for business, and I want to send a letter to my friend Lily."  
  
"Of course," Catalina replied. "Now, get dressed for going out. I'll meet you in the garden in about twenty minutes."  
  
Melody nodded and jumped off the bed, perusing her wardrobe for an appropriate outfit.   
  
An hour later, she and Catalina were strolling the hidden streets of New York City, buying out entire clothes shops with credit and having everything delivered to Hans's home via magic. Melody, after consenting to twelve new pairs of shoes and allowing Catalina to buy her a hideous set of pink dress robes, managed to get ten minutes in a Quidditch store to drool over new broomsticks and Beater equipment. Catalina begrudgingly allowed her to buy some gloves and a new Beater club before sweeping her out of the store and into a salon, where a witch with a pair of scissors and a wand worked wonders on her hair.  
  
Melody stole off in between trips to a sweetshop and a Wizard Outerwear store to send Lily a short owl. Catalina recovered her and forced her into the Wizard Outerwear store, which actually turned out to be quite an enjoyable experience. Melody purchased a very beautiful, very expensive new traveling cloak and a pair of luxurious dragon leather gloves (fashionable, affordable, and non-flammable!), as well as a colorful red-and-gold scarf.  
  
The last stop was at a magical pet store, where Catalina was looking into getting yet another owl for Hans so he could keep up with his business correspondence. As if five owls isn't enough, Melody thought, rolling her eyes. While Catalina negotiated with the saleslady for a large barn owl, Melody wandered the store, peering curiously in at the cages of magical rats, turtles, rabbits, fish, toads, and cats. As she bent down to observe the magical properties of a snapping turtle, she felt several strange pricks on her leg, like dull needles, and heard the sound of gently ripping fabric.  
  
Melody's head whipped down, and she found herself staring at an orange kitten, which had attached itself to her leg with her claws and was attempting to climb up her robes.  
  
"Hey, kitty," Melody purred to the kitten, gently prying it away from her robes. "You can't climb there," she informed it, cradling it in her hands and bringing it up to face level. It had a very squashed face, crooked hind legs, and an extremely bushy tail. By most standards, it was ugly, but to Melody it looked rather adorable. "Hello," she whispered to the kitten. "What's your name?" The ball of orange fur meowed and lifted one of its tiny paws to bat at Melody's nose. She smiled.   
  
"Melody!"  
  
Melody sighed and straightened. "I'm right here, Catalina," she replied, and in a few short steps joined her at the counter.  
  
"What have you got there?" the saleslady asked.   
  
"Um...a kitten," Melody replied. "I'm not sure where it came from."  
  
"Hm," the saleslady said, frowning, and she plucked the kitten from Melody's hands and examined it for a moment before sighing and rolling her eyes. "He got out of his cage again. We can't figure out how. He doesn't really have any powers, but we figure with his intelligence he has to be magical in some way."  
  
"What's his name?" Melody asked, curious.  
  
"He doesn't have a name. That's up to whoever takes him home. So far no one's wanted him...but then, he doesn't take to very many people."  
  
Melody looked at the kitten with longing, and Catalina's gaze flicked from Melody to the cat and back to Melody before she sighed and said, "We'll take the barn owl, then, and the kitten, too."  
  
"Really?" Melody asked, ecstatic. Without waiting for an answer, she stole the kitten away from the saleslady and hugged it to her chest. It meowed in slight protest, and used its claws to climb its way up to Melody's shoulder, where it perched, looking quite content, and began purring.  
  
"Well, I don't know what you're going to call that thing," Catalina commented as soon as they left the store.  
  
Melody considered this for a moment. "Crookshanks," she decided.  
  
"Crookshanks! That's an odd name for a cat, don't you think?"  
  
"Well, look here, see how his legs are all crooked? It makes sense."  
  
Catalina arched one perfectly formed eyebrow. "If you say so, my dear."  
  
Melody grinned up at her kitten. "Wait'll Lily sees this..."  
  
***  
  
Andromeda was a few years older than Sirius, and very into art. She was in town for an art convention, which Sirius found fascinating and Bellatrix found degrading.  
  
"You mean you parade around displaying meaningless lines and scribbles painted on cheap plastic canvases to the general public with Muggles?" Bellatrix had asked, sneering.  
  
"Well, we spend a lot on the nametags," Andromeda had replied. "So we skimp on the canvas cost. But yeah, generally, you're right."  
  
Sirius had found this hilarious; Bellatrix was not as amused. Then again, Bellatrix was never amused, so what was the difference?  
  
Andromeda had a free day or two before the convention actually started, so on the second day of her visit Sirius managed to steal her away to Potter's Cottage, where she and Sirius and James easily managed to ditch Bellatrix and leave her at the mercy of the house elves. They then spent nearly the entire day in the indoor gardens, which Andromeda had positively fallen in love with. Everywhere she turned, she saw something else she wanted to paint, and was even so bold as to ask James whether she might be able to bring some of her artistic friends here to paint a bit, to which James replied that she should ask his father.  
  
Andromeda did, in fact, ask the Minister of Magic if she could intrude on his indoor gardens with paint brushes and artist's palettes, and he agreed, quite amiably, after which point Andromeda was completely lost in thought, thinking of angles and shading and painting and the people she was going to bring to paint as well.   
  
Several days later, she did bring her artist friends to paint, and everyone tactfully avoided the indoor gardens while they were there.  
  
***  
  
Work was a awkward for a while. Ian hired a new girl, Brigette, who was seventeen and very blonde and liked to chew gum and giggle a lot (especially at Ethan). Lily did not particularly get along with Brigette, but Ethan hit it off with her very well--suspiciously well, Lily thought, considering how recently Lily had turned him down. Ian and Brigette would often go out for a bite to eat after their shifts ended, and Lily would often make faces at them as they left the coffee shop, Ethan flirting like mad and Brigette giggling like a lunatic.  
  
It wasn't Brigette's fault, of course, that Ethan had gotten so uncomfortably distant from Lily, but Lily enjoyed blaming her anyway, mostly because she was there to blame. Brigette had once had a conversation with Lily about Ethan, in which Brigette named off all of Ethan's positive and negative attributes, in hopes of deciding which of the boys she was casually dating right now would serve as the best boyfriend (Ethan was, apparently, at the top of the list), and Lily refrained from rolling her eyes.   
  
Another reason Lily had not to like Brigette was that, during the aforementioned conversation, Lily had mentioned something about her and Ethan's compatibility, and Brigette had commented, "Oh, I don't think Ethan would really be interested in dating a girl like you."  
  
Lily hadn't really been sure, at the time, whether to inform Brigette that Ethan had tried to date her, or simply feel insulted and slap Brigette across the face in a show of righteous indignation.  
  
Instead, however, Lily just nodded, and felt stupid, and then walked away.  
  
After a while, tensions between Ethan and Lily faded a bit, and they were back to being friends and flirting and teasing and joking as usual (a relationship which Brigette severely did not understand). Ethan and Brigette continued to go out together, and this led to more serious dating (which, considering how shallow Brigette was and how...not shallow Ethan was, Lily did not understand).  
  
The summer began to pass in a blur of coffee and donuts and the sound of local bands, and Lily slipped away even more from the magical world she adored so much.  
  
***  
  
"So how's your summer going, Prongs?" Sirius asked, plopping down on a couch in one of the many random spare rooms in Potter's Cottage. Andromeda had moved on to her next artist's convention, and Bellatrix had been reunited with her beloved Siegfried, and Sirius was free for the summer, and spending time at James's house as usual.  
  
James sighed and pulled his bouncy ball out of his right pocket. "It's all right," he replied, shrugging. "Dad's been at work until at least midnight every day since the end of May Things...things aren't so good right now, Sirius."  
  
Sirius grimaced. "That's what they've been hinting at in the papers, but no one at the ministry's been brave enough to say anything. Or rather...they're not allowed to say anything."  
  
"They don't want people to panic," James said. "The papers don't know it, but the Ministry's managed to cover up eight Dark Marks since school got out...and think how many of them have been in the paper."  
  
Sirius's eyes widened. "There've been at least eight since school got out...but if the Mimistry's managed block out half of those attacks in reality...who knows what other secrets they've been keeping from us?"  
  
"The Ministry's logic exactly," James replied grimly. "Like I said, they don't want the people to panic, so they're trying to keep the truth to a minimum. They don't want people finding out what they've already hidden. They want everyone to think they've got it perfectly under control."  
  
"Except they don't," Sirius reasoned.   
  
"Right," James agreed.  
  
"Bloody hell," Sirius muttered under his breath. "I sure as hell hope all the Aurors nowadays are spanking good. And I hope Dumbledore has a plan."  
  
"Dumbledore? Why Dumbledore?"  
  
"Can you think of anyone more powerful than Dumbledore? Of course he's going to have a plan. If the Ministry fails, at least he won't."  
  
"So we hope," James said, sounding rather skeptical.  
  
Sirius shuddered, still thinking. "Imagine if those people in the papers were people we actually knew," he said. "The targets have been mostly Muggle, and we don't really know Muggles. But imagine if he started targeting wizards. What in the world would we do then?"  
  
"I don't know," James replied, looking very much as though he was starting to get a headache, "but I sure as hell hope it's all over soon."  
  
***  
  
Lily jumped easily off the bus as it came to a rolling stop at the corner of Lennox and Westfield and began walking in bouncy, happy steps down the street. Work tonight had been unusually fun. Ethan had been there, for one, and he had been exceptionally flirty, which was always enjoyable (although James probably wouldn't have seen the enjoyment). For another, business had been good; the stream of customers had been constant rather than in small spurts, and the shop had stayed at least half full until ten, when the customers slowly started filtering out.   
  
All in all, however, the night had been successful. Lily was finally getting the hang of the coffee machine, and she hadn't broken any glasses (although she did manage to spill some coffee on Brigette's white sweater; that had been a tragedy).  
  
Plus, hopefully, when she got home she wouldn't have to worry about seeing Petunia, as she was out with friends (what friends, Lily didn't know; she couldn't imagine anyone putting up with her sister for more than five minutes at a time, but if Petunia had found people who could put up with her excessive nosiness, then good for her). But then, Lily would be going straight to bed as soon as she got home anyway, so she supposed it didn't really matter.   
  
The sky was dark and clear and full of twinkling stars, and Lily looked up as she walked, humming softly to herself and picking out random constellations she'd learned in Astronomy class. She turned the corner when she reached Opal Street and continued walking. Her house was just another block or so away, a little ways down this street and then around a second corner onto Harper Avenue. Lily took in the scent of the night as she walked, and listened to the soft chirping of the crickets and the slight rustling of the trees as a sweet summer breeze played along the treetops and the ends of Lily's hair.  
  
Lily couldn't take her eyes off the sky; the moon was large and full and beautiful brilliant silver, and the stars were positively shimmering. Just as she began to wonder if James was looking at the same moon and the same stars as she was, she saw an odd rippling disturbance in the sky, and stopped just short of Harper Avenue, frowning. Presently the breeze carried to her ears some unpleasant sounds--faraway shouting and even screaming, and Lily's heart began beating irregularly as the disturbance in the sky became more profound. The shrieking sound had gone, but there was still some distant shouting, and the small rippling disturbance in the sky erupted into a definite form and figure--that of a giant skull with a serpent slithering out of its mouth.  
  
Lily froze, and felt an icy chill run through her veins as her mind processed the meaning of the skull in the sky. No, she thought suddenly. No. Not them. Please, dear Lord, anyone but them. At this point, curiosity overcame her fear and she dashed around the corner, not caring what became of her, just as long as the skull wasn't positioned over a white two-story house with blue shutters and a blue front door, and the beautiful flowerbeds--  
  
--situated around two tall proud trees, which several men in dark cloaks with hideous masks on were leaning against, staring at the white blue-shuttered house, from which shrieks, shouts, and the occasional ominous flash of magic-indicating light were still issuing. The sounds and light stopped abruptly, and another black-cloaked man came out the front door and motioned to the men clustered around the trees, and with soft pop!s they all began to Disapparate. Lily stood on the corner in shock and silence and watched the Death Eaters leave, and that might have been all, had a bloodcurdling shriek not come from the spot directly behind Lily.  
  
Lily jumped and whirled around to find herself face-to-face with her sister Petunia, whose face was very white and terror-stricken, and whose mouth was wide open and issuing a terrible shriek, which Lily quickly stifled before whirling around to assess if any of the Death Eaters had heard. Judging by the fact that the remaining black-cloaked men had whipped their wands out and were stalking down the street in the direction of Lily and her sister, they had.  
  
Lily grabbed Petunia's hand and yanked her viciously around the corner, and attempted to begin running away, but for some reason Petunia resisted.  
  
"No!" she shrieked, trying to wrench her hand from Lily's grasp. "We have to go back--we have to tell those men to go away and call the police and--"  
  
"Shut up and RUN, Petunia, unless you want to die!" Lily cried desperately as the Death Eaters rounded the corner and began shouting. One of them yelled an incantation, and an ominous looking green spell shot at Lily, who ducked, and began tugging on Petunia's hand again. Her sister was slightly more compliant this time, but it immediately became apparent that she was not wearing shoes fit for running.  
  
"Lily!" Petunia shrieked, staggering along behind her younger sister and wincing as a spell flew past her right ear. "Who ARE those people, and---wha---what is that thing in the sky, and--"  
  
"Later!" Lily cried, rounding the next corner she came to as sharply as she could, which apparently was too sharply for Petunia, as she stumbled and fell right over on top of Lily, who shrieked and toppled over as well, flinging out her right arm in a desperate attempt to break her fall. All this accomplished was to drive searing pain into her arm--pain which, Lily imagined, was only a precursor to what the Death Eaters would do to them when they inevitably caught up.   
  
As Lily lay on the ground trying to catch her breath and come to terms with the pain shooting up her arm, Petunia screamed again, bloodcurdlingly, and Lily yelled out as well as a blinding light obscured her vision, and for a moment all she heard was Petunia's screaming, and her own screaming, and the footsteps of the Death Eaters approaching the corner, and her own heart beating, and then something very large approached Lily's head very quickly, and she closed her eyes tight, and prayed.  
  
***  
  
A/N: So that was fun, wasn't it? Didn't ya think so? I certainly thought so.   
  
Yay! My first cliffie in this story! Yay! *dances around excitedly* I used to do cliffies all the time, but this story never really presented an opportunity for one...until now! Yay!! *further dancing*  
  
Anyway....just wanted to add my traditional THANK YOU section!   
  
(*Note: Just so everybody knows, it really is 2 in the morning, and I really am not all here...I wrote most of the end of this chapter with my eyes closed, and kept switching scenes accidentally, so if Lily pops up and says something random in a scene with Sirius and James in it or something, just....ignore it, and....if I don't give you some kind of comment relating to your review, don't feel offended, I just get lazy at 2 in the morning....you know? I respond to the most random things at this hour. Don't ask.)  
  
Gigantic, magnanimous, exquisite, superb, delightful, sincere, and profuse THANK YOUs go to:  
  
Anonymous-- I realize this isn't a name, and you may never read this, but you left me a review attempting to cheer me up, and it for some reason related to the Verizon ad where someone steals their neighbor's garden squirrel...I love that commercial...but anyway I just wanted to let you know I appreciate it.  
  
kluvhp--thank you for your copious reviews! People don't really like to review all of the chapters to a story if they pick it up after more than 5 or so chapters have been posted...so yay for you!  
  
mars_venus--no more bugging me about updating. :P  
  
grr-krissy-grrr   
  
Zea  
  
Reni  
  
limbo_gal  
  
MWPPgirlie  
  
Cajun Rogue--I'd love to review your story! As soon as finals are over.  
  
Senora Tom Felton--ha ha! an update  
  
Alyssa  
  
Elven Dagger--I am sorry to inform you that in this story, Lily does not play Quidditch. She is hopeless on a broomstick.  
  
mintytoothpick--I love your name.  
  
Hannah--Things did indeed slow down in the middle. Or the middle of what is posted so far. Unfortunately, none of that has any importance whatsoever to the plot, but...hey...it was all fun, wasn't it? LOL...Mimi was kind of shoved aside in this chapter...and she probably will be in the next...but she'll come back, I promise...  
  
KMChase  
  
FireSeeker  
  
ayse  
  
chocolatez  
  
funky*canadian*rocker14--yay, a long review! I love long reviews. I feed off them. hahaha....sorry, I'm kinda delirious, I've been awake for...like sixteen and a half hours. So not that long, really, but I'm kinda tired anyway. Anyway! Glad you liked everything. Especially the Quidditch commentating. I love that part too. ^_~ Oooh......English freewrites....I kick butt at those....too bad I haven't been able to do that since freshman year....o well...that's how it goes....you know I once had a pen named roYCE! (no, really, that's how you have to spell it; roYCE!)...although actually it was my friend's pen, but anyway, I liked shouting the name across the cafeteria, it was funny, and then roYCE! ran out of ink and she threw him away in the french room and i cried....well, okay, not really, but i did write him a fantastic eulogy. which i had my friend throw in the trash can in the french room. and now i can't remember it, but it will rest with roYCE! forever.  
  
math lover  
  
anonymous--okay, so there were two anonymous's this time. but anyway...this "anonymous" commented on Lily being "fat", because I think somewhere in the first chapter Sirius is rattling off a random description of Lily and says that she is 5'8" and 135 pounds. Now I don't know what the average american teenager's view of height and weight ratios is, but in my experience, if you are 5'8" and 135 pounds, you look pretty darn good. You aren't skinny, persay, but you're going to be on the thin side of normal-looking. Maybe if you were....5'4" and weighed 135...I don't know...I have a friend who is 5'8" and weighs about 118 pounds, and she looks like a human walking stick. So I think that 135 is normal. But that's just me. Maybe I should take a poll.  
  
Anime-mistress585  
  
ilovethetwins  
  
Lily Lupin the first---ooh, looooong review. *is impressed* I know they were only in the Gamekeeper's Hut a few minutes....but really I just find that funny....I considered calling the chapter "Tea and Quidditch", but I have wanted to call a chapter "The Gamekeeper's Hut" since about Chapter Five, so I called it The Gamekeeper's Hut as planned...dang it....hmm. I love Melody. A lot of people have had issues with her, and with how underdeveloped I have made her character, but she's in the story a little more this chapter, so...yeah...I really wish I had more time to explore Melody's character...sigh. oh well.   
  
Clepsydra  
  
Star*dust--WOW, I so forgot you reviewed. You know, I owe you reviews. (Do you know what has been stuck in my head for like the last twenty minutes? A random line from Finding Nemo. Here, let me just say it: "You know, I speak whale.") Anyway! Looooooong review. I like your review. I adore your review. I want to dress up your review and take it to prom. Dear God, it's 3 in the morning. I must be crazy. (Well...okay....we established that already...anyway...) Wow, you should go back and read your review, that whole thing with you drinking tea while Lily was drinking tea and then you spilling it....that was just funny....of course I am slightly delirious right now, but never mind that...but hey! I've seen Rudy now!!!!!!!! MILESTONE! lolol..... hehehehee QUIDDITCH! I have to thank Emily for those Quidditch games...she kinda helped me figure out how to format those darn things...maybe that was you? It was one of you...I dunno, brain doesn't function so good at these early morning hours...but anyway, I had mucho fun-o. Usually I suck at Quidditch games, but I think the one where Lily commentated was pretty spiffy....lolol yay for my chapter ending!!! Wow....I almost referred to myself in the third person using my real name....crazyness...hm...so I can't believe I updated. Many people will be excited. We're hoping. Although I feel bad since this chapter was insanely short....21 pages in all...damn it....but that's what i get for splitting the summer into 2 chapters. And anyway I insanely wanted to post before break ended. BWAHAHA!!! I am triumphant!!!!!!!!!!  
  
monkinO  
  
Nikki Black  
  
harrypfanatic111  
  
PalmTreeBlood  
  
Veronica--your review was way fantastic. I don't really know what to say, except I feel way flattered, and that my junior year is way sucky....  
  
Miranda  
  
Waywren Truesong--hm. This fic is interesting, in the way that it really is an AU fic, but it can be selectively canon. The Ancient and Most Noble House of Black doesn't really exist in this fic, except for of course Bellatrix and Andromeda drop in for a while. But obviously Sirius gets along a bit better with his parents in my story than he does with them in the book....wait....did that sentence make sense? I have no idea, I'm not all here right now....  
  
Erica the Flying Tree--this story really just doesn't end. i don't know what i'll do when it does end. cry, probably. but i don't think i'm going to have to worry about that ANY time in the near future, so....for now it just keeps on goin'....and you definitely never told me you loved my name before. so thank you :)  
  
sonboardgurl88  
  
Sprky007--hum. if this story EVER ends....i guess i'll write A Lily Story again....that's if i ever finish this one....you know what, i'll worry about that when i come to it....  
  
Tweety--lol, true, true, there are many cliches in my story. but i adore my cliches.  
  
TrinMalfoY  
  
DolphinAnimagus--I love dolphins. I know that's random, but I really do love dolphins. There are dolphins all over my room. I'm way obsessed.  
  
Jaymers  
  
Kat44--you asked me a lot of questions. well, i'm updating right now, to answer one. i don't know how i write so much. it takes a while. lots of inspiration, lots of free time, and lots of kicks in my rear are necessary. as for affording it....my parents pay for everything...and if we're just talking free time...i mostly write late at night, on weekends and vacations, or random things during class....i don't *have* time. I *make* time. my ideas generally just pop into my head, usually while i'm writing, and then random unplanned subplots form....for this story, though, i plotted it out so long ago that everything is just kind of laid out and it's all just...there. the fine-tuning and the details i have to make up as i go along...sometimes i sit down and i have to brainstorm (like for quidditch and things....) but usually if i'm in the mood to write, i just sit down and let all the words spill out of my fingers and that's that.  
  
Iryl  
  
Harryforeva  
  
sour-peach  
  
Greenfire5  
  
LJstagflower4e/JCtigerwolf4e  
  
Pequenino  
  
Anar ar Isil--sorry I haven't e-mailed you in forever. Your review was brilliant, by the way. Positively spiffing. God, I'm tired. But you give the best reviews ever.  
  
Wildcat Ohrya--spring? oooh, spring! spring! right! different hemisphere! okay! gotcha....i was freaking out....i was thinking, Lord, have i not posted since spring??!!??! but no, that's not right....so anyway....fantastical review, as usual....i way enjoyed it, even though it was just general randomness. i know how that is. i've gotten sick a lot this year. oddly.  
  
Ali  
  
lama- lolol. i realize i ended sixth year insanely abruptly, but there are so many plot points in seventh year that it is going to take FOREVER to write, so...don't you worry just yet, dear. there's actually a plot in seventh year, it's fantastic...  
  
elfe de chocolat---i indeed love you. all my reviewers are completely insane. have you noticed that? just asking....that's good though. because i'm insane. so we're all in good company here.  
  
otaku-nut44--WHY?? WHY? WHY? Why are there so many reviews for chapter 10??? when did that happen??? i want to go to sleeeeeeeep.....not that i'm complaining. i love reviews. i love you. i'll shut up now.  
  
ChocolateTaco--I'm from Jersey! Although I live in Indiana...but hey! that's how it goes.  
  
Lagalos  
  
LadyElla64--I updated. hahahahhahahah ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?  
  
H.B. Whyte  
  
Marmell Adium--hahaha...yeah, I know, I left Sirius and Melody completely hanging. That's going to be picked up again in the next chapter. It's tricky to do when so much of the story is Lily's point of view. It's really about Lily, you know...or at least it's supposed to be....lol...  
  
Kapofdapipers  
  
Yanlira  
  
vamperfly  
  
kat6528  
  
Abarraine  
  
harrylover  
  
mystikalolo--I'll update A Lily Story. someday. in the far distant future. a long long time from now. when i'm old and gray. and "eyes..." is finished.  
  
SilentMidnight--I love your pen name. It just rocks my socks off. That's all I have to say.  
  
I'M DONE!!! NO MORE!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!! If I forgot you, I apologize. Just let me know and I will correct the error.  
  
Okay. That's all. REVIEW! 


	12. Dawn Incumbent

A/N:  HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY PRESENT EVERYBODY!!!! I decided that I wanted to update, then I realized, hey, tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and since this story is about Lily having green eyes, and St. Pat's is all about green…it kinda goes together…so…yeah!

So. I'm done. WOW. I'm done. Hahhahhahhhahaa…I feel giddy. The story's not done, mind you. But the chapter is. I think that's an accomplishment. Um…the first part of the chapter's kinda…odd. I'm really bad at dealing with grief and remorse and I think that whole part might be kinda…not so great. But oh well. This chapter's fairly long, so…enjoy that. That should make up for the last chapter, which was pretty short. 

I think this is a record update for me…only three months! Not that that's really a GOOD thing, but it's better than I usually do. Anyway…thank-you section is at the end of the chapter, ignore the typos, and review!  
  


Chapter Twelve 

Dawn Incumbent

"Aaah!" Petunia shrieked again, and Lily blinked the intensely bright light out of her eyes and looked up, and then gave a fantastic start—which was understandable, as a large purple bus had just appeared on the sidewalk and screeched to a stop with one of its front tires uncomfortably close to Lily's  head.

"Hallo," came a cheerful voice. "I say, what are you ladies doing on the--"

"Get us out of here!" Lily shrieked, scrambling to her feet and yanking Petunia up with her in a mad attempt to board the bus.

"Hold  on, now, it's eight sickles for--"

"_Impedimenta!_" bellowed the voice of one of the Death Eaters.

"CRIKEY!" yelled the boy, and he all but shoved Lily and Petunia onto the bus and ordered the driver to get away as quickly as possible, and with a loud BANG! the bus jumped from Westhaven to someplace very far out in the country that Lily did not at all recognize.

"Here, now, let me help you to your feet," the boy offered, holding out a hand for Lily, which she accepted gratefully, and rose to her feet with a small amount of difficulty, as Petunia was partly on top of her; however, as Lily rose, she noticed her sister did not move.

"Petunia?" Lily said, crouching down next to her, and Petunia, who looked for all the world as though she'd fallen asleep, did not respond.

"Er--I think she's fainted," the boy offered, and Lily nodded. 

"I think so," she agreed.

"Here...lemme help you get her on one of these beds."

At this Lily's head snapped up, and for the first time she looked thoroughly around at her surroundings. She was on a bus, all right, but it wasn't like any bus she'd ever seen; instead of two rows of crowded seats, there were instead two rows of rather comfortable looking beds, with nightstands to accompany them. As Lily and the boy lifted Petunia and set her on a bed, she saw that two of the other beds on the bus were already occupied.

"What's the matter with her?" inquired the driver.

"Fainted, sir," the boy replied. "'Course, she was being chased by Death Eaters--" 

The boy's words were cut off as the driver jerked the steering wheel violently, and Lily shrieked as the bus drove off the road and nearly plowed into a tree; however, to her astonishment, the tree jumped deftly out of the bus's way, as did the next three trees the bus bypassed before the driver managed to get the vehicle back on the road.

"Don't _say_ them sort o' things to me when I'm drivin', Ernie!" he nearly shouted to the boy.

"Sorry, there, Frank," Ernie replied. "I was meaning to say I couldn't blame her for fainting is all."

Lily happened to agree with him on this point, and sank slowly onto the edge of Petunia's bed, hands shaking as it began to sink in what exactly had just happened.

"Well, miss, I don't know what you were doing with them--them--people," the driver said, glancing in his rearview mirror at her, "but I'm glad you called for us in time."

"Me too," Lily agreed, shaking, "though I'm not exactly sure how I did."

"Stuck out your wand had, o'course," Ernie said. "Don't tell me you never heard of the Knight Bus?"

"Er...no, actually," Lily replied sheepishly. "I'm afraid not."

"Well, then!" Ernie said. "Welcome to the Knight Bus! I'm the conductor, Ernie Wallace, and this here's the driver, Frank Fondsworth. For a small fee we'll take you anywhere you need to go on land--er---speaking of the fee--"

"Oh!" Lily cried, realizing she didn't have a single Knut to her name. She never had wizarding money during the summer; she never used it, and besides there was no point risking her getting the wizarding coins mixed up with Muggle money. "I'm sorry--I don't--I don't have any money--I mean, I have money, but it's Muggle money, it's useless here--but--oh, please--oh, please don't send me back where you picked me up, I--"

"Oh, no, we wouldn't send you back there," Ernie said, shuddering. "Wouldn't want to be caught going anywhere where there are Dea—_those_ people around."

A nasty thought occurred to Lily. "But---what if the Death Eaters—"

The bus swerved suddenly, and Lily jumped. "Sorry," she called to Frank, alarmed. "I only meant to say…what if…er…_those_ people…decide to summon the Knight Bus themselves?"

"Nah," Ernie said, waving his hand in a dismissive manner. "They wouldn't want to run the risk there'd be a Ministry official on board."

"Oh," Lily replied. "Well...what are you going to do with me then?"

"Well, we've never really 'ad this problem afore, 'ave we, Ernie?"

"Not that I can recall."

"See, we usually just 'ave the 'hole lot pay afore they got on the bus, an' we've never saved someone from D-de…D-dea…_that_ lot…afore, so..." Frank scratched his head in thought.

"Where are you headed?" Ernie asked. "Maybe when we get there you can change your Muggle money for real money and pay us proper."

"Er..." Lily replied, thinking. She hadn't really thought of any specific place to go, except away from impending death and danger, but now that she thought about it, she supposed she would have to go _somewhere_, and...she couldn't very well go home, but...where _could_ she go? 

She would have to in some way obtain wizarding money wherever it was the Knight Bus took her, and after that she'd need a place to stay, but where was there that-- "Potter's cottage," she said suddenly, abruptly, surprising herself with the answer. After saying it, she thought about it, and for once something that had come out of her mouth before she'd had the chance to think about it made sense.

*          *          *

"Dumb bloody relatives," muttered Bellatrix, shrugging out of her long dark robes and ripping the Death Eater mask off her face, tossing it carelessly on her bed. Or rather--her and Siegfried's bed. They shared a flat in London, though not many people knew it, and it was because of this convenient little detail that Bellatrix had decided to spend the night here, away from the prying eyes of her parents and the general public.

After nights like this, Bellatrix didn't like having too much contact with other people; she usually either got the insane urge to kill them or confess her sins to them, and neither would have been good for the Dark Lord and his steadily growing entourage. She'd spoken of this with Siegfried, and he assured her she'd get used to it. He'd been a Death Eater for nearly a year and a half, and had overcome all his own little idiosyncrasies created by and associated with the job; he expected that Bellatrix would do much the same.

Bellatrix's family, however, was a problem tonight only because the unexpected visit of Andromeda, and Bellatrix's extended stay with the Blacks. She had even tagged along with Sirius to his little friend's house, in a futile attempt to make nice with the Potters. She hadn't gotten very far, however, and in all truth had been lost wandering the house for most of the visit (thanks to Sirius and his very obvious plan to ditch her the moment the adults were out of sight). As such, Bellatrix had returned home late and had nearly missed the meeting tonight. She was glad she hadn't; this summer was crucial in her time as a rookie, and more experiences like tonight were just what she needed to become as seasoned as Siegfried.

Bellatrix sighed and stripped off her clothes, stepping into the empty and dry bath and turning on the tap. She sat in the tub, fiddling with a sponge and replaying the night's disturbing events in her head as warm water pooled around her.  There had been screaming, so much screaming--a little girl, a little boy--both screaming bloody murder, and at the same time, crying out for mercy. Ironic, though, wasn't it, the phrase "bloody murder"--at least when applied to these two, it was; in their case, there wasn't a drop of blood involved. 

_Avada__ Kedavra_ was efficient, immediate, clean, and painless--at least, Bellatrix assumed it was painless; she, of course, had never experienced the spell, but she assumed, considering the speed at which it worked, that its recipients felt nothing except shock until they found themselves floating up to heaven--or perhaps drifting downward; one never knew with _Muggles_.

For they had all been Muggles; _all_ the victims were Muggles. The Dark Lord insisted upon this. No point in scaring the wizarding community more than necessary. As long as the Death Eaters' victims were solely Muggle, wizards were more likely to feel safe from attack, and therefore less likely to insist some kind of _immediate_ action from the Ministry. The wizarding world would still be indignant and outraged, of course, and the Mudbloods in the community would have to be spoken for--there had been more than one house hit so far this summer that had housed a young wizard or two--but Ministry action would be delayed as of yet, waiting until they could figure what kind of a force they were up against.

This, of course, played even more in the Dark Lord's hands--the longer the Ministry stalled, and the longer they insisted there was no threat (or, indeed, that they were already handling the threat--covering up was more like it), the more time Voldemort had to gather followers, make allegiances, and induce magical creatures to join his army. The number of Death Eaters was growing steadily and strongly, with a few more every week. Occasionally the numbers would surge, especially after a large attack, like the one they'd made this spring on a Muggle village. They'd wiped out all of its inhabitants--except one, it seemed, a little Mudblood witch who apparently went to Hogwarts.

_Hogwarts is too soft,_ Bellatrix thought scornfully. _They're__ letting in anyone these days. Honestly, ever since that Dumbledore character became Headmaster the whole institution's gone to pot._

Bellatrix had been offered a spot as a student at Hogwarts, but turned it down in favor of Durmstrang. All her family had gone to Hogwarts, and been in Slytherin, naturally, but in light of the new, hideous administration they'd decided against Bellatrix having anything to do with the place. And besides, Durmstrang was much looser with their rules about Dark Magic, and even encouraged a little experimentation with it in certain classes—potion-making, Transfiguration, and the like. They did in-depth, intensive studies on hexes, curses, and deeply evil ancient magical objects and the spells that had created them. Nothing at all like the pansy-assed curriculum of Defense Against the Dark Arts Sirius had described at Hogwarts. Bellatrix laughed at the mere thought of any one of those students coming up against a real, live Death Eater.

_Defense against the dark arts indeed_, Bellatrix thought sneeringly. _Defense against _what _dark arts?__ Cornish pixies?_ She snorted to herself. _Pathetic.__ And they don't even have a _dueling _club at that school. Doubly pathetic._

Bellatrix often had these little mental rants about the inferiority of Hogwarts to Durmstrang. Never mind that Hogwarts had always been advertised as the best wizarding school in Europe; Bellatrix knew perfectly well that all the Beauxbatons students took extreme offense at this, and that most Durmstrang students considered themselves well above any lowly Hogwarts student they could hope to meet.

Bellatrix, unfortunately, had been raised with a glorified image of Hogwarts stamped in her mind, and had often looked forward to long nights in the Slytherin common room with her best mates, smirking over their latest pint of smuggled butterbeer, or perhaps even the good stuff--firewhisky--talking 'til the crack of dawn about evil plots to overthrow the Gryffindors and win the House and Quidditch Cups all in one year. 

However, these images had long faded and the fantasy was gone; Bellatrix had served her seven years at Durmstrang instead, and had plenty of good mates. Never mind that butterbeer wasn't to be found near the castle and firewhisky happened to be as common as pumpkin juice. She had enjoyed her seven years, and now she had Siegfried, and a position as Death Eater, and a fabulous flat in London, and no reason to complain.

*          *          *

Lily brushed her teeth, having obtained a toothbrush from Ernie, whom, Lily suspected, in addition to trusting her to cough up the money once they arrived at Potter's Cottage, was taking a deal of pity on her. The Knight Bus rambled on, dropping off passenger after passenger until Lily and the sleeping Petunia were nearly the only ones left.

Lily avoided thinking at all about what she had just seen, or anything that had just happened, and focused instead on staying composed until she reached James's house. Ernie was an amiable enough companion, and proved quite successful in distracting her from her thoughts with a bit of rather mindless chatter. 

"So, first time you've been on the Knight Bus then?"

"Yes. My sister as well, in fact, though I don't know what she'll think when she wakes up—she'll probably be utterly shocked at first and then once's she's gotten over the shock, she'll be utterly mad at me."

"I don't see why she'd be too mad at you; you did save her from those—er—you did save her, after all," Ernie said, amending his speech in consideration of the driver.

"Yes, well, she's never been too fond of anything magical," Lily said bitterly, crossing her arms.

"You mean—you mean your sister's a Muggle then?" Ernie asked eagerly, and Lily nodded. "Hear that, Frank? We got a Muggle on board!"  
  


"I heard well enough," Frank replied, sounding rather grouchy. "I never took a liking to Muggles myself. It'll be a strange night indeed, what with unpaid fare and a Muggle on board." 

"Aw, come off it, Frank," Ernie said, waving away Frank's grumbling. "Don't mind him, he's just a bit touchy about rules and all that. Not s'posed to let people on board with unpaid fares. Not s'posed to let Muggles on board either, mind you, but none of them have ever come close to even noticing the Knight Bus, so there isn't too much of a worry there."

"No, I suppose not," Lily agreed.

"But I figure in times like these you've got to bend the rules a bit, otherwise a lot of people are going to end up in right sticky messes, and you won't be able to help anybody, and that's what we're here for, isn't it? So there you have it. I'm glad we got to you in time," Ernie said, sounding satisfied. Lily managed a weak smile and sat down on the bed next to Petunia's.

"Me too," she said. "I'm going to sleep. Wake me when we get there."

"All right, miss," Ernie agreed. "You just sleep then."

Lily crawled under the covers and laid her head down, and listened to the humming and occasional BANG!-ing of the bus, and the light snoring of her sister in the bed next to her, but she kept her eyes wide open, and she could not sleep.

*          *          *

Lily felt a light tapping on her shoulder.

"...here, miss," came the gentle voice of the conductor. "We're here."

Lily blinked and frowned, looking up at Ernie and feeling confused. She hadn't thought she'd be able to fall asleep, not with all the thoughts she'd been trying to block out of her mind, but after the bus had BANG!-ed into Bristol a light rain started tapping against the windows, and the soothing sound of it must have lulled Lily into a shallow sleep. Petunia was awake and sitting up and alert and, Lily noted, looking rather alarmed.

"Lily," Petunia whispered, looking worriedly around the inside of the bus, "where the dickens are we?"

"We're on a bus," Lily replied simply. "A magical one. And we've reached our destination, so let's get off then, shall we?"

Petunia squinted, trying to see out the large tinted black windows on the bus, but to no avail.

"Off you get, then," Ernie said, ushering them to the door. "Hope you had a pleasant stay on the Knight Bus. And remember--don't hesitate to call on us if you're ever in need."

Lily turned around after climbing off the bus and faced Ernie. "Just wait here, it'll just be a moment before I can get some money--"

"Nah," Ernie said, waving his hand dismissively. "You've been through enough for one night; I think we can cover you."

"But--" Lily began, protesting, but her speech was cut off by a loud BANG! and then the bus was no more.

"I know where we are," Petunia whispered, staring up at the mansion that was so inaptly dubbed Potter's Cottage. Lily walked to the front door and knocked on it with a large, gold doorknocker, expecting Petunia to say more, but, surprisingly, her sister remained silent.

As Lily waited on the doorstep, all the emotions, thoughts, and images she'd managed to suppress while on the Knight Bus slowly began trickling into her brain. At first, with the realization of what she'd actually just witnessed, she didn't feel anything at all--just numb. The numbness lasted long enough for a house-elf to answer the door, invite them in, and scurry off in a wild hurry to get James, at Lily's request. 

A horde of house-elves soon surrounded Lily and Petunia, offering them hot tea, cookies, crackers, and even a bit of cheesecake, all of which Lily refused, and requested that the house-elves take away, as she felt that if she had to look at any kind of food for more than a moment, she would become violently ill. She already felt ill enough without plates of food being presented to her; a cookie was the last thing she needed.

The house-elves scurried off apologetically, and Lily shot a glance over at Petunia, who had her arms wrapped around herself and was shuddering rather violently. A house-elf scurried over and offered her a blanket, which she refused, and she turned away from Lily to hide the sparkling tears that had begun to trickle down her face. 

This sight was almost too much for Lily, and she turned abruptly away from her sister to stop her own tears from flowing. She wanted to at least be able to tell James what had happened....although now that she had actual time to think about it, how in the world was she going to voice what had just happened without completely losing her composure?

Tears began to well up in her eyes of their own accord, and she suppressed them as best she could, knowing that if she paid any sort of attention to the enormous pain building inside her chest or the tears threatening to spill from her eyes, she would quickly grow hysterical, and be positively a useless gibbering mess for the next several hours.

The sound of footsteps pounded across the floor above her, and Lily gulped and wiped hastily at her eyes as the first few tears began to overflow. The footsteps bounded down the stairs and then quickly approached the front hall, and then the next second all Lily saw was James rounding the corner and rushing to her side, concern etched deeply into his face.

"Lily--" he began, and reached out a hand for her. It was at this point that Lily could bear suppressing her grief no longer, and all the pain and anguish that had been building inside her for the last several hours exploded into sobs, and she fell against James rather unceremoniously. James, who was quite taken aback by all this, steadied her, and wrapped his arms around her, then looked at Petunia helplessly for some kind of information.

Petunia just looked at him with tears shining in her eyes, shook her head, and burst out bitterly, "Can I just go to bed now?" 

James, who had a growing feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach, nodded at the house-elves, who took the liberty of escorting Lily's sister to one of the guest rooms (where she fell promptly into hysterical tears herself).

Lily, meanwhile, her face contorted in grief and pain, had latched her arms as tightly around James as they would go, and continued sobbing. James decided that speaking would be utterly useless at this point, so he simply held her against him and tried to be as soothing as possible, although really there was not much he could do.

"Hold---me---tighter!" Lily commanded in between sobs, which startled James, but he complied, and Lily buried her face in his chest further. She was still sobbing, but it had lessened somewhat--just enough so she could barely speak between sobs, if she really wanted to. "D-don't let g-go, James! P-p-lease, d-don't let m--m--me go."

"I won't, Lily. I promise," he whispered, rocking Lily gently from side to side. She sobbed and shuddered and tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come out. "Shh," James said as soothingly as he could. "It's okay. You don't have to talk right now. It's okay."  Lily buried her face as deep into James's shirt as it would go and sobbed for another several minutes, still shuddering like mad, her knees quaking and threatening to buckle. 

James quickly scooped her up into his arms and carried her still-sobbing form out of the front hall and into the main living room. He set her down gently on the couch and sat next to her, where she promptly latched onto him again and continued crying. He rubbed her back gently, and stroked her hair, and made several other soothing gestures, but began to feel rather silly, as none of this seemed to have any effect whatsoever on the hysterical Lily. She didn't protest, however, so he continued, hoping to bring her what small amount of comfort he could.

After a few more minutes of sobbing, James heard soft footsteps on the stairs, and looked up to see his mother coming down, tied in a large blue bathrobe and looking extremely tired.

"Mom, it's okay," James whispered. "You can go back to bed."

Mrs. Potter frowned. "It most certainly is not okay, not with the poor girl carrying on like that. What happened?"

James shook his head. "I have no idea. But I'm starting to think I don't want to know, if it's this bad."

Mrs. Potter shot a look of sympathy in Lily's direction, even though Lily was not looking. "The poor dear.  I wonder if maybe she'd like some hot tea?"

James shook his head. "It's kind of hard to tell...but I doubt it."

 Mrs. Potter sighed. "Perhaps you're right. But I think I'm going to go busy myself with making some anyway. I'm awake now, and worried, and I need something to do. Would you let me know when she's well enough to talk?"

James nodded, and Mrs. Potter disappeared into the kitchens.

Lily did not compose herself for quite a long time; Mrs. Potter made two pots of tea before the crying succumbed, and Lily hiccupped herself away from James's chest slowly. House-elves immediately supplied her with tissues, which she accepted gratefully. James's shirt was now wet with tears, but he didn't particularly care about that. He cared about Lily. After blowing her nose thoroughly, Lily gave a weak sob, collapsed against James's shoulder rather limply and cried gently for a few minutes. The house-elves ran and got Mrs. Potter, and by the time she arrived with tea, Lily had nearly composed herself again, although her face was red and blotchy and her eyes were very puffy, and still shining with unreleased tears.

"Here, my dear," Mrs. Potter said kindly. "Have a cup of tea."

Lily shook her head with a pitiful look on her face and leaned against James. After a moment, James craned his neck to look down at her, and the expression on Lily's face had changed, and now she did not look pitiful so much as she simply looked...lost. Unsure. Uncertain.

"Lily," James whispered, Lily looked up at him, a dazed, forlorn sort of expression on her face. James racked his brain for a moment, trying to think of how exactly he was going to phrase the question. He couldn't very well ask her if she was alright, as she most certainly was not, and it didn't seem very fitting to ask if she was going to _be_ alright, as that didn't seem very likely either. James sighed, and, stalling for time, brought his hand to her cheek and wiped away her tears gently. Quite unexpectedly, Lily grabbed his hand and held it in both of hers, and simply stared at it. He looked at her, feeling very confused, and waited.

"Do you see this hand?" Lily asked after a while. "It's solid. It's warm. It's real. I can touch it, and I can hold it."  James just looked at her, studying her face as she spoke. She simply stared at his hand, her face expressionless. "Imagine if you were holding a hand, James, and you let it go, just for a minute, and then when you turned back to grab it again, it was gone. Imagine if all that was real and solid and warm to you just suddenly disappeared. Imagine if you could never, ever hold that hand again." She looked up at him, eyes pooling again with tears. "What if you lost four hands in one night, James? What if those hands belonged to your family? What would you do?" At this point she burst into tears again, and fell against James's shoulder.

James, with horror, began to piece together what she'd said. Grotesque images flashed through his mind as he imagined dozens of scenarios in which Lily's family was removed from her, and his arms tightened around her reflexively. 

"I'm _so sorry_, Lily," he said, with as much feeling as he could, but he felt stupid saying it, as there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He didn't even notice his mother, who was looking at Lily with shock and horror and sympathy, burst into tears of her own. They weren't nearly as loud as Lily's, nor as anguished, but they were heartfelt, and through them, she gasped, "I'll--go--tea--" and ran into the kitchen.

Lily, after having spoken all she felt that it was necessary to speak, simply cried. She cried for what seemed like to James forever, but if the length of her sobs was agonizing, it was nothing compared to the potency with which she dispeled them. James had never heard anybody cry like this before; like their entire world had just been ripped out from 

underneath them; like everything dear to them had sudeenly been taken away, and they were drowning in despair. Lily did not try to reserve a single tear, and sobbed as loudly as she wanted, to the point where it made James want to cry, too.

James normally did not cry, and when he did cry it was in private, and very quietly, so no one knew about it. But...there was something too tragic about having someone he cared so much about lose everything they held dear, and he could not hold his sympathetic sorrow in, and tears slipped slowly and silently from his eyes. 

Lily and James held their pose on the couch into the early hours of the morning, until Lily was exhausted from crying and anguish, and James could not keep his eyes open any longer, and they both fell asleep. Lily curled tightly against James in a desperate attempt to find comfort, and tears dried silently on both their cheeks.

*          *          *

The morning was properly rainy and overcast, so Lily and James did not immediately wake when the sun rose behind the clouds. They lay sleeping for many hours past sunrise, in the gloomy gray haze of rainfall, looking (despite what terrors might have been haunting their dreams) very peaceful.

Mrs. Potter had found them lying entwined like this at about half-past-one much earlier that morning, and, after having got over the initial shock of seeing her teenage son sleeping with his arms wrapped around a teenage girl, felt a swell of sympathy for Lily, and decided it best not to disturb them. Instead she covered them both with a warm blanket and left them to sleep for the night.

James's father, however, did not have such a calm reaction to finding Lily and James curled up on the couch. For one, when he spotted them he had just come home from putting in long hours at the Ministry, and he was very grumpy and tired. For another, the angle at which he first saw them was an odd one, because the blanket tucked around their sleeping forms covered everything except for two legs; one of James's, one of Lily's, both of which appeared (by some accident of socks being pulled off or pants being hiked up during the night) completely bare.

The Minister of Magic, upon seeing his teenage son sleeping on the couch with a bare-legged girl, gave a fierce shout--an action to which there were various reactions. Several house-elves came scurrying in to see what was the matter; James's eyes flew open in alarm; Lily awoke with a start, and she shrieked very loudly and sat up, causing the blanket to fall away and revealing to Mr. Potter (with much relief on his part) that she and James were, in fact, fully clothed. This did not, however, completely dispel the Minister's shock, and he bellowed at his son, "JAMES CHRISTOPHER POTTER! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

James looked as though he was unsure how to answer. Lily glanced back and forth between James and his father very quickly before deciding to speak.

"It's my fault," she announced suddenly, automatically, and Mr. Potter fixed her with a look of incredulity. "I--I came here last night, and--I was--my family..." Lily trailed off, the look on her face suggesting to James that she was just now remembering the events of the previous night. She hadn't actually said it straight out yet, and didn't know if she could handle it. A lump rose in her throat at the thought. "I--I'm sorry," she finished lamely, her voice much less stable. 

James covered her hand with his, looking at his father. "Last night..." he said, finding it hard to pick the right words for this. "You know...there was an attack...." He tried to avoid saying it so he wouldn't upset Lily, but he glanced at her and felt a pang of despair; two steady streams of hot tears were already running down her cheeks, although this morning  Lily's sorrow was silent.

The Minister's face changed completely. It was first white, then red, then white again, and then somewhere between red and white and etched with sorrow and regret.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "On behalf of the Ministry. On behalf of myself. I'm sorry."

Lily didn't speak, just nodded weakly, and when the Minister had gone, buried her face in James's shoulder.

*          *          *

The hours were agony. Lily hated being alone. She was torn between trying to block everything out of her mind entirely and dwelling on it until there was nothing left to dwell on. The emptiness of losing her family consumed her completely. She couldn't take a step down a hallway, take a bite of food, or even take a nap with thoughts of her family flooding her brain and spilling out of her body in the form of tears. Sometimes the tears didn't even help; crying, after all, couldn't bring them back.

James was with her constantly, always trying to soothe her, always holding her, or comforting her, and in a small distant part of Lily's heart she was very aware that this meant the world to her, but she felt as though there was this whole hollow place inside of herself that James could not fill, that he couldn't even begin to touch, and because of this all the comforting in the world could not appease her sadness.

Petunia never once left the spare bedroom in which she'd been put by the house elves that first night. The house elves brought her food, but she did not eat. She refused to speak to anyone, and as of yet, Lily did not feel she was in any state to try to communicate with her sister.

Lily was not eating very much, either. Everything she ate either made her throw up or _want_ to throw up, so she steered clear of most foods. Just about everything she ate reminded her of her parents, which didn't help any, so Mrs. Potter ordered the house elves to start inventing dishes, in a desperate but vain attempt to pique Lily's and Petunia's appetites.

After that first day, the Minister was out of the house far more than he was in, and even when he was at Potter's Cottage, he did not sleep; he worked. If he did sleep, Lily didn't know when. 

During her second day, the Minister came back to the Cottage after spending several hours at work and brought two wizards with him. He took Lily into a room and introduced her to the wizards, who, it turned out, were Aurors, and their names were Sullivan and Knox. Sullivan, Knox, and the Minister of Magic asked her questions about the night her parents died until she was crying again. Knox gave her a handkerchief and a pat on the head as they left, and Sullivan conjured her a little flower, but it didn't help any. They hadn't _meant_ to make her cry, of course, but it had happened anyway.

The third night at Potter's Cottage, Lily decided she'd better try to sleep on a real bed, as both she and James were getting odd cricks in their backs from sleeping on the couch, and Mrs. Potter was getting to be less understanding about it. They gave her the same spare bedroom she usually slept in, but the second she walked in to go to sleep, she felt suffocated.

Even here, where there were so few memories of her parents, Lily was overwhelmed by thoughts of them--of her first stay at Potter's Cottage--of Christmas here--of Dean here--

Lily choked on her sobs and turned and fled from the room. She flew down the hallway and through the house blindly, until she was as far away from the bedroom as she needed to be, and then curled up against the wall and cried.

It wasn't long before she heard footsteps coming down the hallway, and someone sat down beside her. Lily looked up, and through a sheen of tears saw James's blurry form. His hair was even messier than usual, and after swiping her hand across her eyes Lily could clearly 

see that there were massive circles under his eyes.

"Go b-back to b-b-bed," Lily said, not wanting to deprive him of any more sleep.  
  


"No," James argued firmly, instantly. "Not while you're here like this."  
  


"You n-need s--s--slee--eep," Lily choked.

"I wasn't asleep. And I won't be able to get to sleep if I leave now. Come here," James said, and Lily did not feel she was in any state to argue. He pulled her against his chest and she cried until her sobs wore themselves out.

Lily's stomach and chest and throat were beginning to ache. She'd been crying too much and too often. Her eyes were swollen and irritated, although quite proficient now at producing tears. She hadn't seen a mirror in days, but if she looked half as bad as she felt, Lily expected she had much of the general appearance of a troll.

Her body was beginning to wear itself out. Lily felt exhausted, both physically and emotionally--but mostly the latter. James was also exhausted, but refused to admit this to Lily, as he felt that he should be strong as long as Lily was still a mess.

That night was the last that Lily spilled her tears in James's arms. For inexplicable reasons, after that point things with Lily began to change. Gears began to turn in her mind, and she was flooded and overwhelmed with thoughts. Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts--too many thoughts. So many thoughts that Lily could not stand to be around other people with them, and she had the house-elves locate a spare bedroom for her that she had never seen before, and she locked herself in and thought.

*          *          *

It may have been a bad idea to leave Lily Evans alone with her thoughts. Her thoughts were erratic, and rash, and often odd and twisted. Some were full of rage and hatred and revenge. Some were full of regret and sorrow and death and suicide. Others were of loss and aching and curling up and waiting to die. Others were of joy and hope and survival. 

But most of them were Escape.

She needed, desperately, to escape from her life. To escape from herself. To escape from the memories that burdened her and broke her. To escape from the people who encouraged her to relive those memories and grieve, because grieving was considered healthy. She needed to escape from the reason all this had happened in the first place.

Consciously, Lily made it a point to blame Voldemort and his Death Eaters for the deaths of her mother and father, brother and sister. Unconsciously, Lily blamed herself. If...only if...if she had never gotten that Hogwarts letter...if she had never shown signs of magic...oh, what if....what if, what if, what if?

No one else had mentioned this, of course, but Lily felt that they were thinking it. Of course it was Lily's fault. What other reason would a dark wizard have for attacking a house full of innocent Muggles? Why Lily's house, out of all the others on the street? There had to be some kind of rhyme and reason behind it.

So Lily blamed herself. And then she decided to escape from it. She needed out, and badly. 

So she took some Floo powder from the jar on the mantelpiece, threw it into the fire she'd conjured, and stepped calmly into the flames.

*          *          *

Sirius Black was in a state of shock. Not that there'd been another attack, nor that it had been on a bunch of Muggles, nor that he'd met this bunch of Muggles, nor even that this bunch of Muggles had been directly related to Lily Evans. What Sirius was really shocked about was the fact that he'd had to read about the attack in the _Daily Prophet._

His best friend was the son of the Minister of Magic, for Merlin's sake! What good was _that_ if he didn't at least get the news in advance? Sirius couldn't imagine James being unaware of this occurrence. Furthermore, Sirius was willing to bet his motorcycle (...helmet) that Lily had somehow found her way to Potter's Cottage. And whoever else had survived. The _Prophet _ hadn't been too specific about who had died and who had managed to escape. Lily, obviously, had survived, as there was no account of a witch dying--and, although Sirius couldn't specifically remember, he thought Lily had at least one more sibling than was accounted for in the paper.

Sirius, therefore, decided to march directly over to Potter's Cottage and sort all this out. (And by march, Sirius really meant "fly large noisy irritating motorcycle way too close to the ground over many Muggle villages and hope the Invisibility Booster decided to work ".)

Whatever the case, Sirius made his way to Potter's Cottage, landed on the balcony outside James's room, and stormed about the mansion until he ran into James and demanded to know what had become of Lily and why he had not been previously informed of the attack.

James ignored all of Sirius's questions, in light of a bigger crisis. "Lily's gone," James said, and it occurred just then to Sirius how very pale his best friend was looking.

"_What_?" Sirius demanded.

"Yeah. She...we don't know where she went. One minute she was locked in a bedroom, and then...now...she just disappeared."

Sirius paled also. "Well shit, then," he said. "That's not good."

"No," James agreed, "it's not."

*          *          *

Lily had not been thinking ahead. It had not occurred to her to bring extra Floo powder, and she had been forced to indefinitely borrow some from a large jarful sitting next to the first fireplace she'd come out of. She shoved as much as she could into the pockets of her robes, then transported herself to Diagon Alley, where she got money out of her Gringotts account and then purchased a tiny sack to tie around her waist and keep the Floo powder in.

She then passed through the Leaky Cauldron and across the gateway to the Muggle world.

Lily figured this was the easiest way to avoid Ministry officials. She did not expect they'd think to search for her in the heart of Muggle London. She also did not expect they'd find her if she moved constantly from place to place.

Lily found another wizarding pub in London, changed her Galleons in for pounds, and threw a dash of Floo powder into the fireplace, commanding it to take her to an obscure wand shop she knew lay outside Westhaven, and walked five miles into town. She ditched the robes along the way, and felt silly when she realized she was still wearing her work clothes from almost five days ago, but there was nothing she could do about it.

She had not quite planned to visit her house, but somehow could not resist the urge. It was no longer crawling with Ministry officials--they had cleared out days ago--nor was it crawling with Muggle police. There were no yellow pieces of tape labeled "Do Not Cross" strung around her house. Yet Lily felt the intense need to keep her distance from the place. It did not feel quite right to her. 

She sadly took in the sight of her childhood home, and looked forlornly at the FOR SALE sign in the front yard. Lily did not suppose anyone would want to buy it, now that people had been killed in it. She certainly did not want to live there any more.

It still brought tears to her eyes to see her house, but she brushed them hastily aside and walked briskly away.

An obscure thought flashed across Lily's mind as she walke down the street.

She was supposed to work today.

She was supposed to work yesterday, too.  
  
She wondered, briefly, what would happen if she just walked right into work and began fighting with the coffee machine as though she had not randomly disappered for several days. She picked a bad time to briefly wonder that thought, because as she rounded the corner the afternoon bus pulled up, and she got on it. The bus driver did not seem surprised to see her, but rather nodded at her routinely and continued driving.

The bus was nearly empty, and Lily did not see anyone she recognized, but still felt odd, as she didn't know what the Muggle world had been told about her family's deaths. Either Lily had been taken for dead by the Muggles or they thought she'd gone into hiding. But nobody said anything to her on the bus ride, or when she got off, or when she walked down the street and waltzed into work as though she'd never left.

And the only thing anyone said to her even then was when her boss, Ian, fixed a furious gaze on her, and said, "Where the hell have you been?"

*          *          *

All had not gone according to plan. Bellatrix realized this the moment Siegfried burst in the door of his flat and surprised Bellatrix, who was practicing a bit of hexing on the furniture.

"Stop that," Siegfried snapped, and Bellatrix, mildly surprised, removed her spells from the couch and coffee table and walked over to see what was the matter. Siegfried opted not to speak for several moments. Instead, he stalked to a cabinet and searched wildly for a moment before grabbing a large bottle of firewhisky and practically breaking the neck of it trying to open it. He drank directly from the bottle, long and hard, before turning his face on Bellatrix.

Bellatrix did not like the look on his face. She grabbed the firewhisky from him and took a big swig of it herself. It was potent stuff, and burned the whole way down. It was the kind of stuff that made you choke the first time you tried it. Hell, it made you choke the second time you tried it, too, and then the third, and fourth, and fifth. It took a long time to get used to this particular brand of firewhisky, but both Bellatrix and Siegfried had built up their tolerance for it long ago. And it was damn good for trying to forget your troubles.

Bellatrix took another swig of it. From the look on Siegfried's face, they were about to have a lot of troubles.

"The Dark Lord," said Siegfried, finally, and nervously Bellatrix had another go at the whisky, "is not pleased."

"With what?" Bellatrix asked as Siegfried took the whisky back. 

"The last mission," Siegfried replied, downing some more of the bottle.

Bellatrix was distressed. How could they have failed the last mission? They'd killed everyone in the house, made front page of the _Daily Prophet_, disrupted wizarding life. She voiced this to Siegfried, who laughed bitterly and opted for more firewhisky.

"According to the Dark Lord," he informed her, his speech beginning to sound just slightly slurred, "it did not make Muggle headlines. And therefore mass panic and hysteria is not expected. In fact it did not even make Muggle papers, let alone headlines. The obituaries haven't even printed yet. The Muggles have no clue anything is wrong at all."

Bellatrix's head was spinning. Something about that logic didn't make sense, but then the Dark Lord's thinking was often far above her own, and she'd just had a bit of firewhisky, so her judgment was a bit cloudy.

"We also made the mistake of choosing a Mudblood's household."

"Oh hell," Bellatrix said, with feeling.

"What's interesting," Siegfried said, laughing and taking another drink, "is that we didn't even kill the damn girl. She's still wandering around out there without a family."

"Bloody hell," Bellatrix agreed. "We _are_ in trouble."

"Oh no," Siegfried said, in a voice that made Bellatrix's heart stop for a moment. "That's not even the worst of it."

"What's the worst of it?" Bellatrix demanded, finding it hard to imagine a worse scenario.

"The witch isn't the only one wandering around out there without a family. We didn't kill everyone who belongs to that household."

Bellatrix laughed mirthlessly, feeling ill. That meant the mission was a failure.

The Dark Lord did not believe in failures.

*          *          *

Lily looked at Ian for a moment, blinked, and then strode over to the evil coffee machine and banged on it, sending it grinding into motion. Ian did not consider this an acceptable answer.

"Lily! You cannot simply come and go here as you please. If you're not even going to _call_ then I'm afraid--"

"Lily!" shouted another voice, and Ian and Lily both jumped. Lily looked up from the evil coffee machine to see Ethan in the kitchen doorway holding a box of creamer. "Where have you been?"

"We were just going through that," Ian informed him, shooting him a glare. 

Lily looked back and forth between them, immensely confused, then turned back to the coffee machine and whacked it again, for no reason. She hadn't been gone long enough, obviously, for them to worry, as she had only missed one day of work, but at the same time, they were acting as if they had no idea that she...that her...

Lily looked up from the coffee machine again and frowned at them in open confusion.

"What in the world is that look supposed to mean?" Ian demanded, still irritated.

"Don't...don't either of you read the paper?" Lily managed, incredulous.

"Of course I read the paper!" Ian snapped. "What's that got to do with it?"

"But--but--didn't you--wouldn't you have--the attack--you should have--" Lily stammered, cogs spinning wildly in her mind.

"What attack? What in the world are you on about? Lily, I don't have time for this kind of nonsense."

Lily ignored him and stared blankly into space. "But that doesn't make any _sense_," she whispered. "Why wouldn't the papers have..."

Ian looked positively fed up now. "Lily, I don't need your excuses. If it happens again, you're fired," he informed her, before turning and stalking into the kitchen.

Ethan, however, was looking at her curiously. "Lily," he said softly, "what are you talking about?"

Lily's eyes came back into focus and her gaze settled on Ethan. For a moment, she thought something passed between them--a hint of understanding, maybe, on a subject Ethan could not possibly know about--but then the feeling faded, and Lily just shook her head. "It's nothing," she replied. 

  
The bell attached to the door rang as a customer entered. 

"I'll get this," Lily said, leaving the evil coffee machine to its own devices. "You finish restocking." She brushed past Ethan without looking him in the eye and smiled at the customer behind the register. 

Ethan stared at her for a moment before placing the box of creamer on a shelf and walking back into the kitchen, muttering to himself.

*          *          *

Melody discovered dancing. It happened her third week in New York. She'd been at a party with her uncle and Catalina, and her uncle had introduced her to a bunch of boring new American businesswizards. She'd been forced to sit at a table with them and nearly fell asleep as they discussed stocks and money, and excused herself to go to the bathroom at least five times during the first course. The waiter who'd been serving their table noticed this, and laughed at her as she passed by him on her fifth trip to the rest room.

"Having fun?" he asked, his eyes still dancing with laughter. Melody whirled around to face him.

"So much fun you wouldn't believe," she replied sarcastically, "although I don't know what _you_ think you're going to do about it."

The waiter laughed again."I know places that you wouldn't believe," he replied. He spoke with an accent. He was Italian, with dark hair and dark eyes and a hint of a dark mustache, though only a thin one, as he wasn't that much older than Melody.

"Well if you can get me to one of those places," Melody had replied, "I'd do almost anything."

He smiled at her. "It might raise hell with your uncle."

She considered, then shrugged. "I'm feeling reckless tonight. I deserve a little fun."

"Well, you'll have to suffer through the rest of dinner. But leave when the sorbet does."

Melody left as the sorbet dishes were cleared from the table, not paying attention to the excuse she gave the gentlemen for her leave. She met the waiter by the door to the kitchens. He'd discarded his uniform and looked better for it. She let him take her hand and lead her out the back door into a dark alleyway where his motorcycle was parked. Melody couldn't help it; she laughed and shook her head.

"Does my motorcycle amuse you so much?" the waiter asked, amused himself.

"What is it with me and guys with motorcycles?" Melody asked, to nobody. He smiled at her.

"If you ask me, none of those men looked like they owned motorcycles."

"Well, it's not them...it's this boy back home...." Melody sighed, thinking of Sirius, and of how much of a relationship she was _not_ having with him.

"Forget him," the waiter advised. "Forget all of them. Tonight you are with me, and I will show you some real fun."

Melody sighed. "That's exactly what I need," she agreed. "My name is--"

"No," he said, "let's not share names. Then we get too attached. And you are not looking to be attached."

Melody gave him a half-smile. "For someone who doesn't want to get attached, you sure seem to have me figured out already."

"It is easy to spot people who are like yourself. You are like me. Get on."

Melody didn't hesitate or make a fuss, simply lifted her skirts up and swung one leg over the motorcycle, settling herself behind the waiter.

"Are you ready for a good time?" he asked, revving the engine.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Melody replied, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Give me all you've got."

He took her dancing. There weren't quite words to describe how Melody felt about dancing. She'd been dancing all summer, of course, but...not like _this_. This was the kind of dancing that involved hips and arms and legs and full body contact and sweating, not the watered-down, pre-planned ballroom dancing she'd grown accustomed to. This dancing was all about the music and how the music made you move, and it was absolutely intoxicating. Melody was addicted.

If anyone at any of her uncle's parties had tried dancing like that, it would have been a scandal. But here, in this club, it was just they way dancing was. Melody loved that.

She felt herself slipping away from the girl her uncle had tried to create and back into the girl she had been. Except now, this time around, Melody was a little different. She was still confident and beautiful (those were two things she'd almost always been, although the confidence wavered sometimes where Sirius was involved), but she wasn't so silly. 

Her goals shifted more sharply into focus, and with each newspaper article she read detailing another Voldemort attack, the goals inched closer to being in her reach. She realized, now more than ever, that she had to draw lines between who she really was and who she had to be to seek her revenge, and the real her only erupted when she was out dancing. The rest of the time she kept herself carefully tucked away and continued to flirt and gossip with high society, letting them see only the fabricated, phony version of herself.

The waiter saw her for who she was. Even better, he saw her through eyes that understood how she felt. One night while they were dancing Melody's mind drifted to her father, and the waiter immediately could tell the difference in her dancing. He'd made her stop dancing and took her to a pier, where she stopped to take her sandals off and stretch out her feet before he made her explain the story of her dad. When she was finished he immediately nodded his head and told her his own story.

"I know how you feel," he agreed. "When I was young--eight or nine or so--when we lived in Italy, my father was killed. My mama, she picks up and moves here to get away from it, to try and make life better for my family. And I swore that someday I would go back to Italy to avenge my father's death. I haven't been to Italy yet, but I am saving. And I will keep my promise."

Melody nodded. "I believe you," she said, fiddling with her sandal strap. "Only...do you know who did it?"

"Some wizard," he replied bitterly. "Some dumb wizard with talk of power and glory who couldn't get my father to join his...cult. Somebody named Lestrange."

Melody let out a long breath at this. So she and the waiter weren't after the same man, but they could very well be after the same organization. Melody knew Lestranges, several of them, and they were all rather sinister in character. She'd believe that any one of them would kill a man for almost no reason.

"I know the Lestranges," she said, and the waiter fixed a piercing gaze on her. "There are several of them. I don't know which one you want."

"Mama described him to me enough times. When I see him, I will know."

Melody nodded, not wanting to point out that all of the Lestranges looked pretty much the same. "I will help you find him," she promised. "But when you have enough money, don't go to Italy. Go to England. That is where he--and I--will be."

He nodded and set his determined gaze on the ocean. Melody knew how he felt right then--_knew_ how the want for revenge was driving him mad--and how intoxicating it was to get closer, even if just by an inch, to what you wanted.

At some point during the summer she discovered his name was Paolo, and he that hers was Melody. Paolo loved her name and said it often.

"Melody," he said. "It rolls off the tongue. I love 'L's."

"What happened to not getting attached?" she asked him. He just shrugged and smiled.

"Too late now."

One night at the pier, he told her, "If I ever have a daughter I want her to be named Liliana. It rolls off the tongue, no?"

Melody smiled. "It does. My best friend back home is named Lily, but I suppose that doesn't 'roll off the tongue' quite as well as 'Liliana'."

Paolo shook his head. "Not quite. But it is still very pretty."

"Is it as pretty as my name?" Melody teased him. She found it funny that Paolo liked her name so much; it wasn't a _bad_ name, of course, but it wasn't really all that beautiful.

"Oh, no," Paolo said, "not as pretty as you."

Melody blinked at him. Had he meant to say that, or had he meant to say "yours" instead? His English was good, and he didn't make mistakes like that unless he was trying to be funny. This time, however, he did not sound like he was joking. Melody's cheeks flushed pink and she stared out at the water instead of his face. His eyes reminded her too much of Sirius's sometimes, and she didn't like to be with Paolo and have her mind burdened with Sirius. 

"You are thinking of that boy back home," Paolo told her, and she nodded. He did not surprise her as much anymore with his impressive mind-reading skills. In fact, now she only became surprised at him if he didn't understand exactly how she felt. "Tell me about him," Paolo said. "Tell me why you are always stuck on him."

Melody sighed. "I don't know," she said. "It's...it's a lot of little things, I guess. He sees right through me, although not the way you do. He understands me, but...in a different way. He calls out all my faults and forces me to see things about myself that I don't want to see. He never lets me lie to anyone, not even myself. He just...doesn't have time for bullshit, I guess."

"Neither do I," Paolo agreed. "It gets in the way of things. It is just like how you let your uncle get in the way of you being yourself."

"You sound so much like him, you have no idea," Melody said, shaking her head.

"But I am not like him, you say."

"No, you're...you're not. You don't make me feel as...as..." she trailed off, searching for the word. "I don't know what word there is for it. I..._unsettled_, I guess. I guess he makes me feel unsettled. Unsure. But you...you make me feel confident. You aren't as frustrated as Sirius is with me all the time."

"Why is he frustrated with you? Is it for the same reason you are frustrated with him?"

"I never said I was frustrated with him," Melody said quickly, her cheeks reddening again.

"You didn't have to," Paolo said merrily, his eyes twinkling again. "You are both frustrated because there is something between you that you are wanting that you won't let yourselves have. I think he is wanting you the way you are wanting him but you both are clueless in affairs of the heart, so you back off."

"I am not clueless in affairs of the heart," Melody insisted, feeling slightly offended.

"You are good at dancing just out of reach of people's affections. You are good at _avoiding _affairs of the heart, so I have noticed. But you are not good at having them. Although when your family is involved, it is a different story. You waste all your love on them and are afraid to make room for anyone else."

"That's not..." Melody began, but then trailed off, realizing it might be true. "I love Lily," she said finally. "She's my friend."

"Ah, but she is different than loving a boy. When you love a friend, it is more like adding an extra person to your family. That love is more...unconditional. For you to love a boy, though...it requires more...sacrificing of yourself. There is more of a chance you will get hurt."

Melody just looked at Paolo. "Why are you so right about everything?"

Paolo laughed. "It is funny you say that. I always feel like I am so wrong about everything. But love I learn about from my mama. She knows more about love than anyone I know."

Melody sighed and stared out at the ocean again.

"You are trying to forget about him, no?" Paolo asked, and Melody nodded. "Come," he said, taking her hand, "and I will help you forget about him."

Melody looked up at him, eyes wide, and he smiled at her, his eyes twinkling again. 

"I am not going to make you fall in love with me," he promised. "I am just going to take you home. You will meet mama, and she will let you know exactly what you need to know."

  
Melody relaxed and smiled. "I would love to meet your mama," she replied.

*          *          *

That night after work Lily had nowhere to sleep. She considered hailing the Knight Bus again and telling them to take her to the coasts of Scotland, or somewhere else as far away from her home as she could think of, but then realized this would put her back into contact with the wizarding world, the one place she did not want to be. Instead she spent a good chunk of money on a shabby motel room outside of Westhaven for the night. 

The white paint in the room was chipped and peeling, revealing yellow walls underneath. The room smelled of smoke, and Lily fought with the creaky rusting window for a minute before opening it and airing the room out. There were burn marks on the bedside table that indicated old cigarettes. The television was tiny and only got four channels, two of which were showing the news. One was a cartoon channel and the other was showing sitcom reruns that Lily didn't want to watch.

She sighed and decided to just go to bed. The sheets, at least, smelled clean, even if the mattress was hard and lumpy. Lily spent half the night tossing and turning before falling into an uneasy sleep, where her mind was plagued by nightmares, and she awoke three times before falling, finally, into a dreamless slumber.

The next day she awoke with a familiar itching in her fingers. She wanted to play the piano. She didn't imagine the motel had a piano, so she racked her brain for places that usually had them. Churches usually did--or if not a piano, at least an organ. Windkey was teaching her to play organ. She wasn't that good yet, but at the same time she wasn't bad, and today she didn't care; she just wanted to play.

Down the street was a used clothing store, and she bought a blouse and a skirt there before returning to the motel to shower and change. There were several bugs in the shower, which Lily screamed at and then smashed with her shoes before removing them. She was afraid to close her eyes while she showered for fear that more bugs would come out of nowhere and start crawling on her, and as a result she got shampoo in her eyes. She spent five minutes trying to wash the shampoo out of her eyes and make them stop stinging, and then finished up the shower as quickly as she could and bolted from the bathroom.

Lily made up her mind to go back to London. There were amazing cathedrals in London, and she wanted to play the piano in one of them. Or the organ. Whichever. She didn't want it to be for a service or anything; she just wanted to _play_. And maybe while she was there, she would talk to God.

Lily hadn't spoken to Him in a while. She hadn't been able to find words to say to Him after her family had been taken from her. And she didn't feel like she could talk to any of the Potters about God; she wasn't quite sure if they believed in Him or not. They celebrated Christmas, of course--but then most wizards did, and most wizards did not speak of God. In fact, the only wizard Lily had ever met who'd spoken of God was Windkey.

They'd arranged for special lessons, once a week, in Hogsmeade. Lily, Windkey, and Dumbledore were the only people who knew about the lessons--and for good reason. What they were doing was somewhat illegal. Dumbledore had a Time Turner that he was allowing Lily to use for one hour every Wednesday at seven, so that she could escape into Hogsmeade and return without anyone knowing. 

At first Lily had not been sure why Dumbledore had allowed such a thing; it seemed to Lily an incredibly great length to go to just for her to be taking music lessons, but over time things had begun to make more sense.

Music, as it turned out, was not just music to some wizards; it was an extension of their magic. Their magic enhanced their abilities as a musician, and vice versa. Music was a powerful enough force in its own right (for example, some magical creatures were so susceptible to music that they fell asleep almost instantly upon hearing a single note), but if music was tied into a wizard's magic, it was all the more potent, and that much more important for them to enhance their abilities. Apparently Lily fell into this category.

Unfortunately, however, the strength of this music-magic so far had not had much of an effect on the rest of Lily's magic. She was no better or worse at casting spells than she had ever been, and as far as she could tell, none of her magic had been enhanced a bit. Her playing certainly had improved, but apparently not enough to severely affect her magical abilities.

Windkey had assured her it would be a long, drawn-out process, and had also warned her that it was entirely possible nothing would come of this, but that he was determined to try. If everything went as perfectly as it could possibly go, Lily would end up with a Siren's voice. Having a Siren's voice was an incredibly rare magical talent; only one witch in two millenia had actually been born with the talent, and beyond that, only three witches and wizards had ever trained themselves to that level of magic.

Siren's voices were magic similar to that of veela magic, except that they worked on everything, not just human males. They worked on women and all types of magical creatures. Someone with a Siren's voice could convince anyone to do pretty much _anything_--all they had to do was ask. There were almost no defenses against the magic, as it was so rare most people weren't even aware of its existence, and there was no one living who even _had_ a Siren's voice, so there was no way to practice any defenses against it, either.

It was a long shot Lily would ever have a Siren's voice, but, Windkey told her, it was important to try. It was impossible to tell, from the start, who had the potential to have a Siren's voice. The last witch who'd possessed this talent had lived over two hundred years ago, and, as the stories went, was absolutely the most tone deaf and musically untalented person anyone had ever met. These stories, of course, were an exaggeration--anyone who had a Siren's voice had to have _some_ musical talent--but it still showed that having all the musical talent in the world didn't necessarily mean you were better suited for having a Siren's voice than a lesser musician.

It was entirely possible that Lily was doing all this work for absolutely nothing, but it was fun, so she didn't particularly care. If all she got out of it was being a great musician instead of being the most powerful witch in the entire world, then so be it. At least she'd have _something_ out of it.

With a desire to play itching in her fingers, Lily set out for London.

*          *          *

Melody lay in bed until noon, reliving last night's events in her mind. Paolo, as promised, had taken her to his home. He lived in a small apartment with his mother and three siblings, and as they entered the home Melody could smell all kinds of spices and the aroma of freshly baked bread. 

Paolo's siblings had attacked him the second he walked in the door. He had two younger brothers, Gianni and Antony, and a younger sister named Isabella. Antony was fifteen, and clearly thought himself every bit as grown up as his eighteen-year-old brother--although he was much, much more serious than Paolo. Gianni was twelve, and very impish--he had a devilish grin that reminded Melody very much of James and Sirius when they were plotting something evil to do to Snape. Isabella was ten and clearly adored Paolo to pieces. 

"Paolo! Paolo! _Guardare__ che ho fatto_!" she cried the second he walked in the door, holding up a piece of paper that had a drawing on it. She'd done it with crayon, and it was very nice for a ten-year-old--but, even more impressive than that, it was moving. "Mama made it move," she said, "but I did everything else."

"And it is very beautiful. Even _Signore_ Da Vinci would be most impressed. We shall hang it on the refrigerator!" Paolo cried, scooping his sister up in his arms and carrying her into the kitchen. Melody followed him, feeling a bit nervous. Paolo's mother was in the kitchen, fussing over pots and pans on the stove.

"Mama, I've brought someone for you to meet," Paolo said as he attached Isabella's drawing to the refrigerator, next to a dozen other masterpieces of hers. Paolo's mother looked up from the stove and at Melody. She was thin and short and very beautiful, Melody noted with some amount of surprise. For some reason she'd imagined someone tall and imposing; she couldn't quite see this woman packing up and bringing her four kids to America all by herself, when they were all so young. 

But then Paolo's mama smiled, and Melody forgot what she'd been thinking. There was strength behind that smile, and confidence and love. This woman, Melody felt sure, could do positively anything, and she knew every bit as much about love as Paolo had said she did.

"Ay, _bellezza_!" she cried, setting down the large wooden spoon she'd been stirring with. She scurried over and gave Melody a warm hug. "Paolo, you didn't say your friend was so beautiful!" she scolded him. Paolo smiled. 

"I did tell you there were not words to describe her, didn't I, mama?"

Paolo's mama laughed. "_Please_, Paolo. As if you ever run out of words to describe anything."

Melody smiled and tried to suppress a laugh.

"All right, laugh at me if you want," Paolo said, seeing Melody's expression and setting his sister back down on the floor. Immediately Isabella tugged on his shirt hem, and he crouched down to speak to her. "What?"

She whispered something in his hear, and he smiled. "Why don't you ask her?" he whispered back, but Isabella shook her head and whispered into his ear again. He laughed. 

"All right, _mia__ sorella bella_. As you wish." He stood and turned to Melody, placing a hand on his sister's head. "My sister, _il__ artista miniatura_, wishes to draw you."

Melody blinked, and one of her hands self-consciously flew to her hair. It had been in a neat and orderly bun on the back of her head at the beginning of the night, adorned by several bejeweled butterfly pins, but now it was in complete disarray from dancing with Paolo. Quite a few strands had fallen out, and now the bun was rather limp. One of the butterfly pins had come out and, unwilling to mess with it, Melody had stuck it to the front of her dress.

"Oh," she said, "I'm sure I look awful. I don't think you'd want to--"

But she noticed Isabella insistently tugging at Paolo's shirt, looking at him with pleading eyes, and Paolo laughed and said, "I do not think she cares. It would bring her great joy to draw you."

"Well..." Melody considered, fussing over her hair a bit, "I suppose. But...I might as well take my hair down first."

She took out all the pins and shook out the blonde strands, attaching the pins to the straps that acted as the sleeves of her dress. Paolo was looking at her oddly.

"What?" Melody asked, running through her hair with her hands. "Does it look stupid?"

"No," Paolo replied, "but you've never worn your hair down before. Not around me. It looks...you should do it more often." 

Gianni said something to Antony and they both snickered. Paolo's cheeks went a bit red and his mama turned around to order all of them to go wash up for dinner. 

"Oh, mama, _potere__ disegno suo adesso_?" Isabella whined.

"Of course not. You must eat dinner first. After dinner you may draw. Now go wash!"

Isabella sighed and followed her brothers out of the room.

"Melody, if you wish to eat with us you can wash your hands in that sink over there. I know you must have eaten already, but we wait until Paolo gets home for our supper."

Melody, who hadn't eaten anything at the formal dinner that night because she'd been so excited about dancing with Paolo, was indeed very hungry, and gladly took up the offer. "I'm very hungry," she admitted, washing her hands. "Thank you so much, Mrs...."

"Oh, please! Don't call me that. You can call me Mama, just like everybody else!" she laughed.

"All right," Melody agreed, smiling. "Can I help you with anything?"

Paolo's mama laughed. "Oh, you are just like Paolo! He would try to help serve dinner even if he were dining with the President! No, you just sit at the table and be our guest for the night."

"Mama," Paolo said, returning, "what is this talk of me dining with the President?"

"Nothing. Here, make yourself useful and set these dishes on the table. And get our guest something to drink, would you?"

Paolo complied and set the dishes on the table. "How may I serve you?" he asked Melody, assuming his waiter stance.

"Oh, don't do that!" Melody insisted, embarrassed. "I can get myself a glass of water, it's all right."

"Oh, no, I insist on getting it for you," Paolo said, dashing across the kitchen and filling a glass with water. "Ice?" he asked, ducking into the freezer without waiting for a response. He then presented Melody with her glass of ice water rather pompously.

"I hope you're not expecting a tip for this," Melody joked, having a drink. Paolo smiled and continued to help his mama with dinner. 

"Mama, where is our _music_?" Paolo demanded.

"I forgot to turn it on. You can if you want, as long as Melody doesn't mind."

Melody shook her head when Paolo glanced at her, and he flipped on the Wizarding Wireless Network. Into the kitchen roared Italian music, and Paolo's mama yelled at him to turn it down, which he did, quickly. He began dancing around the kitchen as he helped his mama set the table, and she laughed at him. Melody just smiled and tapped her feet, feeling a small urge to get up and dance with him, but she resisted, especially after Antony came in the room and rolled his eyes at his older brother.

Dinner was delicious and loud and full of talk. There were rolls and pasta and huge delicious meatballs and soup that Melody didn't recognize but that was absolutely wonderful. They talked of Melody and her uncle and her wizarding school in Britain, and then of Antony and Gianni's wizarding school, where they did not stay overnight, but rather just went during the day, except for Thursdays when they had Astronomy at midnight (although of course for now they were on summer holidays). Paolo had just graduated, and Isabella was going to start in the fall.

Paolo talked of the restaurant he wanted to open, once he had the money for it. Paolo's mama also shared in this dream; she wanted to cook for him if he ever started the business. Antony and Gianni didn't have such dreams yet, but they figured if they didn't want to do anything in particular by the time they graduated, they would help Paolo with the restaurant as well. Isabella simply wanted to be an artist.

After dinner the entire family cleaned up, and Melody absolutely insisted on helping this time. They talked and laughed as they washed dishes and wiped off the table and danced around to the music that was still blasting from the radio. Isabella had the smallest job and finished quickest, and quietly scurried off to find paper and crayons. She sat at the kitchen table and began drawing without anyone noticing, as Melody and Paolo dried dishes and danced together, looking silly.

After the dishes were done, Paolo grabbed his mama and began to mambo, so Melody grabbed Gianni and they made up a dance. Antony sat at the table and tried to look grown-up. At some point all of the dancing fools swapped partners, so Melody was dancing with Paolo again (which, admittedly, was more fun than dancing with Gianni, as Paolo was taller than her and actually knew what he was doing). 

By the time they were all done dancing like idiots, Isabella had finished her drawing. 

"Mama, mama!" she said. "Make it move!" 

Mama pulled a wand out of her pocket and tapped the drawing, and Isabella laughed with delight.

"Paolo! Melody! Look! I drew you!"

Melody took the drawing and Paolo leaned over her shoulder to look at it, and they both smiled. The picture, though it was in crayon and a bit juvenile, clearly depicted Paolo spinning Melody around, then both of them taking a random dance step before Melody twirled again.

"It's wonderful," Melody said. "Should we hang it on the refrigerator?"

Isabella shook her head. "No, _lo voglio l'avere..._I want _you_ to have it," she said, and Melody smiled.

"I'd love to have it, Isabella. Thank you."

Isabella beamed.

"Well," Paolo said, "I should take you back, Melody, before your uncle sends out a search party."

Melody glanced at the clock. The dancing at her uncle's party was supposed to last until midnight, and the clock said eleven-thirty. She nodded. "Thank you so much for dinner, Mama," she said, and Mama gave her a hug. "Thank you for the drawing, Isabella. I'll keep it forever." Isabella threw her arms around Melody's waist and hugged her. "You're a wonderful dancer, Gianni," Melody said, smiling, and he smiled back at her, his cheeks red. "I hope to see you again, Antony," she said, lastly, and he nodded at her cordially.

"Bye, mama," Paolo said, kissing his mother on the cheek. "_Essr__ di ritorno presto_."

"I love your family," Melody said as he led her down the stairs and out to the street where his motorcycle was parked. Paolo smiled.

"I knew you would."

Melody sighed as she climbed on the back of his motorcycle. "Back to the real world now, I guess."

"Back to the fake world, you mean," Paolo said over his shoulder, starting the bike. Melody smiled.

"I guess so," she agreed. Paolo revved the engine and they shot off into the night.

They arrived at the hotel ten minutes before midnight; just enough time for her to sneak back in and rejoin her uncle. She stood outside pinning her hair back up for a few minutes before doing so.

"I really loved tonight, Paolo," she said, fiddling with her hair. "I wish I had more time to spend with you." 

Paolo smiled. "Well, the world cannot be perfect," he reminded her. "But some time together is better than none."

Melody smiled, putting the last pin in place. "You're right, as usual."

"Of course I am," Paolo agreed, smiling again.

"I don't know when I'll see you again," Melody confessed. "I think my uncle wants to stay home for a while, maybe throw a party of his own."

"Well then you had better hug me good-bye," Paolo suggested.

Melody slid her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. He slid his arms around her and did the same, and Melody, feeling happy and secure and intoxicated by his smell, which was a mix of night air and his mother's cooking and aftershave, did not want to let him go. She held on to him much longer than she should have, and when she pulled back she did not completely let go of him, nor he of her.

Paolo looked at her for a moment, intensely, as though trying to determine something, and then kissed her, though very lightly. Nobody had kissed Melody so lightly before, so delicately, and it sent her heart beating off balance. She put a hand on the side of his head and pulled his lips down onto hers firmly, gently opening both of their mouths in the process. It turned out that Paolo was very good at this kind of kissing as well, and she lost herself to sensation for a moment before her mind returned to her body and she realized she was going to be late. Paolo seemed to sense this, and the kiss ended. It wasn't broken; it just ended, quite naturally, and Melody's eyes fluttered open and she looked at him.

It felt very, very _right_ to be standing there in Paolo's arms. She didn't care that she was going to be late and her uncle would be mad at her. She didn't care that she was leaving in a few weeks and might never see him again. She didn't even care about what Lily might say when she found out. It didn't even occur to her until very much later what Sirius might have felt about the situation. She just wanted to stand there with Paolo's arms around her forever.

"You should go," Paolo said reluctantly, loosening his hold on her. Melody sadly let her arms slide down from around his neck.

"I'll owl you," she promised. Paolo kissed her again, and then turned and got on his motorbike and left. She watched him until he disappeared around the corner, and then turned around herself and walked back into her world of lies.

This morning Melody could think of nothing else. Nothing, nothing, nothing but his kiss. She wanted to kiss him again. And again. And again and again and again. It was at this time that she thought, finally, of Sirius. 

At first she was shocked. How had Paolo managed to make her forget, so completely, her affections for Sirius? It was true that he'd promised to do exactly that, but she hadn't actually believed he would. She was rarely able to forget completely about Sirius. But now that she had...for an entire night...she liked it. She felt as though she were free of him. He'd just been a burden, dragging her down, weighing on her mind, confusing her emotions, and now he was gone, and it was all Paolo.

Paolo, whom she...what? Loved? No, she couldn't possibly. She hadn't known him long enough. But she certainly adored him. And his family. And his dancing. And his kissing. And that, she supposed, as an owl flew in through her open bedroom window and deposited a copy of the _Daily Prophet_ onto her bed, was enough for now.

She got the _Daily Prophet_ several days later than wizards in England did, as it had to be carried overseas. This particular issue was four days old, and on the front, Melody noticed with a pang, was another picture of a Dark Mark.

"Great," she muttered. "What poor innocent Muggles did they target this time?"

Precisely one minute after she'd picked the paper up, she dropped it again, and sat, for a moment, in complete shock, before registering what she'd seen in the _Prophet_.

_Lily's entire family was dead._

*          *          *

Lily walked up the steps of the great cathedral and stared at it in awe. She entered through the doors into complete silence. It was, she supposed, reverent silence, but it was also kind of creepy. She walked through the narthex and into the chapel. Stained glass lined the walls, depicting colorful illustrations of the Bible's most important stories. A giant organ sat in the back of the chapel, and across from it was a beautiful grand piano.

A priest was lighting candles at the back, in between the piano and the organ. He looked up as Lily came in, and nodded at her. She walked up the center aisle between the pews, and when she got close enough, he spoke to her.

"Welcome, child, to the house of the Lord," he said. "What brings you here?"

"I wanted..." Lily began, feeling stupid. "I was wondering..."

The priest waited patiently.

"Would you mind if I...could I...would it be possible for me to..."

"Yes, child?"

"I'd like to play on your piano. If I could."

The priest smiled. "I don't see why not. The Lord appreciates all the music his children make. Go right ahead and play something for Him."

Lily smiled gratefully and scurried over to the grand piano, where she sat at the bench and placed her fingers on the keys, letting them slide across the black-and-white ivory until they picked out a suitable chord. She pressed down, and the strings of the piano vibrated across the room. Her fingers took off of their own accord, and she lost herself brilliantly in the music, just as she'd wanted to so much this morning when she'd gotten up.

*          *          *

"All right, plan of action," Sirius said as he and James walked down Diagon Alley. 

"Plan of action," James repeated, staring at every witch he passed. "Right."

"James, quit staring at those poor girls. They're going to think you're a stalker."

"So what if they do?" James demanded. "If one of them is Lily, then I don't care."

"James, why would Lily be hanging out with a group of girls? Didn't she run away _alone_?"

"Maybe she's trying to cover by staying in a group."

"That doesn't sound like Lily."  
  


"What are you, the foremost expert on Lily Evans?"

"How dare you accuse me of being the foremost expert on anything!" Sirius cried in mock anger.

"Now is _not_ the time for jokes, Padfoot."

"Lighten up, Prongs. We'll find her."

"That's what you say, but you know if she doesn't want to be found, I don't think there's anything we can do about that."

"Then remind me why we're looking again...?"

"Because we've got to _find her_, Padfoot."

"Right."

"Look, maybe if we split up..." James began.

"Oh, no. Bad things happen when people split up. We won't be able to find her _or_ each other again."

"Well, if we don't pick a meeting place we will."

"James, stop trying to be logical. I'm serious here."

"Too right you are," James agreed, slapping his best friend on the back. "How about I take this alley and you take that one."

"James, we are _not_ splitting up."

"I'll meet you back here in half an hour, all right?"

"James, _listen_ to me. Lily wouldn't be going down dark alleyways, and you shouldn't be, either. There are more sinister things than hags in the dark places of London."

"God, Sirius, you sound like a damn storybook. Quit _worrying_ so much. Let's just look for Lily."

"_I'm _worrying?" Sirius asked, incredulous. "All you_ do _is worry about Lily. Don't lecture _me_ about worrying."

"Sirius, we're _wasting time_."

Sirius sighed and looked around. "Damn right we are. What are we doing here? Let's go."

"_Go_? Go _where_, exactly?"

"Not here," Sirius replied. "She's not here."

"How do you figure _that_?"

"She wouldn't be here. If she needed to go to Gringotts she'd have come and left by now, and she probably figured this was the first place we'd look."

James swore at length. "Hell, Sirius, what are we going to do?"

"We're just going to have to _think_. Where do you think Lily would go?"

"If I _knew_ that, Padfoot, we'd have found her already."

"You're not helping."

"_Shit._ Okay. I'm thinking. Lily...if she didn't want to be found...she...she'd hide out in...some place we'd never go. Like...like...a beauty parlor, or...no, that's too stupid. Er..."

"Well, she'd probably go somewhere we wouldn't expect her to. I mean, where's the _last_ place you'd expect her to be?"

"Yemen?" James suggested.

"Besides Yemen."

"God, I don't know, Sirius. Off to avenge her parents? I...wait," James said slowly, and he looked at Sirius, who caught on to his train of thought. 

"You _can't_ be serious," Sirius said, ignoring the pun. "I mean...that's _crazy_. Why would she go there, of all places?"

"Maybe that's exactly the point," James replied. "Who in God's name would expect her to go _home_?"

"Do you know the way then?"

"Er...no, but...she lives in Westhaven. We can just look it up on a Floo map, take the Network to the nearest fireplace, and walk into town. And then...I guess we can ask for directions."

"Are you completely out of your mind?" Sirius demanded as James strode toward the Leaky Cauldron. "You do realize her whole family's _dead_, don't you? Isn't that something their neighbors would _notice_? You can't just go up and ask them where a bunch of dead people live."

"Sure I can," James replied as they reached the back entrance to the pub. "The Muggles don't know about it."

Sirius stared at him as he disappeared through the doorway. "Are you _serious_?" he demanded, following his best friend.

"Dead serious, Padfoot. The Muggle papers haven't printed a damn thing about it, not even an obituary. The Muggles have no clue anything's wrong at all."

"Holy hell. And how'd the Ministry manage _that_, exactly?" Sirius demanded as James wound his way through the pub and to the fireplace.

"Look, I don't know the logistics of it, exactly, but I'm just telling you that's how it _is_. I mean, you remember me telling you the Ministry's covered up about half the actual attacks there have been this summer, right?"

"Of course."

"Well...this is just one of those things they've been able to cover up."

"_Jesus_."

"Let's just go," James said, grabbing a handful of Floo powder from the jar above the fireplace. "Look in the directory, would you?"

"Right," Sirius said, and found Westhaven. "Fiddlius Wand Shoppe," he said. "Just outside of town."

"Good," James replied, and threw the sparkling white powder into the burning red flames.

*          *          *

The Minister of Magic was up to his neck in owls, visitors, and intra-office memos. There was so much to take care of he couldn't even keep track of it all. Two of his secretaries had given up trying to maintain order at their desks and instead had moved right in to the Minister's office. They were both running around trying to clear up all the owls and memos and things, reading through them and then filing them in order of importance, making sure the Minister heard only what it was necessary for him to hear.

Normally things were hectic after an attack, but not for this long, and it was never _this_ bad.

"Minister," Charlotte, the secretary going through owls, said. "The Prime Minister wants to have tea with you sometime this week to discuss everything that's been going on this summer. He requests you owl him back right away."

The Minister, who had been attempting to write a quick owl to his wife to let her know he wouldn't be home for dinner (again), dropped his quill and massaged his forehead. "Get Maria," he said, "find an opening in my schedule, and write the owl for me. I'll sign it."

Charlotte nodded and scurried out of the room in search of the Minister's third secretary. His fourth secretary, Theresa, was stationed just outside the door, trying to fend off a gaggle of visitors. 

"I'm sorry!" she cried. "The Minister is _very busy_ right now, and if you'll just wait patiently you'll all get in to see--"

That was all the Minister heard before the door slammed closed behind Charlotte. Stacey, the secretary still in the Minister's office going through intra-office memos, shot him a sympathetic look. The Minister nodded at her and went back to the letter to his wife. He was in mid-sentence and had completely forgotten what he was going to say, so he just shook his head and signed it. 

An owl flew in at that moment, carrying a memo, and instead of cursing it as he had all the previous ones, he grabbed it and ordered it to take the letter to his wife, even though memo owls were not technically supposed to leave the building. As the owl flew off, the sound of thunder rumbled through the Minister's office, and rain began pouring down from the ceiling.

"_Bloody hell_!" the Minister shouted. "Can't those damn wizards in Magical Maintenance _let up_ for once? Can't they see we're in THE MIDDLE OF A NATIONAL CRISIS? THE LEAST THEY COULD DO IS KEEP THE WEATHER OUTSIDE THE WINDOWS!"

Charlotte re-entered the room. "Sir?" she asked, uncertainly.

"YES!" the Minister barked.

"Maria's booked you to have tea with the Prime Minister next Thursday. Just sign here," she instructed, handing him a damp piece of parchment. Stacey took the liberty of conjuring a large umbrella and enchanting it to hover over the Minister's desk.

"HERE!" the Minister shouted, throwing the parchment back at Charlotte.

"And...sir?"

"WHAT?"

"Theresa says there's someone here to see you. Someone you _must_ see."

"WHO?"

"A witch from the International Magical Office of Law, sir. She has someone with her you need to speak to."

"SEND THEM IN!"

Charlotte nodded and went to the door, which she cracked open. She had a brief conversation with Theresa before closing the door and returning to her pile of owls. The door opened again and in walked two women, one of whom looked very familiar.

"Well, ladies," the Minister said, "how can I help you?"

*          *          *

"You're very good."

Lily looked up from the piano in surprise to see the priest sitting in a pew very close to the piano. "Oh," she said, her cheeks coloring slightly. "Thank you."

"How long have you been playing?"

"Oh...six years, I think."

"That's very impressive. Where did you start?"

"At...my church back home. I used to play there on Sundays. But now...I go to a boarding school. I don't play anymore."

The priest nodded. "What's on your mind?"

"Pardon?"

"You obvioiusly have something weighing you down. People don't concentrate that hard on music when they're happy."

"Sure--sure they do," Lily replied, uncertainly. The priest shrugged. Lily blinked. She didn't think she'd ever seen a priest _shrug_ before.

"Maybe they do," he replied. "I was never much of a musician myself."

Lily sighed, and the priest sat patiently, waiting for her to speak.

"You're right," she admitted. "I have a lot on my mind. But I don't--" she cut herself off, shrugging. "I don't want to waste your time with it."

"No human being is a waste of time," the priest replied. "Tell me what it is that's troubling you."

Lily sighed again and looked at the priest, considering. His eyes were kind, and wise, and patient. He looked as though he really did have all the time in the world to sit and listen to her pour out her tale of woe. So she got up and walked over to the pew he was sitting in, sat down next to him, and began to talk.

*          *          *

"Are you sure this is the right street, Padfoot?" James asked doubtfully as they walked down a tree-lined avenue.

"_Yes_," Sirius insisted. "Look, you chickened out on asking for directions, so you're just going to have to trust me."

James muttered something under his breath, but Sirius ignored him. "Here we are," he announced, stopping in front of a house that had a FOR SALE sign posted in the front yard. 

"She's not here, then," James said, looking at the house, which was dark and empty and sad-looking. "Let's go."

"What makes you think she's not here?"

"It's all closed up. All the lights are off. Come on, Padfoot, she's not here."

"Says _who_? Maybe she _is._ It's pretty sunny today, James, she doesn't need lights. Besides, she's too smart to use them anyway. There's a sign in the front yard that says 'for sale'. Wouldn't someone come and investigate if there were lights turning on and off in a supposedly empty house?"

"Just because a house is for sale doesn't mean the family's moved out yet," James pointed out. "The Muggles are clueless, remember? They'd have no idea one way or another."

"Are you trying to tell me that in four days none of the other people that live on this street would have come over to say good-bye?"

"Maybe they were unpopular."

"James, you met Lily's parents. They are too _nice_ to be unpopular."

"You mean they _were_ too nice."

"I try not to think about that."

"Let's just leave, Padfoot. It's not worth it." Without waiting for a response, he turned and began walking down the street. Sirius jogged to catch up to him.

"Where are you going _now_?"

"Lily worked at a Muggle coffee shop this summer. We're going to find it and see if she's been there."

"And why the hell would she go _there_? She has no clue that the Muggles don't know what's going on. If I were her, I wouldn't want to go someplace people would be feeling sorry for me all the time. Or where they might call the police on me."

"The police?"

"Sure. You know, the Muggle law enforcers who carry those sticks and whack people with them--"

"I know what police are, Sirius. I just meant...why would they call the police on her?"

"Well...if they _did_ have any clue that an attack had happened and her entire family was dead, the police would probably want to talk to her...you know, identify the bodies, or...ask if she saw anything...that kind of stuff."

"Oh. Like the questions my dad asked Lily?"

"Yeah. Investigation. That kind of thing."

They reached a bus stop. "D'you...d'you think we should take the bus?" James asked.

"To where, exactly?"

"I dunno. It might go into town."

Sirius shrugged. "I don't see why not."

They sat and waited. James took his bouncy ball out of his pocket and bounced it off the cement sidewalk.

"Do you ever go anywhere without that thing?" Sirius asked, and James smiled. 

"No," he replied. "Are you kidding? It's the love of my life."

"Lily will be jealous when I tell her."

"If we ever find her, you mean."

"We'll _find_ her, Prongs."

"Sure we will."

"Hey, look! A bus!"

"Wouldn't you know it. A bus at a bus stop! What a concept!"

"Shut up, Prongs."

"As you wish, Padfoot."

  
*          *          *

Melody formed a plan of action much more quickly than James and Sirius. As soon as she got over her initial shock, she grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill and wrote a letter to Mrs. Potter informing her that she'd heard what happened and was coming for a stay at Potter's Cottage. She packed her trunk and had one of the house-elves put a Weightlessness Charm on it, as she wasn't technically supposed to do magic herself.

Crookshanks didn't have a cage, but he was very well-behaved when it came to traveling by Floo, so Melody just intended to hold him when she Flooed to New York City to catch a Portkey back to England.

She donned her new traveling cloak and then carried her not-so-heavy trunk downstairs and set it by the fireplace. Hans and Catalina were having lunch in the garden, and she walked outside to say good-bye. Catalina saw Melody first, and gave her a curious look.

"My dear, where are you going?" she inquired as Melody reached their table. Hans looked up from his soup, quite surprised.

"I'm going to back to England," she replied. "I came to say good-bye."

"You most certainly are not going back to England," Hans said. 

"I have to, uncle," Melody insisted. "Something horrible has happened to one of my friends, and I must go to her."

"Is she on her deathbed?" Hans inquired.

"Well...no, but...it's her family, you see, they--"

"Then you're not going anywhere. I'm sure she'll be fine."

Melody stared at her uncle in shock. This was a side of him she'd never seen before. He'd always been so nice to her, so...cordial and...generous. He'd never denied her anything she'd asked for, so why now?

Upon further reflection she admitted that she'd never asked for more than a hat or a new pair of gloves; it had always been material things she'd asked for, things Hans hadn't minded providing her with. But she'd never questioned where he took her or when, what parties she went to or who she dined with. And she certainly never had spoken of going home before.

Melody narrowed her eyes. She'd allowed her uncle to push her around more than she'd thought, and she didn't like it. 

"I _am_ going back to England," she informed him. "I apologize for the short notice and also the inconvenience, but it is a most urgent matter, and I--"

"You said she was not on her deathbed. What else could there possibly be?"

"It is a time of need for her, and I must be there."

"Has she requested your presence?"

"Well..." Melody considered. No, Lily hadn't, but...just as sure as Melody knew her hair was blonde, she knew Lily would want her there. "Not officially, but I know--"

"Then it is rude to impose yourself. You have no real reason to go, niece. You shall stay here," he informed her, and then returned to his soup as though the matter was settled.

Melody blinked at him, feeling suddenly furious. "Fine," she snapped. "Since _you_ won't listen to me, I'll just say good-bye to Catalina and be on my way!" She turned to Catalina. "I'll owl you when I arrive in England. Good-bye."

She turned around and stalked back to the mansion. She was halfway there when she felt strong fingers close around her arm, and she was yanked unceremoniously around by her uncle. 

"You are not going anywhere," Hans said, glaring at her. Melody glared back at him. 

"I _have_ to go," she informed him, trying to yank his arm out of his grasp.

"I'm warning you," he growled, "if you leave..."

"You'll do what? Disown me?" Melody demanded, challenging him.

"I could do worse than that to you and your family," he threatened, tightening his grip on her arm. Melody gritted her teeth against the pain.

"Don't you _dare_ try anything on my family."

"Don't you dare leave this house."

"You're _not in charge of me_. Let. Me. Go."

"Melody," her uncle said warningly, now taking a grip on her other arm, "think of all I have done for you. I have been generous, have I not?"

Melody didn't answer, just glared at him sourly.

"Don't push it, my dear. The world is not all jewels and shoes and soft silky things."

"I don't need a reminder, thank you. I became well aware of that when my father was murdered."

"Then it stands to reason that you'd be more agreeable."

"Just because the world is harsh doesn't mean I'm going to lie down and take it," Melody snarled. 

"You are foolish to fight for things that you don't need to fight for."

"Well, what's the point in being young and naive if I can't also be foolish?"

"You are many things, Melody, but I would not count naive as one of them."

"I'm glad I have your vote of confidence on that, uncle, but I'm afraid we've sidetracked our conversation. I'm on my way to England and have sent off a good deal of money to arrange for a Portkey. If I don't leave soon I shall miss it, and then I shall be very cross with you."

"It does not do to advertise to your benefactor the amount of money which you've spent at their expense," Hans informed her coldly.

"Then I guess it is a good thing I specified no exact amount of money," Melody replied boldly.

"Melody," her uncle began again, with a tone of finality, "you are not going anywhere, and if I cannot convince you of that with words, then I shall have to keep you here by force."

Melody shrieked as he yanked on her arm and dragged her into the house. She expected Catalina to come running up and yell at Hans to let her go, but she didn't. Nobody did anything. Melody yelled and tugged and fought and howled, but in the end her uncle was larger and stronger and he threw her into her bedroom unceremoniously and locked the door.

She was trapped inside her uncle's house for reasons she did not entirely understand. Was he trying to exercise power and control over her? Surely he'd already assured himself he had _that_. Hadn't she done everything he'd ever asked her to? Besides sneaking out with Paolo this summer, she'd never disobeyed him--and besides, had he even _known_ about Paolo? If he did, he certainly didn't act like he _cared_.

It was almost too much for her to take.

*          *          *

"So...is this it?"

"I guess so."

"Why are you staring at it like that?"

"This place is evil," James declared, glaring at the door to the small, innocent-looking coffee shop in the middle of Walnut street.

A sign in the window declared, "Two donut 'Two'sdays! Two for one from six to noon every Tuesday!"

"Oh, yes," Sirius agreed flatly. "Clearly the hovel of the damned."

"Prepare yourself for what you are about to face," James warned solemnly, ignoring the sarcasm in Sirius's voice.

"What? Attack of the killer donuts?"

James glared at his best friend sourly.

"_What_? It was just a suggestion!"

"Let's just go in," James suggested, and Sirius followed him inside the shop. Inside it was neat and orderly, with an odd coffee-place-meets-diner sort of feel. On one side of the shop were chairs and tables and a bar with stools for people to sit at, and on the other side of the room there was an empty stage and a bunch of couches and chairs next to little end tables and things.

There weren't very many customers; two people sat at the bar, several seats apart, and three of the little tables were occupied by groups of two or three. Nobody sat in the couch-and-chair area. A petite blonde girl came out from behind the counter carrying a tray with two steaming beverages and one iced one on it, in addition to several appetizing pastries. Behind the counter a tall, muscular blonde boy was banging on a coffee machine and cursing at it under his breath. As the girl came back behind the counter, she rolled her eyes and pushed him aside, fiddling with the knobs and tapping it gently before giving it another solid whack, and then the machine churned into motion.

The boy muttered something and the girl smirked, and then the boy disappeared into the back through swinging doors. Almost as soon as the boy had removed himself, a man came through the still-swinging doors with a tray of pastries and began restocking the glass display cabinet built into the front counter. 

Sirius nudged James, who had been standing watching all this with a blank expression on his face, and, in a motion similar to that of the coffee machine, James jolted into motion. He walked up the counter, where the blonde girl greeted him perkily.

"Hi! How can I help you?" she chirped.

"Er..." James said, staring blankly at the menu posted on the wall. Did he want an iced moccachino, or a latte?

Sirius stepped on his foot, and James jerked again. 

"I...want..." he began, with the girl still looking at him expectantly, and then Sirius let out a great impatient sigh, shoved his friend aside, and said to the girl,

"We're looking for Lily Evans."

"Lily Evans?" the girl repeated, and Sirius nodded. "I'm sorry, she's not working today."

James looked rather deflated, but Sirius pressed on. "Is she working at all this week?"

"Um..." the girl said, thinking. "I think...I think she worked yesterday, but I don't know about the rest of the week. The schedules haven't been posted yet."

"She _did_ work yesterday," confirmed the man with the tray of pastries. "Are you friends of hers?" he directed at Sirius and James.

"Er," James began, but Sirius saved him the trouble.

"Yes. We'll just come back another day then."

"All right," the man agreed. "I'll let her know you were here. What are your names?"

Sirius stepped on James's foot before he could say "er" again, and said, "I'm Sirius, and this is James."

The man nodded. "All right, boys. You have a nice day."

"Thanks, mate," Sirius said, and turned James around just as the muscular blonde boy came out of the kitchens and nearly ran into the man now holding an empty silver tray.

"Ethan, watch where you're going!" the man hissed before disappearing through the swinging doors.

James stopped abruptly, and Sirius stumbled a bit. "What the blazes--" Sirius began as his best friend turned around.

"Maybe I want a coffee after all," he decided.

"Do you even _like_ coffee?"

"Er..."

"Right."  
  


"Look, d'you see that bloke?" James hissed in Sirius's ear, jabbing his finger in the direction of the tall, blonde Ethan.

"Sure. He's kinda hard to miss, don't you think?"

"Yes, well," James said, skimming over that. "Earlier this summer, he had this little...thing...for Lily."

"So?"

"SO?" James nearly exploded, and then remembered to keep his voice down. "So?" he demanded again, much softer. "So he made a move on her, Padfoot!"

Sirius just looked at him. "James, are you completely daft?"

"Of course not. I'm going to go pound that guy," he declared, making a motion to do so, but Sirius restrained him.

"You are an _idiot_," Sirius hissed, dragging his best friend out of the coffee shop rather unceremoniously. James looked at him, half confused and half sulking, and deigned not to speak. "James," Sirius said, flatly, "if you haven't realized by now just how cock-eyed Lily is over you, then you really are too much of a poncey git to deserve to live."

"Cock-eyed?" James wondered, and Sirius hit him.

"_Yes_, cock-eyed. How else d'you want me to put it? Mad. Crazy. Head-over-heels. As crazily in love as Juliet but without the dying."

James ignored the dying part. "Are you…d'you really think…you can't possibly be _serious_ about… I mean…_Jesus_, Padfoot, she…I…we're only…she just…I don't."

Sirius rolled his eyes and yanked his best friend down the street. "We're not going to find her today, Prongs. We might as well go back to your house for now."

He led James, still sputtering, down the street toward the bus stop.

*          *          *

"…and then I just needed to play, so…I came here," Lily finished, sniffling, wiping a few stray tears away from her cheeks.

The priest nodded. "It is a hard test the Lord is putting you through."

Lily could do nothing but nod in agreement.

"These are hard times we've come upon," he whispered, and Lily looked at him oddly. Surely he couldn't mean...he couldn't know about...he couldn't be a...wizard...could he? He looked at her then and nodded.

"You know of what I speak," he said softly, registering Lily's astonishment. "I am not part of your world, my dear, but I know of those who are. Two nieces of mine...they go to school in France."

"Beauxbatons," Lily whispered, and the priest nodded. She was floored. She hadn't known anyone outside of the immediate families of Muggle-borns were aware of the magical world. _Her_ cousins certainly didn't know she was a witch.

"Let us not speak of that too loudly," the priest advised. "While the Lord understands...there are others who do not."

Lily's eyes widened considerably, and she looked at the priest, astonished. She'd known, of course, that Voldemort was a growing threat, but...could his allegiances stretch even to here, to the Muggle world, in a Muggle church, with a Muggle priest? 

The priest glanced around the church for a moment, looking suspicious--a very odd gesture for a priest to make, as priests Lily had known were generally very open and trusting--and then whispered, almost inaudibly, to Lily.

"Were you any other young girl in the world, I would not tell you this. But knowing what you have lost, I feel that it is something you need to hear."

Lily nodded, eyes wide as ever, and listened readily to the priest.

"The papers in France are not as controlled as the ones here. There have been more attacks this summer than your papers have printed."

This sent shockwaves through Lily's body. It had never occurred to her that the Ministry might be controlling the press. It had never occurred to her that they might be keeping things from the public. It had never occurred to her that the threat and danger of Voldemort was bigger and more frightening than it already seemed.

Lily's world contracted in that moment, and she felt vulnerable and foolish and scared. How could she have been so stupid as to think that the Ministry would release every detail concerning Voldemort's growing threat against the Muggles--or, in Lily's case, wizards and Muggles alike. On the one hand...why would the Ministry keep things from the wizarding community? What were they trying to hide? But on the other hand...why would they want to provoke panic among the masses?

It was all too confusing to consider, and Lily cleared her head as the priest continued to speak.

"You can no longer reach news from France here. They won't allow the papers to cross the strait. That is how serious it is becoming, though they don't want you to know it."

Lily stared at him in disbelief. It was all insane. Insane that the Ministry was hiding things, insane that international correspondence was being cut off, and especially insane that Lily had to hear all of this from a Muggle priest in London when, for the three nights immediately following the attack on her family, she had lived in the household of the Minister of Magic.

"Thank you," she whispered, standing suddenly. "I must go," she informed the priest, having firmly made up her mind that she was going to go back to Potter's Cottage and grill James for information until he was as devoid of information as an overcooked hamburger is of juice.

"Go in peace. Serve the Lord," the priest offered as she turned and ran out of the chapel. 

The priest sighed as he watched her go. A heaviness settled on his heart as he thought of all the sorrows she'd already been through and all the sorrows that he was sure were still to come. _People so young should not have to live through times such as these,_ he thought sadly. _They should not be forced into these battles before they are ready_.

He let his head fall back, and looked up at the ceiling of the chapel, tall and wide and graceful, sweeping up toward the spire that topped the chapel roof. A voice in the back of his mind tugged at his thoughts, reminding him that in many ages before this one, young people were forced to fight many battles before they were ready; that in his own lifetime, the priest had faced injustices and hardships and even his own war to fight in before he was ready.

It was a good thing he'd given all his trust to the Lord long ago; otherwise he might have questioned the sometimes repetitive nature of His great Plan.

*          *          *

James stepped out of the fireplace in a whirl of flames and ashes, feeling rather put out by his unsuccessful search for Lily. He unhooked the clasp of his traveling cloak and flung it on the couch, plopping down next to it and looking disheartened. Sirius calmly entered the room through the fireplace and plopped down next to James, not bothering to remove his own cloak.

Mrs. Potter hurried into the room soon after their arrival and greeted James with relief and worry.

"Did you find Lily?" she asked, and then steamrollered over James's reply with, "Oh, James, we were so _worried_ about you!"

"Who, mom?" James asked dryly. "You and the house elves?"

"James Potter!" his mother scolded. "You know perfectly well your father was worried about you, too!"

James snorted derisively and turned to Sirius. "Five sickles says he wasn't even _here._"

"I'll take that bet," Sirius agreed, and they shook on it while Mrs. Potter looked on in annoyance.

"For your _information_, James Christopher, your father _was_ here. In fact, he _is_ here, and he wants to see you."

"Ha! You owe me five sickles," Sirius noted gleefully, and James grumbled something, pulling five silver coins out of his pocket and shoving them in Sirius's general direction.

"I take it you didn't find Lily," Mrs. Potter determined sadly, and James nodded, rising. His mother sighed. "We were hoping you would. But...never mind about that," she decided, walking briskly out of the room with James (and Sirius, happily clanking his newly won money together) and Sirius in pursuit. "I'm sure she'll turn up sooner or later," she said, but her voice didn't sound very certain.

She led James and Sirius to the Minister of Magic's home office and knocked on the door. The low murmuring of voices inside the room ceased, and they heard footsteps approach the door before it swung open from the inside. 

"Come in," offered the Minister of Magic, ushering them inside.

Already in the office were two women--one James recognized, and one he most decidedly didn't. Ignoring the one he didn't, he looked at the familiar one oddly and grabbed Sirius's arm rather harshly. "Sirius!" he hissed, not taking his eyes off of the familiar woman. "Am I hallucinating?"

Sirius, who looked just as astonished as James, shook his head. "I don't think so, Prongs. I really don't think so."

*          *          *

Melody was being released from captivity. At least for dinner. They were having company, and her uncle didn't want his guests to think he was a barbarian. Which, Melody had decided, he was.

Catalina appearead in her room just before sunset, apologies written all over her face, but she did not say anything on Melody's imprisonment except that she was expected for dinner and that she should put on some dress robes for the occasion. In a flash of anger, Melody chose the sluttiest, most outrageous set of dress robes she owned and put them on, ignoring Catalina's fervent protests.

"If he wants to keep me here, fine," Melody had said, in response to Catalina's disapproval, "but he can't dictate how I act anymore. Tell him I'll be down just before the first course is served."

Catalina left the room without another word, and Melody arranged her dazzling deep blue dress robes so that they draped suggestively low below her neck and showed a very bewitching strip of perfectly tan thigh and calf where the robes opened into a slit. Satisfied with her slightly scandalous appearance, she showered herself with glittering diamonds and sapphires. Around her neck, on her ears, and around her wrists and fingers sparkled the jewelry. She layered on exotic amounts of make-up and tweaked and charmed her hair into seductive curls that fell almost to her waist.

She'd forgotten just who, exactly, was coming for dinner, but she hoped it was the most uptight, prudish, old-fashioned couple she'd ever met, so she could be as loud and offensive as possible--and then maybe her uncle would _kick _her out.

She had many plans of escape, each as unlikely as the next, but she was willing to try them all before giving up and leaving Lily alone in Potter's Cottage at the hands of James and Sirius.

Not that James and Sirius were bad people; they were two of the finest people Melody knew. Beyond that, James was absolutely crazy about Lily, and, Melody felt sure, would do anything he possibly could to protect her. However, Melody felt sure that this was all anyone in that household would do. They would protect her, coddle her, watch over her. But Lily would only need to be coddled for so long. After that point, she'd want to escape from it all, and Melody didn't think anyone would understand that. 

Of course Melody wanted to comfort her friend, but she was also willing to help her escape, and Melody, better than anyone else, knew exactly how to do that.

Unfortunately, the kind of escape Melody was good at was emotional. She had nothing on stone walls.

Regardless, she still had her escape plans, and right now she was testing out option number 36. As she came down the stairs for dinner, she remembered suddenly that the Deckers were their dunner guests, and a feeling of defeat sunk into the pit ofher stomach. While the Deckers could be a tad conservative at times, they could also be the _least_ prudish, uptight, old-fashioned people she'd ever met. This could be a good or a bad thing. On the one hand, they could just take Melody's odd appearance in stride and go along as if nothing was unusual. But on the other hand...they might ask _why_ she was dressed as she was, and Melody was perfectly prepared to blurt out the truth in the hopes that she'd be able to get out of here.

It turned out the Deckers were partial to the one hand. They took in Melody's tight, half see-through, risque dress robes with raised eyebrows and then went about their business.

Luckily for Melody, however, their daughter was with them, and Eve Decker was no fool.

"What the hell is going on?" she hissed as they all entered the dining room for supper.

"I need to get _out of here_," Melody hissed back as they seated themselves on one side of the table.

"Is that dress just an obvious call for help or do you have an appointment somewhere?" Eve asked, setting her napkin in her lap.

"Take your pick," Melody replied, doing the same, "just help me figure out how to _leave_."

Eve nodded. "After dessert," she promised, and they proceeded with the meal.

*          *          *

Dinner proved to be a long, tiring affair. Eve ate quickly and thought slowly. Her body could not seem to coordinate itself. She wondered what could be the matter with Melody before wondering how, exactly, she was going to execute the promised (yet nonexistent) escape plan. She'd never been good at escaping. Of course, she'd never really _tried_, so maybe that didn't mean anything.

After dessert they retired to the sitting room to talk. Eve still did not have a plan of action. Eve's father and Melody's uncle both took brandys, but the women declined. Eve and Melody were not offered anything, though Eve almost wished she had. She didn't really like alcohol, but she tended to think better if she had something to fiddle with.

She caught Melody shooting desperate glances at her from across the room, and her mind suddenly jumped into gear. A plan erupted in her mind just as the words, "Can Melody give me a tour of the house?" erupted from her mouth. "It's so lovely, and I do so wish to see more of it," she added, for emphasis. Melody's uncle looked at her pleasantly, considering, but her mother looked at her, for a moment, as though she had sprouted horns. Eve had never bothered to be very polite before.

Melody's uncle, after glancing hesitantly at his niece for a moment, nodded. "I'm sure she would be happy to show you around."

Melody nodded in agreement and rose, leading Eve out of the room and stopping in the hall just outside the sitting room to loudly point out the family portrait before leading Eve deeper into the mansion and out of the reach of prying and suspicious ears.

"Thank _God_," Melody breathed. "Come on," she said, lifting her dress up off the floor and bounding up the steps. 

"What's going _on_?" Eve demanded, bounding behind her.

"I have to get to England and my uncle won't let me leave," Melody explained as they reached the right floor. She turned left and slowed her pace just slightly, and Eve followed.

"_Why_?" she demanded, and Melody shook her head.

"It's hard to explain, but I'll be damned if I know what it is my uncle has shoved up his butt."

Eve was torn between laughing and frowning, and said nothing as Melody threw open the door to a very large, beautiful bedroom.

"If I leave for New York City now on my broomstick...d'you think I could get there in..." Melody trailed off and looked at Eve, worry etched into her face. "I'm not even sure I know how they get there.

  
Eve shook her head fervently. "That's insane. You can't make it to New York City on your broomstick. It would be better if you could just Floo there."

Now Melody shook her head. "I can't. My uncle had all his fireplaces disconnected from the Floo network. He's been using Portkeys to get everywhere."

Eve groaned. "It takes _days_ to get Portkeys authorized..."

"I know," Melody said. "So...the broomstick..."

"You _can't_, Melody. You'll either be found out or killed."

Melody let out a small scream of frustration and then fell onto her bed and buried her face in a pillow. "What am I supposed to do then?" she demanded, her voice muffled. Eve bit her lip and sat on the edge of Melody's bed, cogs spinning in her brain.

"Well..." she began slowly, a thought blooming in her mind. "It takes days to get an authorized Portkey, but...who ever said we can't get an _unauthorized _one?"

Melody lifted her head from the pillow and gave Eve a look. "_Where_ are we going to get an unauthorized Portkey?"

Eve looked at her steadily, and then crossed the room and picked up one of Melody's shoes, considering. "How do you think?"

"Eve, even if I was positively sure I could put a perfect Portkey spell on one of my shoes, we _can't use magic outside of school_."

"_You_ can't," Eve corrected her softly, pulling her wand out of her dress robes. "I can."

*          *          *

Lily hailed a Muggle cab to take her back to the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron and thought about everything she'd discussed with the priest, her head spinning. She had a word or two to say to James when she got back to Potter's Cottage. 

Unfortunately, by the time the cab made it to the Leaky Cauldron's entrance she'd forgotten most of the words, and Floo-ed pack to Potter's Cottage in a whirl of emotions and forgotten speeches and detached, jumbled thoughts.

She arrived in an empty and mysteriously quiet living room. She hurried to the kitchens--the one place she was sure there would be house-elves--and inquired as to James's location. One of the house-elves squeaked and scurried off, and the rest implored her to have a seat and wait there. 

James came hurrying in through the kitchen door less than a minute later, out of breath and highly emotional, and picked Lily up from the chair she was sitting in and squeezed her so hard she thought her lungs would burst.

"James!" Lily cried, gasping for air, and he lessened his hold on her just enough so she could breathe and stand on her own two feet, but other than that she was trapped. Not that this was entirely a bad thing, of course; it was good to smell and feel James again, and she wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head against his chest.

"_Don't--ever--do--that--again_!" James commanded, his voice shaky but relieved.

It struck Lily then how suddenly she'd left, and imagined that had she been in James's place she would have nearly killed herself with worry. "I'm sorry," she whispered, squeezing him. James squeezed her in return, and then kissed the top of her head.

"Come on," he said, letting go of her and taking her hand. "There's something you have to see."

"But--" Lily began to protest, and then gave up as James dragged her rather forcefully down the hallway. She'd been rather enjoying James's protectiveness, and had been quite expecting a _real_ kiss rather than just one on the head, but apparently that was not in James's agenda.

She allowed him to lead her silently, and frowned as they approached his father's office. "James, where are we going?" she asked as he burst in through the door without knocking.

"Here," he replied, a moment too late, and Lily barely registered his words. There were several people in the Minister's office, but she hardly noticed. There was only one person she could focus on.

Lily didn't blink or move for a moment, and then she blinked a lot, trying to convince herself that what she was seeing wasn't a mirage. Her heart beat painfully and erratically inside her chest, and her breathing became short as a large lump rose in her throat.

_It can't be_, she told herself, but a the same time her eyes were telling her that it was. A cry rose from Lily's throat, and she let go of James's hand and staggered forward a few steps, not wanting anything or anyone else to exist if what if she was seeing was true. Her voice wavered, unsure of itself, as she spoke one sacred, precious, incredible word.

"_Mom_?"

*          *          *

A/N: Sorry if the Italian was wrong. I don't know if any of you speak Italian, but…there you have it. I had a little too much fun with an online translator, so there's some random Russian at the very end of this thank-you section. Anyway. This chapter was way long, but I feel like absolutely nothing happened in it. Scratch that. NOTHING happened in this chapter. Not really. Nothing really important, except for like the very last word. But oh well. It was long and fun to write. I hope you enjoyed it. I think this is a record two cliffies in a row. I'm on a roll! 

Anyway…huge, indomitable, profound, witty, sincere, and an insanely lengthy THANK YOU goes to:

**Sheritha******

**Queen of Zan**

**Kitty**

**Limbo-gal~** I realize all the love/hate stuff between Lily and James gets old after awhile…but at the time it seemed like a good idea…lol…anyway, most of that has disappeared into nothing. The relationship should be smoother from here on out.

**Firiel11**

**Yanlira**~ Impressive review. Yes, I have read OotP, and I'm glad that you pointed out that the names of the Lestranges were all listed, because that so went over my head. I definitely made up the name Siegfried, because I was too lazy to look and see if any of the Lestranges actually had first names in canon. So you're not stupid, I'm just lazy. But you did create a whole new subplot for me. I should dedicate this chapter to you!!! And on the other stuff you said…all about Ethan will be resolved in time. I'm sorry you don't like him though. I adore him, for no particular reason. And on that note I'm guessing that you don't really like Paolo, either.

**Amy**

**Raelinskyseeker**~ I adored your reviews. I'm glad you like my characters…I do, too. J

**Rose**

**SockStealer******

**Cherrycobbler******

**Mina-ise**

**Winter's flame08**

**Star*dust**~ I LOVE YOU!!!! Your review just totally rocked my socks off. Although of course by the time I read it I couldn't remember anything that had happened in the chapter…but then you can't have everything. Oh well. May the tuba spit be with you!

**Bluesmirf******

**Horse-ywoman**

**Lilevil******

**Lil**** bazza**

**Mystikalolo**~ I adore you. I just wanted to say that.

**Elfe**** de chocolat**~ You flatter me. I'm glad you appreciate my humor. I certainly appreciate your reviews. J

**Phoenixfire123**~ No constructive criticism? Are you sure about that??? You're far too nice. I'm very glad you like the story though. I try, I try….lol. J

**Froglegs**~ hopefully by the time you get there, you will have found some more conflict within the story. Most of my reviewers didn't like all the conflict between Lily and James and Melody and on and on…I did though…lol. You reviewed up to chapter seven, and I agree that there everything seems resolved. But I think there are different kinds of conflict now. Now that there's a plot, anyway…

**Snazy**** piranha**

**CarvinKeeper**~ Oh yeah. At then end of every chapter, I think there's at least one major typo where I put in the absolute WRONG character's name into a scene by accident. This is probably due to the fact that I finish most of my chapters at two in the morning, although there could be other reasons. But I appreciate that you noticed that. One day…I may go back and fix all of it. But until that day…just…*pretend* it's all pretty and perfect and…stuff. Yep. J

**JesLyMak******

**Celtic Phoenix**

**Mika-mitch**

**Senora Tom Felton**~ Sigh. I realize that nobody likes Ethan. But I do. LOL. He'll come back, though…definitely in the next chapter…BWAHAHAHAHA!!!! *cough* I mean…yes. Definitely. Hm. I was going to have this whole random hilarious conversation between him and James in this chapter…but then I couldn't figure out how to word it so I just left it out. Oh well. Maybe another time.

**Blue leaf**

**Kat44**~ OH YAY! You like Ethan! Haha! I'm not alone in the universe!

**Shadowfox991**

**Wildcat Ohrya**~ Your review was superbly long and far too flattering, as usual. Have I mentioned before that I think you could make a lot of money writing reviews for people? I'd pay you to write out reviews for me. I suck at writing reviews. I mean obviously you already review my stories, and they rock, but seriously, I could just…send you money and give you a list of fics I've read, and you could go review them and say it was me so they would be all impressed with my review-writing skills…and I'm not sure what purpose that would really have, but…I'm in a random mood today, and it was a random thought, and…I'm just going to stop before I sound really stupid. Nope…too late.

**Jeni******

**Foxyie******

**SilentMidnight******

**Alyssa**

**Dancinqueen******

**ACMAgirl******

**Tiuwiu**~I so adore your pen name to pieces, for absolutely no reason. And yay for Finland!

**Anar**** Ar Isil**~ My apologies for not writing forever. But as you can see at least I've been doing something semi-productive. I've been writing this chapter for weeks at around midnight or so, so…I'm hoping it all makes sense. *crosses fingers* Anyway…I don't really have a lot of free time, but I'll try to e-mail you this weekend or so, and we can catch up. You rock my socks off, girlie!! Talk to you later!

**Padfoots-angellover******

**Frozenflames929**

**Cajun Rogue**~ I love your pen name.

**LadyElla64**~ Yay! Yay for "Eyes…!" HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY! That was random. Hope you liked it!

**MonkinO******

**Funky*rocker~I** agree. The last chapter was way short. I tried making this one longer. I think I succeeded. This was one of my longer chapters. Cheers!

That's all for now, folks!! If I left you off, I apologize, just let me know and I'll put you on next time!! 

As always, you can e-mail or IM me if you wishà sierracharm@hotmail.com AOL S/N sierracharm

Pixie Dust, Leprechauns, and Friendly REVIEWS!

~*Sierra Charm*~

я не могу читать эти слова


	13. Holding On

A/N: Wow. I…so did not plan on posting this today. Oh well! Um…anyway…I noticed some of you were confused about last chapter's title. Let me clear that up a little. I intended for "Dawn Incumbent" to mean "dawn approaching". You know the phrase "it's always darkest just before dawn"? Well, I'm portraying a dark chapter of Lily's life right now, but I wanted the chapter title to imply that the dawn to Lily's darkness was coming. Not that everything was going to be happy, mind you, but that Lily would make it through all of this.

That said…all other concerns mentioned in your reviews are addressed in the thank-you section at the bottom of the chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter Thirteen

Holding On

Molly Havernaugh had never been to England, but from what she'd heard, it would be a nice place to visit. London, she imagined, would be much like New York City--large, sprawling, modern, and busy, though with a more impressive historic district. Her parents had gone there once or twice when Molly was an infant, to visit Molly's mother's sister, but they hadn't been since. The Havernaughs had other places to travel.

Molly's parents were extremely well-to-do, and sent Molly to an expensive all-girls school outside the City, where she lived for most of the year. Molly's parents lived in a very large, expensive apartment in Manhattan, when they weren't jetting off for trips to places like Bermuda or Paris. Occasionally, when they were feeling domestic, they ventured to one of their vacation homes, which they owned in Florida, Ireland, and Sweden.

It had been hard for Molly's parents to resist spoiling her as a child. They bought her a pony when she turned nine, a golden flute when she turned ten, several highly expensive and lengthy vacations between the years eleven and sixteen, a vacation _and_ a new car when she turned sixteen, and this year had seen her so little Molly was fairly confident she could have talked them into buying her a space shuttle if she wanted them to.

She didn't want a space shuttle. She wanted a trip to London. Her parent's timing, however, was off. They were in London. Right now. Probably getting lost in Harrod's, if her mother had anything to do with it. And Molly was here. In New York. Managing her mother's boutique.

It wasn't _really_ their fault this time. Her father had an important business conference. And her mother had marketing to do, if she ever hoped to open another boutique outside of the United States. And Molly was getting double pay for this, otherwise she would never have let her parents jet off to Europe without her during the last few weeks of summer vacation.

She thought of her cousin Lily, who lived in England. They were the same age, or thereabouts, and both went to expensive boarding schools. (At least Molly thought Lily's boarding school was expensive. She wasn't quite sure on that point. She wasn't quite sure how much Lily's parents could really afford. Not that they didn't have money, of course, but they didn't have international summer homes, either. At any rate, Molly was glad she and her cousin had something in common. She had surprisingly little in common with most of her relatives.)

She'd mailed her earlier in the year, on a whim, and Lily had written back a rather nice letter, so Molly sent one back to her, and from there they began a shaky correspondence. Lily was generally much more efficient at replying than Molly. Molly didn't know if this was a reflection of Lily's free time or her own procrastination problems, and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

However, she was quite sure she wanted to go to London. If she could make it to London, most likely she could make it to Lily's house. After all, it never hurt to have international friends.

Molly checked her watch. Almost time for closing.

"It's about freaking time," she muttered under her breath, staring around the empty store. The door didn't open. No one walked in or out. Nothing moved. Molly heard herself breathing in the desolate silence.

It was boring.

Melody Cauldwell's heart was beating fast. She clutched her bag in one hand and shoved her broomstick under her arm with the other. Perched on her shoulder was her beloved orange cat. She stared at the innocent-looking shoe sitting on her chest of drawers.

"Will it work?" she asked, hesitant to try it.

"It had better," Eve Decker replied, looking just as hesitantly at the red high-heeled wonder before her.

"Well...I'm going to miss my other Portkey," Melody declared, still staring.

"If you don't hurry," Eve agreed flatly, har gaze unwavering.

"_Damn_ it," Melody said, with feeling. "Are you _sure_ this will work?"

"Melody, this was part of my _final _last year. Just trust me."

"Yes, but what did you _get_ on your final?"

"I did well enough. Just _touch _it, Melody!"

"Oh, hell," Melody said, gritting her teeth. She extended one hesitant finger and lightly tapped the back of the shoe's heel. Immediately she felt a tug at her navel, and then the whole world swirled away in a dizzying haze of color.

Peter Pettigrew had never been the most popular of students, but he intended for all of that to change. It wasn't that Peter was greedy; he just wanted attention, that was all. All the attention there was to give in the world and then some. James and Sirius got attention all the time; who was to say Peter couldn't have some, too? Hell, even _Remus_ got more attention than Peter! Not that Remus was devilishly handsome or anything, but he did have a certain amount of mystery about him, what with that whole "disappearing-once-a-month-because-he-was-a-werewolf" thing.

Of course, most people didn't know he was a werewolf. Which was the mystery part. Naturally.

Actually, Peter sometimes wished he were a werewolf. Life might be dreadfully easier, then. He would have that air of mystery about him, and every month he'd turn into a terrifying beast that even _Muggles_ feared. Then, at least, he might get some respect!

Of course, that brought him to the whole "social exile" issue. Wizards were not generally fond of werewolves, for reasons Peter could not quite decipher. It wasn't as though Remus was _dangerous_ or anything...as a human, anyway. He was a perfectly nice guy. It wasn't as if he'd gone out and _asked_ to be bitten by a werewolf. It had just...happened.

Of course, Peter didn't know _how_ it had happened, as he'd been too afraid to ask and Remus had never volunteered the information. It was a bit of a touchy subject with him, really.

And the whole transformation process looked rather painful.

Perhaps being a werewolf wasn't the solution after all. Professor Dumbledore certainly hadn't found it humorous that Severus Snape had come close to becoming one. At least, that's what Peter had heard. Nobody had ever told him the whole story, even though it had been his idea in the first place. Not that Sirius would ever admit to that, but it was true.

They'd been sitting around MHQ, one fine spring day (_without_ the girls, Peter might add. Peter wasn't fond of the girls--any of them. Melody took up too much of the spotlight, Lily was too controlling, and Mimi was just plain annoying. Plus, there were only three of them, and none of them looked at Peter the way they looked at the other boys. Which was also annoying.), when Sirius had decided that it was time for another round of "Torture Snape", mostly because Snape had become far too nosy about Remus's disappearances.

James had objected, as he'd been prone to do lately (all because of that stupid Lily), and then gone off to "study" in the library. Sirius had rolled his eyes and started rattling off stupid suggestions. Remus hid behind his book and pretended not to laugh at Sirius. Peter suggested that they try and get Snape to play touch-the-trunk, and Sirius told him he was stupid. Peter then suggested that they prod the secret knot at the base of the Whomping Willow and get Snape close to it just before it snapped back into action.

Sirius had then gotten an evil glint in his eye and, without another word, run off to do something. Remus, looking rather alarmed, had rushed off after him, and Peter, slow on the uptake, rushed out a minute later and was unsuccesful in finding either of them until they returned to the common room later that night.

That night the full moon came and Remus went off to hide himself in the Shrieking Shack as usual. Sirius gave himself away by standing near the window in the boys' dormitory and laughing, and James forced Sirius to tell him what he'd done.

Apparently Sirius had decided to tell Snape to prod the knot at the base of the Whomping Willow and find the secret tunnel and see where it led, or something along those lines, and Snape had decided to do it that night. Sirius, obviously, had forgotten that it was the first night of the full moon, and James hit him and rushed off to make sure that Snape didn't die. (Which, in Peter's opinion, might not have been entirely a bad thing.)

Dumbledore, of course, found out (because Dumbledore found out about everything), and James, Sirius, and Snape had all been given detentions and an hour-long talk in the Headmaster's office (a place Peter, despite all his indiscretions, had never been).

It was a good thing Lily didn't know about any of this, Peter reasoned, because she would probably have slapped all of them. She'd been aware that James had gotten another detention, of course, but she didn't actually know _why_.

Peter was glad to know something Lily Evans didn't. That girl knew _everything_. If she didn't, she certainly _acted_ that way. How could someone get over one hundred percent on a Charms exam anyway? If Peter didn't know any better, he would have thought she was cheating. But Evans was the sort of person who considered herself "above" all that. Which Peter thought was both a contradiction and a load of shit, as she certainly wasn't above slipping Snape potions while he slept, or unfairly commentating Quidditch games, or sneaking off with James in the middle of the night--which neither of them would ever admit to, but which everybody knew perfectly well happened all the time.

She almost reminded Peter of his older brother.

Peter hated his older brother. His name was Paul. He'd been captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team. And Head Boy. And President of the Dueling Club, which no longer existed. He'd been everything Peter couldn't be, and he was Mother's favorite. He was nine years older than Peter and had graduated two years before Peter entered Hogwarts.

He was perfect. Peter was just a mistake.

Peter's mother wasn't fond of mistakes.

But he'd show her, one day. One day, he'd be popular, and handsome, and smart. Or maybe just powerful. You didn't have to be handsome if you were powerful. He'd show her. He'd show everybody.

One day, Peter Pettigrew would be perfect.

_Perfect_.

Sunlight danced on the freckles splashed across Lily Evans's nose. It shimmered across the red curly locks splayed out atop a deep blue pillow, and then fell away behind the couch, where it warmed the windowsill.

A tired, early-morning noise escaped from Lily's throat as she stirred and opened up her bleary eyes.

She saw her mother's face.

At first she wondered why she was sleeping on the Potter's couch with her mother, especially when she saw Petunia curled up on the other end. Then she remembered that her mother was supposed to be dead, and just as quickly reminded herself that no, her mother was not dead, and in five seconds replayed all of last night in her mind.

Her mother had escaped the Death Eaters. She hadn't been able to explain this right away, of course, as Lily had shrieked and then sobbed and flung her arms around her mother so tightly her mother could scarcely breathe, let alone talk. Lily and her mother and Petunia had just sat and hugged and cried for so long that everyone else left them in peace. It didn't matter that Lily and Petunia despised one another; their mother was more important to them than feuding.

After the crying had subsided, however, Lily's mother explained everything that had happened.

She'd been unable to sleep that night, for one reason or another, and spent an hour unsuccessfully trying to find a good television program before deciding to do something more productive. With the fabulous logic that occurs to the energetic-yet-sleep-deprived at late hours of the night, she'd decided that she needed to expend her energy by cleaning the cellar.

Lily's house was very old-fashioned, and the cellar could only be reached by using an outside door. Lily's mother, armed with cleaning supplies, went outside and located these doors (with some difficulty, as they were completely grown over with ivy). She had to prop them open with a shovel so they wouldn't close and lock her in.

There wasn't much in the cellar. Old dusty bookshelves holding dusty, crumbling books, a few old gardening tools, and a shelf filled with several bottles of aging wine took up most of the space. The rest of the space was filled with boxes and boxes of the sort of thing you'd expect to find in an attic; old clothes, forgotten pictures, useless antiques...

Lily's mother cleaned for half an hour before the shovel gave away, and the doors closed with a decisive bang. She banged and shoved uselessly against them before giving up. Across the cellar was a small window--far too small to crawl through, but large enough to let in fresh air. Lily's mother hadn't wanted to choke on dust and die of suffocation before the night was over. After maneuvering around piles of sagging cardboard boxes, Lily's mother stumbled into a small, forgotten couch, which she stood on to open the window.

She continued to clean (because...why not?) until her eyes drooped, and curled up on the couch with a blanket that smelled faintly like moth balls. She'd been close to finding sleep when she heard the first bang above her head. At first she wasn't sure there had actually been a bang, because no other sounds followed.

Then the screaming started.

Mrs. Evans sat, trapped in the cellar, frozen on the lumpy couch in a mixture of terror and horror, while above her, her entire family was murdered. By the time she'd gotten up from the couch and scrambled across the cellar to bang against the doors, the screaming had stopped, and there was only silence.

She hurled herself against the wooden doors anyway, terrified and nauseated and furious, until the boards cracked and she fell out into the night.

The first thing she saw was a gigantic skull sparkling in the sky. A snake slithered its way out of the skull's mouth like some sort of freakish tongue. She ran around the side of the house and saw a large group of men in dark cloaks and hellish masks standing in her front yard. She dove behind a bush as one of them pointed down the street and began yelling.

All the men ran in the direction the first man had pointed, and Mrs. Evans ran over to her neighbor's hedges and peeked around the end to see what the masked men were running after. She caught a flash of distinctive red hair disappearing around the corner, and the men followed it. Mrs. Evans's knees gave away, and she became violently ill on the grass before running inside to telephone the police.

When the police arrived, they found Mrs. Evans sobbing in the upstairs hallway, where her two youngest children were lying dead.

After that came a blur of inspectors and police reports and unpleasant nights in hotels with police protection. It took a while for her to contact the wizarding world. The police had been unwilling to let her travel to London, and even then she'd been rather unsuccessful in finding the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. Luckily, the Ministry of Magic was looking for her. The Minister himself had not known she was alive until the moment he saw her, but the wizarding detective who'd been on her case had discovered her escape from the Death Eaters quickly.

And then she'd been brought to the Minister of Magic's household, where her remaining daughters were.

They'd all cried themselves to sleep together on the couch, and Lily was the first to wake. She looked around and blinked in the early morning sunlight, and then closed her eyes and buried her face in the couch, unwilling to return to the world of the living just yet.

Eve Decker stared at the empty space where Melody had been. She let out a breath she'd been all too aware she was holding and sat down on Melody's bed in relief. The Portkey spell had been her Charms final. She'd gotten a seventy-six percent in Charms this year. However, as Melody was probably still in one piece, there was no point worrying about the solidity of the spell. After all...it had _worked_.

She took another deep breath, turned around, and left the room.

What were her parents going to have to say about _this_?

Lily woke again not much later in the morning and sat up slowly, easing herself off the couch, careful not to disturb her mother. Yawning, she walked to the kitchen, where she discovered James having an early breakfast. He looked sleepy but smiled when he saw her.

"Morning, Lily."

"Morning, James," Lily replied, smiling at the state of his hair. She walked over and smoothed down an especially messy part in the back. "What are you eating?"

"Dunno," he replied, looking at his bowl, which was full of very colorful cereal. "Some kind of fruity cereal thing. It's good."

"Mmm...fruit. I could go for some strawberries right about now." A bowl of strawberries magically appeared at the place next to James, along with a bowl of whipped cream and a small sugar dish.

"The house-elves like you," James commented. "They're never that efficient when _I _want something."

"They probably have to make it all from scratch. You eat so much I'm surprised there's anything left in that kitchen," Lily teased, taking a seat. James kicked her ankle under the table and she kicked him back, taking a strawberry from the bowl and dipping it in whipped cream. James tried to kick her again but stubbed his toe against a chair leg instead.

"OW!" he cried, spitting out some of his cereal. Lily snorted at her strawberry and began giggling hysterically. "It's not funny!" James insisted, examining his foot. "That was my favorite toe..."

Lily gave him a strange look and took a bite of her strawberry. "Mmm...this would go really well with oatmeal." A bowl of oatmeal appeared next to the bowl of strawberries. "And...brown sugar?" she ventured, with the same pleasing results. "Some tea wouldn't hurt, either," she commented, and a cuppa appeared before her. "Oh, I like these house-elves," she said, grinning.

James, who was still moping over his foot, glared at her. "That's great, Lily," he said sarcastically. "I'm in severe physical and emotional pain and all you can think about is the house-elves."

Lily rolled her eyes. "James, quit being a baby."

"I am not being a baby! I'm just concerned that this toe will now be deformed forever."

"I'm sure your toe is going to be fine."

"How do you know that? Are you a toe doctor?"

"A _toe_ doctor? Do they even _have_ toe doctors?"

"Well, they have foot doctors."

"Well, go see one of them, then," Lily suggested.

"What are they called, anyway?"

"What, foot doctors?"

"Yeah. What are they called. Pediatrists?"

"No, those are children's doctors. Feet doctors are _po_diatrists."

"Oh. Right. Well, I don't want a podiatrist. I want _you_ to fix it."

"Me? Why _me_?"

"Do you see any other foot doctors around here?"

"James, I am not a foot doctor. Quit being ridiculous."

"Oh, come on, Lily, you know you want to," James said, wiggling his toes at her.

"No, I really just think I'd rather eat my breakfast," Lily insisted, spooning brown sugar onto her oatmeal and trying to ignore James's toes.

"_Please _be my podiatrist, Lily?"

"No! Stop it!"

Sirius Black walked into the kitchen just as James said, "Come on, Lily, just this once. I _need_ you. I'll pay you!"

Sirius blinked, stared for a moment, and then turned around and left the way he came.

Lily and James stared at the door for a moment, and then at each other, and then Lily burst into hysterical laughter and James got up to run after Sirius. Lily was still laughing when both boys returned.

"Did someone slip special pills in your breakfast this morning, Lily?" Sirius asked, sitting down in the place across from James. Lily nodded gleefully, and James, whispering, replied,

"I'd watch out for that whipped cream if I were you. It looks a little shifty."

"My whipped cream is not shifty!" Lily cried indignantly. "It's the tea," she whispered conspiratorially.

"Are those special tea leaves, Lily? What did we tell you about the special tea leaves?" Sirius said in an admonishing tone. "Tut, tut. We'll just have to rid you of those toxic substances...give it to me!" Sirius lunged across the table, but Lily whisked her teacup away quickly.

"Back off. This is _my_ drugged tea."

Sirius banged on the table in annoyance.

"Stop it! You'll disturb my porridge," Lily said, sticking her nose up into the air. James, just to be annoying, banged on the table as well, eliciting a staged shriek from Lily. "James Christopher! What would your mother say?"

James and Sirius looked at each other, and they both banged on the table together.

"Stop banging my things!" Lily shrieked, just as Mrs. Potter walked into the kitchen.

"We can bang you all day if we want to!" Sirius shouted, unaware of Mrs. Potter's presence.

Lily saw her first, and her eyes bugged out. She hid behind her cup of tea. James and Sirius both turned their horrified gazes to the kitchen door. 

"G--good morning, mum," James said, managing a smile. He glanced around nervously for a moment, and then plucked a strawberry from Lily's bowl. "Fruit?"

"I think I'll just go eat in the dining room, then," Mrs. Potter declared, and departed from the kitchen rather hurriedly.

"Well played, Sirius," Lily said accusingly, shooting a glare in his general direction.

"_Me_!" Sirius cried indignantly. "What about _you_?" 

"_I _was the one who told you to _stop_ banging."

"Yes, well, but--but--you're the one with the drugged tea!"

The kitchen door swung open just as Lily commented, "Well, you didn't have to come up with that whole comment about _banging all day_, now _did_ you?"

"Banging? Who's banging? What'd I miss?" said the person at the door.

Lily, James, and Sirius looked up to see a tall, shapely blonde girl wearing rather revealing dress robes standing at the kitchen door.

"Melody!" Lily shrieked, jumping up so fast her chair fell to the floor. She scrambled past James and caught her best friend up in a hug. Melody hugged her back, tightly. "How did you get here?" Lily demanded.

"Portkey," Melody replied, breaking the hug. "But that's not important. Lily, your _parents_--"

"Let's not talk about that," Lily said hurriedly, hugging her again. "I'm just glad you're here. I didn't get a chance to owl you, and--"

"I _know_...I had to read about it in the _Daily Prophet_ and--"

"Oh, Melody, there's so much to tell you! I mean, I just found out my mother's alive and--"

"--then my uncle wouldn't let me leave and--wait--_what?_ Your mother? Your--your _mother_?"

Lily nodded, her eyes shining in happiness and tears. "Oh, Melody, we _have_ to go somewhere and talk. This whole summer's just been wonderful and miserable and--oh, I _have _to tell you about it. Come on!" She took Melody by the hand and dragged her out of the kitchen.

James and Sirius watched as Lily and Melody disappeared in a whirl of chatter. They looked at each other across the table. James opened his mouth to speak, and then decided against it, shaking his head. Sirius stared for a moment longer, and then felt words bubbling in his throat. Just as he opened his mouth, the words died away, and he closed it again. He stared at Lily's strawberries and opened his mouth again, but lost the words. He looked at James and then back at the strawberries.

Sirius considered James's bowl of cereal. It was very colorful. It vaguely reminded him of the magical suckers Melody used to eat every week. He glanced back at Lily's strawberries and opened his mouth, hesitating for a moment. Then, "Do you think she's going to eat those?"

"Nah," James replied, and Sirius took the bowl and the whipped cream and began eating. James finished his cereal and Sirius polished off nearly all the strawberries before either of them said anything remotely close to what they'd been thinking.

"What in the bloody hell is Melody doing here?" Sirius demanded.

"I'll be damned if I know," James replied, taking the last strawberry for himself.

"Bloody..._witches_," Sirius muttered under his breath.

Lily stretched out in the sand and enjoyed the sensation of it sliding between her toes. Melody, who was stretched out beside her, had just begun telling her about Paolo. The girls had retreated to a corner of the indoor gardens, and Lily had just spent over an hour telling Melody everything that had happened so far that summer, with Ethan and James and Petunia and her mother and the priest and...everything. So far, it didn't sound nearly as fun-filled as Melody's summer, with shopping and parties and her uncle's fabulous house...

But of course the most exciting part was Paolo. He sounded amazing and wonderful and sexy...he was the kind of boy Lily dreamed about but very seldom got to meet. Ethan was kind of like that...only in a very _English_ way. Paolo was amazing and wonderful and sexy in an _Italian_ way. Not that Lily had ever seen Paolo, of course, but the way Melody was describing him, she couldn't imagine him as anything other than sexy.

"So no more Sirius?" Lily asked, intensely curious. Melody's eyes clouded over.

"Let's not talk about Sirius," she said. "Sirius is too confusing."

Lily sighed and tilted her head back toward the fake blue sky. "Like James," she agreed.

"No, not like James," Melody insisted, shaking her head. "He's not like James at _all_. At least with James you know where you stand."

Lily looked over at Melody, puzzled. "Sirius is crazy about you. Don't you know that?"

"Even if he is, it's not like he ever _shows_ it. I mean...sure, we kissed at New Year's, but after that...nothing. _Nothing_! Not even when he knew I was going to be in America all summer. He didn't say _anything_! Not an, 'I'll miss you, Melody', or an 'I'll owl you, Melody' or a 'Don't forget about me, Melody'. Nothing! What am I _supposed_ to think?"

Lily frowned. "Well, what did you tell _him_?"

"That I was leaving."

"What, not an, 'I'll miss you, Sirius', or an 'I'll owl, you Sirius', or--"

"Oh, shutup," Melody snapped, looking extremely annoyed. Lily smiled.

"No more complaining, then, until you at least _try_."

"_Try_? Lily, I've been _trying _for several _years_."

Lily raised an extremely skeptical eyebrow. "Oh, _really_? And what have you _done,_ exactly? Changed your hair color? Thrown snowballs at him? Run off to Switzerland and Brazil and America for every vacation since the end of fifth year? Yeah, that's hot, Melody."

"I--but--you know what--I--"

Lily smirked in a most annoying fashion. "You just can't admit when I'm _right_."

"Yes--well--well--_you_ can't admit you're in love with James!"

Lily shrieked. "I am _not_ in love with James!"

"Like hell you're not! For God's sakes, Lily, every time the boy gets within ten feet of you, you get this goofy happy look on your face like you've just...I don't know, won the _lottery_ or something."

"I do not!" Lily cried hotly, sitting up. "We...we're just...I just _like _him a little, that's all."

Melody let out a bark of laughter. "You're so far into denial you might as well be _drowning_, Lily. You are _in love with James Potter_."

"I am not _in love_ with anyone!"

"Yes you are, you horrible liar! Admit it!"

"I'm too young to be in love!"

"Like hell you are!"

"Well, if _I'm_ in love with James, then _you're_ in love with Sirius!"

"But I don't _know _that anymore, Lily! You can't say that!"

Lily blinked and froze. "Wait...what?"

"I said I don't know if I'm in love with Sirius anymore," Melody repeated softly.

"Wait...so...are you saying you _were_ in love with Sirius?"

"Well, what _else_ would you call it?" Melody demanded.

"I...I don't know. A crush? An infatuation? A very strong form of 'like'?"

Melody shook her head. "Lily, what is it that has you so terrified to use the word 'love'? God, I mean...I'm not talking about 'I'd lay down and die for you, let's grow old together, happily ever after' love. It's just..._love_. I love my mother. I love you. I love James. I love Sirius. Just...in different ways."

"Yes, but that's not _in_ love. Being _in_ love _is_ all those things you just said. ...Isn't it?"

Melody shook her head and stared at the ground. "I don't know, Lily. I guess so. Maybe I don't know what I felt about Sirius. But it sure was something."

"And you don't feel that any more?"

"I don't know, Lily," she replied softly. "It's just...things with Paolo...and he...it just confused things, you know?"

"I told you about Ethan, didn't I? Of course I know."

Melody shook her head. "It's not the _same_, Lily. You turned Ethan down. I _wanted_ to be with Paolo. I...I _do_ want to be with Paolo."

"I almost didn't turn Ethan down," Lily whispered.

"But the point is that in the end you _did_. That's what I mean. Lily, whether you're willing to admit it or not, you _are_ in love with James. You don't want to be with anyone else, even if you are too afraid to tell him so."

"No," Lily insisted. "It's just not like that. It can't be."

"Why not?"

"Because," Lily replied, meeting Melody's gaze. "If I loved him, then...well...I just...I mean...if I ever lost him...I don't know what I'd do."

Melody stared into her best friend's eyes. There was something hollow there, something dark and twisted and broken. There was a hole inside her now, a part of her that had been ripped out when the Death Eaters put the Dark Mark in the sky.

Melody knew how she felt. It was exactly how she felt when she thought of her father. She covered Lily's hand with hers.

"You just have to find something else to hang on to."

"What if all that's ripped away from me, too?" Lily demanded, tears collecting in her eyes.

"Just keep holding on," Melody said fiercely, squeezing her hand. "Everything has to be made right in the end. And someone has to be around to make it right, don't they?"

"I couldn't do it alone," Lily insisted, sniffing. "I'd need him to be here."

"He's not gone yet. You should tell him that."

Lily shook her head, her tears spilling over. "If I latch on now, I'd never be able to let him go."

"I told you you loved him, you awful liar," Melody whispered.

Lily choked on her laugh. "Are you ever afraid, Melody?" she asked, allowing tears to stream down her cheeks.

"Am I ever afraid?"

Lily nodded, and the words came tumbling out of her mouth. "Are you afraid that something worse is going to happen? Are you afraid you'll wake up and have to experience all the pain over and over and over again? That you'll lose what little you have left? That you'll--"

She choked on her words then, and shook her head, crying.

"Oh, Lily," Melody said, hugging her best friend. "I'm afraid almost every damn day."

Mrs. Potter contemplated her bagel as her husband contemplated his eggs. He used to contemplate the newspaper, but he hadn't for a while now. Too much bad news, she supposed. It wasn't as though he didn't get enough of that at work; he certainly didn't need it at the breakfast table. Of course, it was a rare occurrence for him to actually _be_ at the breakfast table, so maybe he just wanted to enjoy it.

One thing about Christopher was that when he enjoyed things, he generally preferred to enjoy them in silence. Mrs. Potter chose not to speak. She was still tired, and besides, her bagel was quite good, as it was the blueberry kind, and had very excellent cream cheese on it.

Mrs. Evans walked into the dining room, still looking sleepy, trailed by her daughter Petunia. Petunia was very quiet, Mrs. Potter had noticed. She hadn't spoken to anyone except her mother since she'd arrived at the Cottage. Mrs. Potter got the distinct feeling that Petunia wasn't very fond of wizards, her sister in particular. Which was a shame, and also one of the main roadblocks in improving wizard-Muggle relations. (Bigger still was the fact that nearly all wizards did not wish for Muggles to know the wizarding community existed. But those were problems for happier times than these.) 

"Good morning," she greeted pleasantly. "Have a seat anywhere you like. If you want something, just say so, and the house-elves will take care of it for you."

"Thank you," Mrs. Evans replied, and Petunia remained mute. "I'll just have tea, please," she announced uncomfortably to the silence, and smiled when the requested item appeared before her, along with sugar.

Petunia mumbled something Mrs. Potter couldn't quite decipher, but another cup of tea appeared before her, along with a plate of toast and marmalade.

At the other end of the table, Christopher wiped his mouth with his napkin and rose. "I'm off to work then, dear," he said, walking over to lay a perfunctory kiss on her forehead.

"All right," Mrs. Potter replied. "Have a good day." Christopher grunted in a manner that suggested he very much doubted this was going to happen, and Mrs. Potter sighed and ignored him. Not that she could blame him, of course, but still, he didn't have to make those kinds of noises in her presence.

Across the table, Mrs. Evans sipped her tea. She met Mrs. Potter's eyes and smiled weakly.

"I can't thank you enough for what you've done for my girls," she began, but Mrs. Potter shook her head.

"It's what any mother would do for another. I'm just glad I could help in...such a time of need. You and your girls are all welcome here for as long as you need."

Mrs. Evans's face sagged in relief. "Thank you," she repeated. "Thank you so much." 

"It's nothing at all. If you need anything, just let me know."

Mrs. Evans nodded, and took a cleansing drink of her tea. Mrs. Potter felt a deep swell of sorrow for her. To lose so much, and all at once...it was not something Mrs. Potter ever wanted to experience. It was the kind of thing that took the joy from your smile and the sunlight from your day. It made you wonder why the world was still spinning.

It made you wonder how, after so much bad had happened, you could ever be happy again.

Melody had gone in search of a more appropriate garment. Lily had gone in search of inner peace.

It was a toss-up as to who was getting farther.

Of course, Lily _really_ wasn't in search of inner peace, but it was a very nice thing to say when people decided to interrupt you when you wanted to be alone. It made you sound very...mystical, and...spritual, and...well, in Lily's case, full of crap, but that wasn't the point.

Really, she was in search of her feelings for James. Not that they were hiding or anything; when she thought of James they pretty much jumped right to the surface. But after that whole conversation with Melody, she was very confused as to how _deep_ her affections for James were starting to run.

She'd admit that she had feelings for him, of course. That she loved him dearly as a friend and liked him very, _very_ much as something more than that. According to Melody, she was in love with him and had admitted as much, but Lily wasn't quite sure she really felt all that.

Sure, James was wonderful, and she thought of him often, and her stomach liked to do acrobatics when she saw him, and when she kissed him everything felt wonderful, but...who was to say that all of that wasn't just silly teenage hormones and basic animal attraction? Sure, they both liked Quidditch and were smart and understood each other's senses of humor and could talk about almost anything, but that didn't have anything to do with _love_...did it?

All of this was far too confusing for its own good. It was awful to try and think about. Of course, it wasn't as awful as thinking about her family, but it was enough to give her a small headache.

Lily sighed and dipped her feet in the water. In front of her stretched a magical expanse of ocean. It was better than a real ocean, because it had no tides, was always the right temperature, and didn't smell like fish. Also, it was part of Lily's favorite place in the entire world, and you really couldn't go wrong when you were sitting in your favorite place in the entire world.

"Thinking?" asked a voice, and Lily craned her neck backwards to see James.

"Or something," she replied, returning her gaze to the water.

"Mind if I sit?"

Lily shook her head, and James sat down beside her, kicking off his shoes and plunging his feet into the water as well. Lily's pulse fluttered. _Damn it_, she thought. _That's__ not fair. How am I supposed to tell if I'm really in love with him or not if my hormones decide to take over?_

"I'm glad you came back," James said, after a minute or so.

"Did you think I wouldn't?" Lily asked, gazing up at him.

"I was afraid you might not want to."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe because you didn't say good-bye," James admitted, turning his gaze on her.

"Usually when people don't say good-bye it's because they intend on coming back."

"I thought it was the other way around."

"Maybe," Lily conceded.

"Maybe," James agreed. Lily's pulse jumped inexplicably. He wasn't even _touching_ her. He was just _looking_ at her. _Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. Pull it together, Lily. _

He tore his gaze from hers and her heart drooped. _What in the flogging hell..._ He shifted and her heart jumped. _I'm__ going psychotic... _He spoke and the fibers of his voice made goosebumps race up and down her arms. _Damn it!__ I'm turning into a cheap romance novel!_

"What are you thinking about?" James wondered, looking at her again. Lily's heart soared. _Fucking hormones_, she thought darkly.

"Inner peace," she replied, feeling lame and untruthful, and James's lopsided grin played hopscotch with her innards.

"Are you a Buddhist now or something?"

"Or something," Lily mumbled, staring at the sand and warring with her psychotic emotions.

"Lily?" James asked, reaching over and tipping her chin up with his finger. "Are you all right?"

The contact of James's finger on his face made her skin tingle and her stomach leap in joy like it was bloody Christmas morning.

"Oh, _damn it_, James!" Lily cried, and as James looked at her, very confused, she brought her hand up and pulled down his face to meet hers. There was _very_ little resistance on James's part, and in the next few seconds not only was he kissing her, but he pulled her so close she was almost in his lap, wrapped one arm around her waist, and had one hand positioned on the right side of her face, with the ends of his fingers half-tangled in her hair.

Lily's entire body exploded in happiness and tingles and stomach acrobatics and heart flutters and waves of heat. Everything about James was so warm--his arm around her waist, his side pressed against hers, his thumb against her cheek, his lips against her own, and even occasionally his tongue mingling with hers. Everything about him felt so good Lily didn't want to let go. _I don't care if my emotions are retarded, I _like_ this_, she decided, and pulled James closer.

James decided that this was the opportune moment to pull Lily into his lap, and their lips tore apart for a moment as Lily settled herself.

But the next second the kissing and the high-flying emotions were back, and both of James's arms were wrapped around Lily and both of Lily's hands were holding James's face to her own.

It was amazing the things hormones made you want, Lily reflected as the kiss became very open-mouthed. It was also amazing how good James was at kissing. Lily attempted not to reflect on just how much practice it might have required for him to _get_ this good at kissing.

Fortunately, she didn't have much time to contemplate this, as Melody stumbled in right in the middle of their rather fantastic snog session.

Lily jumped as if she'd been jolted out of sleep and turned a rather detached, dopey gaze on Melody. Her lips were red and tingling, and her heartbeat was throbbing in her ears.

"Sorry to interrupt," Melody said, indeed sounding rather sorry, "but your mothers are looking for you."

Lily pouted and rested her head on James's shoulder. "Do we have to go _now_?"

"Well, they're waiting for you."

"Tell them we'll be there in a minute," James said, glancing at Melody, who rolled her eyes and left. He then fixed his gaze on Lily, and kissed her again, and again, and then several more times, quickly, just for emphasis. "We should go," he announced, sliding her off his lap and standing, then turning to help her to her feet.

"What do you think they want?" Lily wondered as James laced his hand in hers and led her out of the gardens.

"I dunno," James replied, shrugging.

Melody was waiting for them at the entrance to the gardens. "Finished now, are we?" she asked, shooting Lily a suggestive glance that made Lily's cheeks burn. James simply looked annoyed.

"Aren't you supposed to be telling them we'll be there in a minute?"

"Yes, but I'm also supposed to make sure you two don't get 'lost' on your way there," she replied, shooting another glance at Lily, whose cheeks burned brighter, and she inched toward James, attempting to hide her face behind his shoulder.

A soft mewing sound came from somewhere by Melody's ankles, and Lily peeked out from behind James's shoulder to see Melody stoop and pick up a bow-legged, bushy-tailed orange cat with a squashed face and coo at it.

"Melody, what in the hell is _that_?"

Melody glared at James. "_He_ is my _cat_, James, and he is purrr-fect," she declared, cooing at the animal, who seemed to enjoy the attention. "His name is Crookshanks. Crookshanks, this is my best friend in the entire world and also one of the most wonderful people in the entire world, Lily Evans."

Lily rolled her eyes but smiled at the cat anyway.

"And that's James," Melody finished, jerking her head in James's direction before turning around and walking briskly down the hallway. James stood and glared at Melody's retreating figure until Lily tugged at his hand, and then he walked and glared at Melody's not-so-retreating figure until they reached the living room, where Mrs. Evans and Mrs. Potter, Sirius, and, surprisingly, Petunia, were waiting for them. On one side of the room sat Lily's Hogwarts trunk.

"My trunk!" she cried, rushing to it to verify. "How did you get it?"

"Sit down and we'll tell you," Mrs. Evans said, and Lily plopped down on the couch next to Sirius, where James quickly joined her. Melody sat on the other side of James, still talking to her cat.

"This family meeting is now called to order," Mrs. Potter announced, which caused all teenagers present to raise their heads and stare at her, nonplussed.

"First order of business. Melody, I suggest you contact your parents and tell them you've arrived safely in England, and that you plan on staying with us for the remainder of the holidays. Unless of course you plan on returning home before the beginning of the school term?"

Melody shook her head.

"Very well, then. You may borrow one of our owls after this meeting is adjourned. And you may take any bedroom you wish for the remainder of your stay. Now Sirius," Mrs. Potter continued, "do you also plan on staying for the remainder of the holidays?"

"It's a distinct possibility," Sirius replied. "I might travel to King's Cross with my family."

"But I'm still going to have to tell the house-elves to overstock the kitchen?"

Sirius grinned. "Unless you all want to go hungry..."

Mrs. Potter nodded and turned to Mrs. Evans, who nodded and stood as Mrs. Potter sat.

"In light...in light of recent events, I've put our house up for sale," she announced. Petunia looked horrified, but Lily, having already known this, simply nodded, looking somber for the first time that morning. "Mrs. Potter has graciously opened her home and hospitality to us, and I've decided to take her offer, at least until you girls are both settled in at school, and then...we'll see."

Petunia looked as though she were about to vomit, though she didn't say anything. She'd taken to not speaking when there were other wizards in attendance. She made a strangled sort of noise, and Mrs. Evans shot her a pleading glance. 

"I know it's not the best arrangement, Petunia, but _please..._it's only for a little while."

Petunia shook her head at her mother in disbelief.

"We're going to be staying in adjacent bedrooms, so...as soon as this meeting is over, Lily, you can take your trunk up."

"Did you catch that, James?" Melody asked. "As soon as we're done with the meeting, you get to carry Lily's trunk up the stairs."

Both Lily and James attempted to step on Melody's feet at once and instead stepped on each other's, which, instead of invoking the proper admonishment on Melody, only made her laugh. 

"I think the house-elves can take care of the trunk," Mrs. Potter suggested, looking over at the teenagers and feeling rather alarmed, as they were all now stepping on each other's feet with reckless abandon, completely ignoring the fact that this was supposed to be a serious family meeting.

"Oh. Right, the house-elves," Mrs. Evans said. "Um...well...I think that's all."

Mrs. Potter nodded in agreement. "This meeting is adjourned," she announced, and the first person up was Petunia.

Everyone stared as Petunia, furious, stalked across the room and in the direction of the back door, which they could hear slamming shut even after she disappeared from sight.

"I'd better go talk to her," Mrs. Evans decided, hurrying after her daughter.

"Oh," Mrs. Potter said softly after she'd gone. "I forgot. Lily...well, all of you, I suppose, really...the funeral is tomorrow."

Molly Havernaugh had not expected to get her wish so quickly. Even if she had, she would not have expected to receive it under such awkward circumstances. These were not the conditions under which she'd hoped to fly to London.

The sky outside Molly's tiny airplane window was dark, and most of the other passengers were sleeping. Molly could not sleep tonight. Normally, she was brilliant at sleeping on airplanes; she slept when even the heartiest travelers couldn't handle it. Had she really wanted to, Molly supposed she could have coaxed her body into sleep.

But her mind had another agenda.

She kept replaying the conversation she'd had with her mother on her cell phone. It had been just after work, and Molly had just gotten to the lobby of the apartment complex her family lived in when Beethoven's 5th exploded in her purse.

"Mom?" Molly said in confusion after flipping open her cell phone. Her mother _never_ called her cell phone when she was overseas.

"Molly, where are you? I've called the house ten times and you haven't picked up!"

"I was at the boutique!"

"The boutique? But Molly, it's nearly...oh, never mind, I'm horrible with time changes. Where are you?"

"In the elevator going up to our apartment," Molly replied, staring at the glowing numbers that moved as the elevator slowly ascended. She was amazed she still got reception from this location; normally her cell phone quit working when she got within ten feet of an elevator.

"Well, as soon as you get home, you have to pack and meet us in London."

"_What_? Wait--_why_?"

"Oh, Molly, it's just _awful_...it's...you remember your cousin Lily, don't you?"

"Yeah..."

"She's lost her father. And two of her younger siblings. Your cousins, of course, but they were so young you wouldn't have known them...but...oh, Molly, it's so sad, and you _have_ to come right away. Your father's booked a ticket for you at JFK. We'll meet you at the airport in London, all right, sweetie?"

"Um...sure," Molly had replied.

Several hours later, here she was, contemplating the dark sky and waiting for the sunrise. What was she supposed to say to her cousin? Were there even words for this kind of occasion? Molly hated the thought of telling Lily she was sorry. Of course she was sympathetic, but saying she was _sorry_ wasn't going to make anything better.

Molly shifted, attempting to rekindle bloodflow to her legs, as they both seemed to have fallen asleep. Next to her a skinny old woman snored. The sleeping man behind her kicked out against Molly's chair back. In front of her a young boy with a portable book light tore through a sci-fi novel. Molly picked at the threads on her tiny pillow, too tired to otherwise function but at the same time too awake to sleep.

It was going to be a long night.

Melody stared at Mrs. Potter in disbelief as she turned and left the room. As soon as she'd gone, James, Sirius, and Melody all turned their stunned gazes on Lily, who was staring blankly across the room, looking floored.

What a way to spring it on the poor girl, right after telling her she had to move out of her house. Not that Lily really seemed to mind that idea, but still. Melody strongly suspected that Lily had forgotten about the funeral, or perhaps it had never occurred to her that there _would_ be a funeral. Furthermore, even if she'd thought of it, Melody suspected that Lily would have assumed it was all over and done with already, as Muggles rarely waited more than a week to bury their dead.

Today, Melody reflected, thinking of her own experiences with the death of her father, had probably been the first day in many that Lily had smiled or laughed at all. Getting her mother back had probably cured some part of her that no other thing in the world would have been able to cure.

But now the reality was crashing down around her ears, and it showed. They all stared at her, feeling uncomfortable, unsure of what to say.

"I don't have anything to wear," Lily whispered.

Melody grabbed her hand and squeezed. "We'll find you something," she promised.

"Her Hogwarts trunk is sitting right there," James pointed out. "She has black dress robes."

"James, this is a _Muggle_ funeral," Melody reminded him softly.

"Oh. Right."

"Pardon me," Lily said quickly, her voice even, but as she stood they all could see the tears in her eyes. As she left the room, James attempted to stand and follow her, but Melody and Sirius pulled him back.

"If she left I think that means she needs to be alone," Melody pointed out, clutching Crookshanks rather protectively.

"Yes, but--"

"You can be comforting and overprotective later, James."

"I am _not_ overprotective."

"Oh, please, James, you practically--"

"Melody, why are you here?" Sirius burst out suddenly, and Melody stared at him, blinking.

"P--pardon me?"

"Why aren't you in America with your uncle?"

"I was," Melody replied. "But then I found out about Lily's family, and I came here."

"Just like that? No important parties to go to, no pressing social engagements?"

Melody stared at him, shocked. "Sirius, there are things more important to me than silly _parties_."

Sirius grumbled something, and Melody looked at him, eyebrows raised. James rolled his eyes, got up, and left, and neither of them attempted to restrain him. Crookshanks jumped out of Melody's arms and followed him.

"And where did you get that stupid _cat_?"

"My cat is _not_ stupid," Melody informed him, glaring, "and why are you being so _mean_ about all of this?"

"Be--because!" Sirius spat. "You leave without saying good-bye, and run around at these parties with all these--you know--_boys_--and--and then you go out and buy a _cat_--and--and you don't owl or _anything_ until practically Lily's whole family dies, and then we get the whole bloody package of you, cat and broomstick and all! It's like--it's like we don't even _exist_ half the time for you, and then all of a sudden we're the most important things in your life! Or...or _Lily_ is, anyway."

"She's my best friend, Sirius," Melody reminded him angrily.

"Yes, well, and what am _I_? Chopped bloody _liver_?" Sirius yelled.

"_You_? You want to know what _you_ are?" Melody demanded, and Sirius nodded. "_You _are the boy who broods in the corner waiting for _me_ to 'come to my senses', to 'change back into who I used to be', because you have this insane complex where you think you know _everything_ about _everyone_ just because you spend hours alone _thinking_ everything to death! Well, you know what, Sirius Black, I _like_ who I am and I _like_ who I've become and I _like_ living my life outside of England, thank you _very_ much, and if that means separating myself from my friends for a few months, then _so be it_. I'm not entirely sure I know what your _problem_ is, but I'm certainly not going to change anything just because _you _have a broomstick shoved up your butt about it!"

Sirius paled. "Melody, I--I mean, that's not what I--"

Melody crossed her arms and stared at him, glad to have gotten the upper hand for once.

"I missed you, Melody, all right?" Sirius said finally. "You don't have to attack me."

"You attacked me first."

"That's what I mean."

"Sorry," Melody said softly, meeting his gaze. This was always dangerous, as it always confused her. There were so many things in Sirius's chocolate-brown eyes that she could latch on to, so many brilliant ideas and beautiful words and lovely promises. There were so many things in his eyes that made her want to be with him that she always wondered why she wasn't.

Except this time an image of Paolo's brown eyes jumped into Melody's head. And that was different.

"I probably won't be traveling with my uncle anymore, anyway," Melody said, taking her eyes away from Sirius's.

"What? Why?"

"It's kind of a long story." 

"So what? Just tell it."

"I just...had some problems getting here, that's all."

"_Melody_," Sirius said imploringly, and Melody sighed.

"All right," she conceded, and launched into an explanation of her uncle's erratic, controlling behavior. Sirius listened with narrowed eyes.

"I knew I never liked him," Sirius said darkly when she'd finished.

"Sirius, that's not fair. He's a good person. He just--"

"Good person? Melody, are you _listening_ to yourself? He locked you in your bloody _bedroom_."

"Yes, he did," Melody agreed, her lips tight, "and that's why I don't plan on traveling with him again. But I still think he's a good person. There are a few things I just don't understand about him. He never does anything without a reason, Sirius. I don't understand why he did what he did to me, that's all."

"Maybe he's just an evil power-hungry women-abusing bastard," Sirius suggested. Melody shook her head fiercely.

"I don't want to get into this right now, Sirius."

Sirius sighed but relented. "All right. But...I'm glad you'll be staying in England now." He looked at her intently, and, after a moment of hesitation, leaned over and kissed her cheek. Melody watched as he left, and after he was gone gave a cry of frustration and flung herself backward on the couch. A few moments later, Crookshanks reentered the room and joined Melody on the couch, where he curled up atop Melody's stomach, purring. Melody sat, with her cat and her confusion, until the morning stretched late into the afternoon and the rays of the sun tugged themselves into contortion trying to wrap around the earth.

Hans Cauldwell didn't have time to play games. That was exactly what his niece was doing with him, too, playing some kind of silly _game_, running out on him like that. She damn well knew he'd be furious she left, and he didn't know what she was thinking disobeying a direct order.

Not for the first time this summer, he wished he'd told her why he _really_ wanted her to accompany him to all of those ridiculous parties. Not that society wasn't important, but it did sometimes lack a certain amount of...stimulation. Chitchat tended to be boring and rather superficial--either it was that or all business. Hans had been a rather successful businessman at one time, but he'd ended up spending the majority of his family's fortune investing in an extremely unsuccessful antiques store in Hogsmeade. It turned out that he had no knack for pricing valuable antiques.

At any rate, his family's fortune was dwindling, and his only hope was to get Melody tied down to a very, _very_ wealthy man and resume his usual business dealings, however unscrupulous they might be. Hans was no fool; he knew Melody's family was constantly in financial trouble, and that Melody probably had not kept most of the garments he'd bought her in the past year. If greed had motivated her enough to exploit Hans's hospitality, who was to say she wouldn't exploit the fortune of another man in wedlock?

The plain and simple truth was that Melody _owed_ him, and he was willing to use this fact to barter with. He had never told her that she could go and spend all of his money on frivolous things without paying him back for it. Catalina hadn't told her that, either; she'd just taken her shopping. Melody, stupidly, had assumed that all of these things were _gifts._

In the end, however, her attitude worked out for the best. Hans no longer had to play the role of kind, generous benefactor; he could simply tell everything to Melody straight, and call in her debt--rather efficiently, if need be. However, Hans felt as though he'd be able to wait until Melody's graduation from Hogwarts before cashing in on any matter of wedlock Melody might engage in. He had enough to support his lifestyle for at least a year. After all, he still had _some_ sources of income, however small they might be.

That wouldn't be the hard part. The hard part would be _finding_ her before summer's end. He needed to speak to her about this matter before she returned to Hogwarts. He highly doubted Dumbledore would let him speak to her, as he was in no way her legal guardian and couldn't claim to be. Any owls he tried to send her had the potential to be intercepted or simply discarded. He couldn't risk waiting until Christmas to speak with her, and he had no desire to lurk in Hogsmeade waiting for the Hogwarts students to come down for a weekend.

No, he needed to find her _now_, before September first rolled around, and get everything set, so that when Christmas holidays came, he'd have her, and so that before Christmas holidays came, he could wear down several potential...candidates...for his niece.

But first he'd have to return to England, and that was a damned annoying task. He'd have to alert all of his...friends...business partners...whatever you wanted to call them...as to his particular situation, and tell them to keep on the lookout for Melody. She'd met them all, at one point or another, whether she realized this or not, and she had a very memorable face. People generally had very sharp memories when it came to beauty.

But that wasn't important, really. What was important was that this ruined his plans for the remainder of the summer. He'd have to finish everything up in America very quickly, and that would be no easy task.

Damn nieces. They ruined _everything_.

The morning of the funeral dawned cold and dewy. Though other things happened that day, Lily always would remember it as the day of the funeral.

It was the darkest day yet of Lily's young life. She sobbed through it, feeling that with each wet, shaky breath she took, she was dying a little, too. At the funeral home she choked on the smell of chemical preservatives, badly cloaked by the scent of the dozens of flower bouquets that had been sent. The caskets were open and Lily's emotions went raw. She hadn't wanted to cry any more, but how could she not?

She'd gone to her great uncle's funeral in Gloucester when she was ten, but it was nothing like this. It was nothing like staring at the lifeless face of her father. Her brother. Her sister. There weren't words for the emotions that rattled Lily's body. There weren't words for the emotions that overtook her for that entire day.

Everything was a blur. In later years she'd be able to remember very few of the events of the funeral without some kind of prompting from James or Sirius or Melody or even her cousin Molly.

Meeting Molly she remembered, for some strange reason. Perhaps it was that Molly's face held vivid in Lily's memory for many years because of the events still to come. Perhaps it was because Lily finally had a face to attach to the letters she still had in her Hogwarts trunk. Perhaps it was because Molly hadn't tried to say anything to her, anything at all, but simply looked at her, crying, and hugged her as though they'd been close for years. Lily had appreciated that gesture more than all the flowers and all the cards and all the "I'm sorry"s the world had thrown at her that day.

Lily cried at the funeral home, and then at the church service, and again at the gravesite, where she felt as though her heart was being ripped out and buried along with them. She managed about fifteen minutes at the luncheon afterwards before locking herself in the bathroom, throwing up, and collapsing against the wall, sobbing. She stayed locked in the bathroom until Melody found her and dragged her away from her solitude. Lily refused to sit at any of the tables except the one tucked in the farthest corner of the room, where James and Sirius and Molly kept her awkward company until Mrs. Evans collected her daughters and, in the gathering darkness, took them all back to Potter's Cottage.

It was their home now, Lily reflected, as she stepped out of the fireplace. The wooden panels of the living room's strong oak ceiling loomed above her, and the familiar furnishings of the room beckoned to her invitingly.

James came out of the fireplace behind her, saw her looking around, a little bewildered, and caught her hand in his. She turned her head away from the furniture and looked into James's brown eyes. All of the things she'd for so long identified as James's were now partly hers. Potter's Cottage, for however short a time, was going to be her home, and she found that, with James's hand caught in hers and tears still damp in her eyes, there was no other place in the world that felt quite as much like home.

_Home_. Potter's Cottage was home now.

Lily liked that.

It took several days for Lily to speak again. She hadn't wanted to speak, at least not to Melody or James or Sirius, but instead spent a lot of time with her mother, talking and not talking, occasionally leaving the Cottage to do Muggle things like see movies or plays or what have you. Petunia joined them sometimes, too, though she often preferred to spend her time alone or with her mother but not Lily.

Petunia left very soon after the funeral to attend University, and after that things shifted a bit. Lily relaxed slightly. Things began to mesh. Mrs. Potter would rise early and tend to the house, and Mrs. Evans was usually next to follow, followed shortly by Lily. James and Sirius always rolled out of bed at the same time--usually around noon--and fought over the shower, even though there were dozens of other bathrooms in the house they could have used. Melody, who was a world-class sleeper, usually did not get up until mid-afternoon.

Lily found herself with a lot of free time on her hands, and had taken to spending her morning hours walking around the indoor gardens--sometimes aerobically and sometimes just lazily--and simply thinking. She had too much to contemplate these days. Usually James, still in some form of pajamas even after a brisk shower, would come and find her soon after waking, with bleary eyes and, more often than not, a bit of toast in his hand. He and Lily would spend an hour walking, or kissing, or exchanging words, or a bit of all three, before Sirius came and interrupted them. Melody joined them in late afternoon, and they all fell easily into this routine.

Melody could only take so much of a routine, however, before developing an overwhelming urge to mix things up. About a week before the start of term, she decided that they all needed to go dancing. Whether this was because she had been exchanging owls with Paolo (and Paolo made her think of dancing) or simply because she was bored she didn't really know, but she did know that she was going to get Lily looking sexy for once in her life even if she died trying.

Lily resisted this idea, but not as much as James. While James was always open for any opportunity to see Lily looking sexy, he wasn't too fond of the idea of _other_guys seeing Lily looking sexy. Plus James didn't dance. He assumed he _could_ dance, but in all honesty he'd never really tried. Of course he'd _danced_ before--but

it was ballroom dancing and the like, not the kind of dancing Melody was talking about. Sirius was all for it, and even offered to go shopping with the girls--he wasn't _really_ serious, of course, but he wanted to annoy James, and besides, if he got the chance to peek into the girl's dressing room...well, it wouldn't be the _worst_ thing in the world...

Melody, however, vetoed this idea immediately. She insisted on dragging Lily to shop with her _alone_, and she wouldn't take anybody's word against it.

In order to finance her shopping ventures, Melody sold the dress she'd worn the night she returned from America (which, despite the general lack of fabric, was twice as expensive as most normal dresses). She then changed the Galleons to pounds, and took Lily shopping in the heart of Muggle London. Although they were going to a wizarding club, the dress code was extremely casual--and besides, these days dress robes looked more like Muggle dresses than traditional wizardwear _anyway_.

Lily did not entirely agree with Melody's sense of style. Every other sentence became, "I am _not_ wearing that." So while Melody found her own dress fairly quickly (a fiery red, short, strapless number with a skirt that fanned gorgeously when she twirled), she had to argue with Lily about hers for _hours_. Lily's tastes were far too classy for this kind of endeavor.

Lily wanted something long and elegant; Melody wanted short and flirty. Where Lily liked it high cut, Melody wanted it low. Where Lily was all about soft, comfortable fabric, Melody wanted shiny and slinky. But mostly where they disagreed involved the prominence of Lily's chest.

Lily wasn't overly endowed, but she wasn't flat, either. She had just enough to look modest but also enough to maybe lean over a bit too far and talk her way out of a traffic ticket--if she ever drove, that is. Melody was all about enhancing the assets. Mostly Lily just glared and tried to remind herself why Melody was her best friend.

The dress they finally chose was a gift from the gods. It was just the right shade of green--not too bright, not too dull, and not that disgusting 'puke' shade, either. Most importantly, it did not make Lily look like Christmas in July. (Never mind the fact that it was August. July sounds better.) It didn't cling _exactly_ perfectly in all the right places, but it did hug Lily's butt a little more than her normal clothes and give a small suggestion of cleavage. Lily's waist wasn't perfect and tiny like Melody's, but she didn't really have a gut, either, and the dress hung nicely on her figure.

Melody, of course, wanted to lower the front, cut two inches off the skirt and pinch it in at the waist, but Lily glared at her angrily enough that she gave those ideas up rather quickly.

Even without hacking her dress down to Melody standards, Lily still managed to make James's jaw drop. Of course, that was after fighting with Melody for an hour about which make-up spells to use and shrieking hysterically when Melody accidentally made Lily's hair stick straight out like she'd been electrocuted, but still. The final product was lovely.

So lovely, in fact, that when they went out to dinner (compliments of James), Melody and Lily got catcalls and whistles when they exited the cab (also compliments of James), when they entered the restaurant, when they went to the restroom, when they left the restaurant, when they hailed a second cab (still compliments of James), when they got distracted by a record store (still James), when they insisted on getting pastries (James), when Melody wanted a necklace (Sirius), when they wanted to give money to a homeless person (James and Sirius), and when they finally got to the dance club (James again).

All of this took place on the streets of London. Every place they went before they arrived at the club was Muggle, but the club itself was magical.

The music was insane, the dancing was insane, and the price was insane, but it was absolutely wonderful. James discovered that Lily could dance. And not just dance, either, but _dance_. Maybe it was connected to her ridiculously fast reflexes, but that didn't make sense, as James's were just as good. The only bad thing about Lily being able to _dance_ was that the rest of the boys in the club wanted to dance with her. However, James, despite the fact that he felt kind of like an idiot next to the gorgeous and insanely talented Lily, did not intend to let any other boys dance with Lily.

At one point in the night, this became a problem, as Lily decided to step off the dance floor and get a drink (which James was extremely grateful for). At the bar, quite a few guys hit on her, to James's extreme annoyance. Eventually he resorted to snaking and arm around Lily's waist, which took Lily quite by surprise, but she didn't at all object. After that, the awful pick-up lines were few and far between, but they did happen.

Just before they returned to the dance floor, Lily (quite literally) ran into someone, looked up to apologize, and promptly dropped her glass.

"_Ethan_?" she blurted out in utter shock.

Ethan looked at Lily and then did a double take. "_Lily_?"

They both looked at each other for a long moment, feeling confused, and then stupid. "Oh," they both said.

"That makes more sense now," Lily said, staring at Ethan, reflecting back on some of their conversations from earlier in the summer. "Durmstrang?"

"Hogwarts?"

"Yes," they both replied.

James, who recognized Ethan as well, was slowly but surely tightening his grip on Lily.

"Why didn't you ever--" Lily began, and then stopped and shook her head. "That's a stupid question."

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Ethan asked, looking at James curiously. James, who had been glaring at Ethan (rather sulkily, as a matter of fact, as Ethan was taking all of Lily's attention), tried to change his expression quickly, but instead of looking relaxed he ended up looking rather pained.

"Oh! Ethan, this is James. James, this is--"

"I know who he is," James muttered, shoving a hand in Ethan's general direction, which Ethan briefly shook before turning his attention back to Lily.

"Look, Lily, would you like to d--"

"JAMES! LILY! Look who I found!" Sirius said suddenly, emerging from nowhere with a complete stranger in tow.

At least for Lily she was a complete stranger, but Sirius, James, and even Ethan all seemed to know her quite well.

"There you are!" Ethan exclaimed. "I was wondering where you'd gone."

"Just off with my cousin," the girl replied, indicating Sirius.

"Hi, Andromeda," James said easily.

"Wait--how do you know _this_ bloke?" Sirius demanded, indicating Ethan. "And--_hey_--wait a minute--you look _really_ familiar--"

"Ever been to a Muggle coffee shop outside of--" Ethan began, but Sirius cut him off.

"_Hey_! I know _you_! You're the bloke who worked with Lily all summer!"

"It's a small world after all..." Andromeda sang randomly in the background.

"But how do _you_ two know each other?" Sirius demanded again.

"He's a member of my artist's group," Andromeda explained, as though it should be obvious. "It was a shame he couldn't go 'round with us this summer, though. It would've been more fun if he hadn't been stuck in that bloody Muggle coffee shop all summer."

Lily, who still hadn't been properly introduced, was slightly miffed that Andromeda would have any kind of opinion on the coffee shop when she'd never been there. "There's nothing wrong with the coffee shop," she informed Sirius's cousin, rather indignantly.

Andromeda laughed. "Except for the coffee machine," she replied, which only served to irritate Lily further.

"Yes, well," Lily replied. "You've never had to battle with it. It works just fine if you hit it in the right place." She wasn't entirely sure why she was being so defensive. Perhaps it was because Andromeda was a bit older than her and Ethan seemed to have some sort of non-platonic interest in the girl. "Whatever happened with Bridget?" Lily demanded suddenly, and Ethan looked at her in surprise.

"It's over," he replied. "Why?"

"Oh...nothing," Lily said awkwardly. "Just curious. James, _ow_!" she shrieked, as James had just wrapped his arm around her waist rather violently. 

It wasn't that she _liked_ Ethan, or anything...not...not _really_...but...well...well, the truth was that Ethan did look _awfully_ nice in a T-shirt and a pair of rather tight trousers, and...well, one simply didn't _see_ that many insanely attractive teenage boys who looked nice in a T-shirt and a pair of tight trousers, and when that particular teenage boy happened to fancy you (or at least...fancied you at _some_ point in time...), it was...well...it was rather flattering. And girls enjoy being flattered. It's a nice feeling to be liked, even if you don't have any intention of liking that person back.

Really what Lily cared about was that Ethan still found her desirable. He didn't have to be pining away over her or anything, but he could still find her _desirable_. Not that James didn't find her desirable, but still...she didn't want Ethan thinking she'd shriveled up and turned into an old prude since she'd last seen him, either. Of course, in this particular dress it was _very_ difficult to look like and old prude, but still, you never knew what teenage boys were thinking.

"Where's Melody?" Lily asked suddenly, hoping to distract James from his attempt to cut off the circulation to her waist.

"I'm here! I'm right here!" Melody cried, appearing suddenly behind Sirius.

Melody was looking rather disheveled. Her cheeks were flushed, her dress was on slightly crooked, and her hair was falling rather artistically out of its clip. Only Melody could manage to be disheveled and beautiful at the same time.

"_What_?" Melody demanded when she saw the look Lily was giving her. "I was just _dancing_, Lily." Lily raised one eyebrow at her. Melody rolled her eyes. "Think what you want, but you ought to look at _yourself_ in a mirror."

Lily's hands immediately flew to her head, and she attempted to smooth out her hair--although, in all honesty, it didn't seem to be all that messy.

"Were you dancing with that crazy stalker-type again?" Sirius demanded, although not in the same way James might have. Sirius and Melody were enjoying themselves thoroughly, both together and apart. They had no qualms about switching partners in mid-song, and often got separated on the dance floor.

"He's not a _stalker_, Sirius. _Honestly_," Melody said, rolling her eyes and fixing her top a bit.

"He's got to be at least twice your age, Melody," Sirius implored.

Melody wiggled her eyebrows. "Twice the age, twice the experience."

Sirius decided to ignore this comment. He was smarter than James in that respect; James got annoyed even when he knew Lily was just deliberately trying to annoy him. But the girls were generally all smoke and no fire, and no one knew more readily than Melody just how much of a virgin she was.

Lily was about to open her mouth to make a comment, but they were interrupted by a tall, imposing wizard in a black suit. He looked vaguely like a security guard, and all of the teenagers froze.

"Pardon me, but the owner of this establishment wishes to speak with you ladies," he said, indicating Melody and Lily with subsequent nods of his head. Melody and Lily's eyes widened and they looked at each other.

"We didn't do it," they declared in unison, and the man chuckled.

"No, no, you misunderstand. You are not in trouble. He simply wishes to speak with you. Please, follow me," he invited curiously, and Melody and Lily, shrugging, moved in the general direction the guard indicated. James and Sirius attempted to follow, but the guard stopped them. "No, no," he said, kindly but firmly. "_Just_ the ladies. Don't worry, they will be returned to you shortly," he assured them, and then ushered the girls off. Lily looked over her shoulder and shrugged at James helplessly as he watched her go.

"Well, doesn't that just bite the big one," James muttered bitterly as she walked off.

Melody and Lily were escorted to the top floor of the night club and through a maze of security offices, where some wizarding technology allowed a panel of security guards to monitor the dance floors (for there were mutiple and bi-level ones) using something that very much looked like Muggle video cameras, although that wasn't really possible. Lily imagined they were operating several highly complex Looking Glass Charms, along with some invisibility and mobility spells.

They passed through these security offices and into a larger, emptier, more elegant room, where one tall, imposing man sat in a tall, imposing chair behind a tall, imposing desk, and invited Lily and Melody to sit in the not-so-tall, not-so-imposing (yet still very comfortable) chairs on the other side of the aforementioned desk. He was bald, yet still sported a moustache, and had a look of elegant old age about him. When he spoke it was with a French accent, and rather pleasant to listen to.

"Would you care for anything?" he asked, ever so politely. Melody and Lily looked at each other nervously and shook their heads.

"We're fine, thank you," Melody said.

"Very well. Are you enjoying your evening?"

"Oh, yes," Lily assured him. "The club is fantastic."

He smiled. "Thank you. Now, I must introduce myself before I become rude. My name is Philippe Gerard--you may call me Monsieur Gerard. I am a businessman, gambler, and collector of fine jewelry. I am pleased to meet you this evening."

Melody and Lily looked at each other, uncertain. Lily, despite Monsieur Gerard's pleasant demeanor, did not quite trust him, and so blurt out, almost rudely. "I'm, Lily, that's Melody. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

Monsieur Gerard chuckled. "It's a pleasure, certainly. I can see you do not trust me. That is all right. I simply wished to make an inquiry about your magnificent necklace," he said, glancing at Lily's neck. Lily, hoping fervently that he wasn't using this as an excuse to ogle her breasts, felt her hand fly automatically to her neck, where her "L" pendant hung on a simple golden chain. She hadn't removed it since the day James had given it to her, and had no desire to do so now. Plus, she didn't see what was so magnificent about it, and she wasn't about to take it off for some creepy night club owner--and never mind if the night club owner wasn't actually creepy.

Melody's gaze slid back and forth curiously between the night club owner and Lily, but didn't voice any of her actual thoughts about the necklace's value. Instead, she began pulling things out of her ass. "I'm afraid you may be too late, Monsieur Gerard. If you intend to make an offer, it'll be the third we've had this month."

Lily had to restrain herself from shooting Melody an incredibly confused gaze. Instead, she maintained her composure and continued Melody's bluff. "Not that I intend on selling it, Monsieur Gerard, but even if you did make an offer, I doubt it would be higher than the last. I've never heard of anyone offering such an exorbitant price for a necklace."

Monsieur Gerard allowed his eyebrows to shoot up in a most undignified manner. "Do you mean that there are others aware of the necklace's value?" 

Melody rose one perfectly plucked eyebrow at him. "I should think anyone with half a brain and a decent education would be able to tell the value of that piece of jewelry," she said, wondering what in the bloody hell Monsieur Gerard was talking about.

"I think you might be surprised to learn, Mademoiselle Melody, that very few people understand the significance of that trinket. Not that it is merely a trinket," he added hastily. "However...as long as you are aware of its value, I'd advise you not to sell it. There are those who would use it as more than just a jewel, if you understand my meaning."

"Of--of course, Monsieur Gerard," Lily agreed.

"However, should you ever reconsider..." Monsieur Gerard said, and pulled out a small white business card, which he sent to Lily on a small, magical coaster. "Please contact me."

Lily nodded and looked at him again, trying not to appear too befuddled.

"Now then, Monsieur Gerard," Melody said, attempting to take control as usual, "was there any particular reason you wished to see me?"

Monsieur Gerard smiled at her. "No, Mademoiselle. Only so your friend would not feel out of place."

Melody, who did not believe this for a second, nodded politely and smiled. "Well, it was a pleasure to have met you, monsieur."

"And you as well, ladies. It's been a privilege," he said, rising. "Jacques will now escort you back to the dance

floor. Enjoy the rest of your stay."

Melody and Lily nodded politely and then followed Jacques, the security guard, back to the dance floor, where they found Sirius and James waiting for them anxiously.

"There you are!" James blurted, looking relieved and agitated at the same time. "We have to go--it's almost two!"

Lily's eyes widened and she searched her wrist frantically for the time before she realized she wasn't wearing a watch.

"Just trust me," James said, taking her hand and kissing it. Lily shrugged and allowed him to lead her out of the nightclub and into the streets of London. They hailed a cab to take them to the Leaky Cauldron, and from there took the Leaping Flame Express back to Potter's Cottage.

They arrived there at quarter past two to find absolutely nobody waiting up for them. They all looked at each other in surprise and then shrugged.

"Well, I'm not tired," Melody declared. "I don't know about the rest of you , but I want to _do_ something."

"Me too," Lily agreed, and there was a general murmur of consent from Sirius and James.

"Er...I have some Gobstones," James offered, and the other teenagers looked at him blankly. "Never mind..."

"We could play Limbo!" Sirius suggested, and Melody glared at him.

"Not in this dress we couldn't," she informed him.

"I'm not wearing a dress," Sirius reminded her. "It sounds like a perfectly wonderful idea to me."

"You know what sounds really good right now, randomly?" Lily asked.

"What?" James wanted to know, halfway hoping she was a suggesting a good snog session but knowing, somehow, that that would just be far too good to be true. She still looked stunning, even if she didn't know it, and really he just wanted to find an excuse to kiss her good and hard before the end of the night.

"Roasted marshmallows," Lily replied.

Damn. That was _so_ not what James had been going for. Although...randomly...it did sound quite tasty. "Yeah," James agreed. "That actually does sound good."

"You know what sounds even better? S'mores. S'mores definitely sound good right now. I hope you have chocolate and marshmallows and graham crackers, James, or I just might have to hurt you," Melody declared.

"You know what we should do, James?" Sirius said, having a sudden burst of inspiration, and then he rushed on, without waiting for James to answer. "We should camp out in the indoor gardens tonight. You know...sleeping bags and a campfire and everything."

"Yeah!" James agreed. Melody and Lily exchanged wary glances. "No, really, it'll be a lot of fun," he insisted. "Sirius and I used to do it all the time when we were kids."

"You lit fires in an indoor forest unsupervised at two in the morning?" Melody asked skeptically, and James just glared at her.

"It'll be _fun_, Melody. Come _on_," Sirius said, and Melody sighed.

"All right," she agreed, "but I'm going to change out of this thing first."

"I'm going to go antagonize the house-elves!" Sirius cried happily, jogging off in the general direction of the kitchens. Melody turned and began walking up the stairs. Lily turned to follow her, but James grabbed her hand.

"What?" Lily asked, surprised.

"Just...come with me for a second," James said, leading her to the main hallway, where all the torches had been extinguished. He led her far enough so that prying eyes could not see them, and then turned to her, staring at her barely visible face in the darkness.

"James, what is this--"

"If I didn't tell you how beautiful you looked tonight, I wanted to tell you now."

"In the complete dark where you can't even see me?"

"That's not why we're in the complete dark," James replied.

"Oh, really? They why are we--" she began, but James cut her off. Lily hated being interrupted, but somehow she didn't mind it as much when it was because James was kissing her.

"That's a good reason," she decided.

A bit later, Lily and Melody, having (finally) changed out of their dresses, met Sirius and James in the indoor gardens, where they'd somehow lit a fire and conjured rocks and tree limbs to serve as seats around it. A pile of sleeping bags and pillows had been thrown on one side of their makeshift campsite, and above them the illusion of stars glittered in the sky.

James and Sirius had gathered the necessary ingredients for s'mores, and were unsuccessfully attempting to roast marshmallows. At least--James was unsuccessfully trying to roast his marshmallow; Sirius just stuck his into the fire and let it burn, then blew the flame out, removed it from his stick, and shoved it in to his mouth at once, giving a muffled yell as it burned his tongue.

Melody and Lily laughed at him before grabbing their own sticks and marshmallows and sitting down to proceed with their own marshmallow roasting. Melody appeared to be of the same class as Sirius--the "burn the hell out of it" one--and had the same strangled reaction to her first scalding marshmallow as well.

James and Lily both preferred their marshmallows toasty and golden brown, but they had some minor difficulties in obtaining them. James was horrible at roasting perfect marshmallows, and no matter how hard he tried could not prevent himself from burning one. Lily was perfectly fine at roasting golden marshmallows, but burned all of hers anwyay because Melody kept purposely banging into Lily's elbow and jolting Lily's marshmallows into the flames.

At any rate, they all ended up with burnt marshmallows on their s'mores (which were good despite the imperfections of the marshmallows), and then Lily and Melody settled back to tell James and Sirius about their strange meeting with Monsieur Gerard.

The bulk of the conversation centered around Monsieur Gerard's interest in Lily's necklace, which none of them could figure out.

"I _did_ get it from my mum," James said at one point. "She said it had belonged to my dad's mum, so maybe it's some kind of family heirloom thing...and since I'm descended from Godric Gryffindor...it could just be something he owned."

"But that doesn't make sense," Lily argued. "If it was owned by Godric Gryffindor, it would have to be over..."

"A thousand years old," James finished. "I know. But that's the only thing I can think of."

"It's just...it looks so _new_," Lily muttered.

"Maybe Professor Dumbledore will know," Melody suggested. It was a reasonable idea, but it didn't help any of them _now_--it wasn't as though Professor Dumbledore was accessible at three in the morning during the holidays. 

"Maybe your dad would know, James," Sirius suggested. That was also a reasonable idea, but as James's father was rarely at home, it, too, was impractical.

Odd, also, was the fact that Monsieur Gerard had requested Melody's presence. If the necklace was as valuable as he claimed it to be, why would he invite a third party to witness his conversation with Lily about it? There had to have been some reason besides the fact that Lily and Melody were friends--and then of course, how had he even known if they _were_ friends? It wasn't as though they'd spent much time together on the dance floor; they'd simply entered together. But then, perhaps that was enough. Who knew?

At any rate, James, Sirius, Lily, and Melody had something to mull over as they curled up in their sleeping bags under the vast expanse of illusionary sky, surrendering their thoughts to nothingness and slipping silently into the realm of the subconscious. 

A/N: It was an awful ending, I know. But oh well. You can deal with it. Um..okay…exciting things! Next chapter! I have some fun stuff planned...the Head Boy and Girl get to know that they're Head Boy and Girl, everyone gets their Hogwarts letters and they go to Diagon Alley, where everything has…changed a bit. You'll see what I mean. Some of the more important characters begin winding themselves into the plot…namely Peter Pettigrew, but also other characters like Frank Longbottom, Mimi, Arabella and Mundungus. Depending on how random I'm feeling and how long I make it, it'll probably be just another chapter full of complete nonsense and entirely devoid of plot, but it'll be very important for story setting and character development and…blah de blah de blah…all that crap.

Anyway! Now time for the thank-you section!

A profuse, rotting, spewing, heaping, overflowing, stinking, great big pus-filled exploding THANK YOU (no, not a pimple, but a thank you) goes to:

SockStealer I know I'm evil. But it's so much FUN.

Cajun Rogue

Kitty I write whenever I can. Hopefully one day one of my novels will be published, but in the meantime I should work on writing them. Because the finished one isn't really that good. I'm glad you like my writing, though. I do try. Hope you liked this chapter!

LadyElla64 Didn't see this update coming, did you? Sorry if I snapped at you at some point in the last…I dunno…month or so. I've been kinda wacko lately. The end of the year does things to my head. But I updated ! So woohoo.

Ffaddix

ACMAgirl

ShadowFox991

Chiquita-3 Wow…so people know my pen name? This is craziness. Maybe I e-mailed you about this. I remember being impressed the first time I read your review. I don't know, I have a bad memory, plus my brain got fried today…4 ½ hours of summer school government, a 2 hour English final, and a ½ hour chemistry quiz retake will do that to you. (Don't ask.) (Well…okay…ask…but if you really want to know at any time in the near future, you should probably e-mail me. But you probably don't care. So that's okay.) Oh yes I have definitely e-mailed you. It is all coming back. Forgive the momentary brain lapse. I adore you, really.

Anar ar Isil Words cannot express the gratitude I feel for your reviews. So I'm not going to try. In part because it's true but partly because my mom's yelling at me. Read the thing I wrote to Wildcat Ohrya and it will all make more sense. Anyway…I'll e-mail you…or…you should e-mail me…because…I got out of school today, and…I might have free time now! Of course I'm taking summer school…but…I'll tell you about that later…

Lil Bazza

Rowan the Green Eyed Cat No, I'm not going by the book, as I wrote Sirius' parents before I read the 5th book and I'm just not going to bother changing it. Besides, this is a prequel to an AU fic, so…it doesn't really matter anyway.

Danni is Divine, James is Mine

Emma Barlow This is what I get for being a dolt and for taking Spanish. In Spanish the verbs all end in

–er, -ir, or –ar. So that's a little different from Italian. Thanks for the tips, though. If I ever decide to be un-lazy, I'll go back and fix it.

Limbo-gal

Funkyrocker My birthday is in April too! Rock on April Birthdays! And…yay for being seventeen! And…yay for summer! And…yay for being a senior! I realize this has nothing to do with your wonderful review but my last day of Junior year was today and I'm just too excited for words.

Amy

MilesFromNormal

Kat44 Don't feel bad! I've forgotten half the story too! We can sit in confusion together. No, seriously…I have.

Wildcat Ohrya Oh how I adore your monumental reviews. I really, really do. It's just that I'm supposed to be emptying the dishwasher instead of posting this and because of the way I decided to do these thank-yous, I started at the bottom of this list and I've been writing a lot and…I'm being yelled at…so…I cannot fully and wonderfully praise your fantastic superb superior review writing skills…but…I can pretend. So…poof …I have just praised you beyond belief!

Emrisah

Elfe de chocolat Bow all you like. I'm not above utter flattery…lol. No cliffie this time! I hope you're happy. Cheers! J

Chocolatez

Alyssa

monkinO

siriusforeva

dancinqueen

MarauderFan4ever Your review cracked me up. If you have no idea why, go back and read it. It's funny, I assure you.

Tehanu Aah! Don't say that! If I were as good as JK Rowling I'd have $500 million. But I appreciate your vote of confidence nonetheless.

Phredtheflyingmonkey

Senora Tom Felton Enthusiastic as usual. Your reviews always make me smile.

DistinctVagueness That is so random and wonderful that you could read the letters I put at the end of last chapter. Translated they mean "I cannot read this". Because…well, I couldn't, I mean…like I speak Russian? Yeah right. Anyway I'm glad you think the chapter was worthwhile. And I really like your pen name, by the way.

Stardust3ANNOYEDW/AUG.2nd YAY UPDATE! HAHAHA! I told you I'd update and I DID! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! I'm really tired of writing thank yous so this won't be very long, but you are definitely one of the best fans ever because…hell, I get to see you in person, and when people start jumping up and down in excitement about the possibility of a chapter being posted…what better review is there than that! LOL…WOOHOO SUMMER!

Livevil There's a plot? Lol…glad you think there is one…I don't…. Hum de dum. I'd agree with your forced comedy comment. I'm not always so smooth. But part of writing is working to improve. I'm glad you mentioned that. I realize that Paolo is a frustrating character, but then so is Sirius. I'm sorry to tell you that Sirius and Melody's relationship is going to get worse before it gets any better. Anyway, I really appreciated your review, and I didn't find it offensive at all—and as a matter of fact I wish more people would be constructive. Flattery is great and all (never underestimate the importance of flattery…lolol), but so is improvement. So if you see anything that bothers you, let me know.

Titanic-HarryPotter-lvr-2 I wish I was as sure of my writing skills as you seem to be. But thank you. Hopefully one day I will be able to turn my writing into a career. Just as soon as I stop wanting to burn everything I've ever written. These phases pass…don't they?

Halo and Wings Perhaps you are hallucinating. There never was a chapter where they went on an Auror trip during the summer and Melody got revenge on Luc. Although that might be fun. But sadly it was not a part of this story. And sadly I did not beat my 3-month update record…but hey…3 months is working for me…so you know, maybe by the end of the summer I will have another chapter up…sigh I just wish I could get to the GOOD stuff. I THOUGHT I was at the good stuff, but really I'm just not. Oh well.

Unperfection I appreciated your review muchly. Flattery always gets to me…lol…but you can back off with the whole flesh eating cow thing…I updated. J

Beth I assure you, I will never forget this fanfic exists. Unless I like…get amnesia or something. In which case I'm sure my friends will remind me. Unless they have amnesia too. In which case I suppose I'm a liar. But as that's highly unlikely (knock on wood…), I assure you this will be updated again…you know, sometime…in the future…distantly…after summer school is over and…everything. Woohoo! In the meantime, hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Tiuwiu

IamEdison Woohoo for updates! Glad you like it so much.

Yanlira Unfortunately no cliffie this time. Actually it was a very boring ending this time. I hope this chapter was good, but I'm kind of delirious right now and I can't really tell. Which is too bad. I hope it was good though. I'd hate for it to be a boring chapter. I hate boring chapters. Oui oui, whole new subplot. All you-inspired. Although to tell you the truth all of those details are becoming kind of sketchy. But hey…that so works for me. All the details for "Eyes…" are kind of sketchy. I never have anything set in stone until I actually write it, and by that time the characters have so badly screwed up everything I originally wanted to do that my initial thoughts aren't really that important. But hey. There's still a subplot. It's still in my head…somewhere. Not that that's very reassuring, but it is. I assure you. Okay, I'm going to stop babbling now.

Certified-weirdo Yeah…about that whole "update" thing…I'm not so good at that.

Anna You were reading at 3 in the morning? That's fantastic! I was probably writing! (No, seriously. This is when I write. And post, half the time. But I'm early today. It's only 10. I'm doing good!) Glad you liked it so much!

Rockersbb13

Joslyn sparrow

Orlandoismyhero

Akurei I'll keep the Italian thing in mind. I may need help with it later. I realize the Italian for the last chapter wasn't very fantastic, but I don't really know if I'll have to use it again. You never know, though, with my characters…they like to run away with the story…I'm just here for show.

All right, that's it! Just so you know, I only put the people on here who reviewed for Chapter 12 (because it's just so much easier that way), but if you feel that I've neglected you please let me know and I will be sure to put you on the list next time. Also, if I've misspelled your name…I apologize. But if it's because you like to alternate capital and lower case letters…then I probably did it on purpose, because I really just don't love my Shift _or_ my CapsLock key that much and I really don't like messing with it. So there you go. Thank you VERY much for all your past reviews, and don't forget to leave a pretty, sparkly, shiny brand-new one for this chapter!

Cheers,

Sierra Charm


	14. The Alley and the Cottage

A/N: Okay, I have decided that I hate this chapter. I was going to like it, but now I really just…don't. Lots of things happened that shouldn't have happened, and most of the planned  stuff either got twisted or got completely sent down the tubes or happened too quickly or completely in the _wrong_ way, and…ugh. So I really just don't like much in this chapter at all. It's not very funny, it's not very important, it's not very exciting. It's really kind of just…boring. So those of you who were clamoring for an update…ha ha ha, you wanted a story and this is what you get instead! This really sucks. Just read it and then you'll believe me. Absolutely nothing happens. There's like…one plot point, and then a whole bunch of…crap. But oh well. I'll stop complaining about hating myself now. I was up until one in the morning last night working on this damn thing, and then I screwed up an entire scene with Melody and Sirius and had to go back and rewrite it today.

Sorry it's not more amusing or…something. But hey…at least I'm not going to apologize for the update speed. I think this is the fastest I've updated since I started writing the damn thing. So…woohoo…I guess…

OH! Random note! I realized, as I was reading over certain bits and pieces of this fic to refresh _my_ memory about some little, seemingly insignificant details…I stumbled upon a bit of the fic where Lily receives a letter from her cousin Willow in America. And…in the last chapter…There are several chunks of the story written from the point of view of Molly Havernaugh, Lily's cousin from America. Ha ha ha…they are supposed to be the same person. Silly me. That's what I get for dropping seemingly insignificant details into a story and then forgetting about them…so, loyal readers…you are not the only ones who forget bits and pieces of this story…and that is our lesson for today…

Also…another random note…I finally compiled this fic into one document on my laptop (as it's far too large to exist on a disk as an entire document), and it's now up to…345 pages, or something, and after adding the contents of this chapter onto the file, it's now over a million characters. Fancy that.

Oh just read the already, would you? What are you still listening to me babble for?!

Chapter Fourteen

The Alley and the Cottage

It was with a collective sense of exhaustion that the four bleary-eyed teens woke the next morning, to the persistent hooting and pecking of several large barn owls.

"Oy! _Oy! Gerroff!_" shouted Sirius, waving his arms wildly. The owl nearest him hooted indignantly and took a snap at Sirius's ear. Sirius howled and a pillow came flying at him form across the empty fire pit.

"Shuddup, Sirius," Melody mumbled, disappearing into the depths of her sleeping bag.

Lily cracked open an eye and saw James fumbling to untie one of the letters from the leg of a very large owl. "G'boy, James," Lily said before rolling over and burying her face into her pillow.

Sirius, who was now wide awake, was cursing under his breath and helping to retrieve the rest of the letters from the owls. The owl that had snapped at Sirius earlier now hooted angrily and took a snap at him again before flying off. The rest of the owls followed suit.

"Oy! Melody!" Sirius shouted. "Letter!"

When Melody did not emerge, he threw it at her, and it bounced off her sleeping bag. A grunt came from within the bag's depths, and a hand snaked out to retrieve the letter. James, who had not been attacked by an owl, was not nearly so annoyed as Sirius and therefore did not chuck Lily's letter across the fire pit, but rather walked over to her and placed it gently by her pillow.

He was about to walk off when Lily, eyes still closed, mumbled something incoherent and grabbed at his pants leg.

"Oogon gobefst igoff oo," she declared.

"James most certainly is not going to have sex with you," Sirius said indignantly. Lily, though her eyes were barely open, managed to shoot a monstrous glare in Sirius's direction, and then slowly sat up.

"Breakfast," Lily croaked, eyes half-closed, still groping for James's pant leg. "You going?"

"Yeah," James replied, in a voice that suggested the deep necessity for more sleep. Lily nodded and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"I'm coming with," she said, and James offered her a hand, which she took and used to yank herself to her feet. "Melody, are you coming?" she asked as she and James, followed by a still-muttering Sirius, shuffled past her sleeping bag.

Melody grunted in an extremely annoyed fashion, which Lily took to mean 'no', though she did stick her hand out of her sleeping bag and grope a bit before finding Lily's pillow, which she promptly dragged to her sleeping bag and buried her face in. This action caused Lily's letter to skid across the ground and Lily retrieved it before walking with Sirius and James (who both still had their letters in their hands) down to breakfast.

The first clock they encountered pointed to seven, and Lily sighed, wishing she'd had a chance to grab just a _bit_ more sleep. James and Sirius seemed to have similar sentiments, as they groaned when they saw the time on the clock, and elected not to talk the entire way down to the kitchen. They preferred to eat in the back kitchen, not the formal dining room, and Lily followed them there blearily.

"Juuuuuuice," Lily moaned, taking a seat near one end of the table. Immediately several glasses, each filled with a different-colored liquid, appeared before her. She surveyed her choices sleepily, her mind feeling rather numbed from the effort. She chose the most familiar-looking liquid—the orange one—and enjoyed the sensation of sweet juice and chunky pulp as she swallowed. "Toast," she demanded, setting down her glass. "Jam. Butter."

"Wow, you're good at this," Sirius said, impressed. "Bacon," he ordered, and then, when the requested item appeared, tried with, "Mount Everest." He paused for a moment, expectantly. Then, "Damn!"

Lily and James were too sleepy to manage adequate laughs. James looked at his place and considered.

"Milk," he requested. "Cookies. Hot fudge sundae."

Lily gave him an odd look as he dug into his sundae, but he just shrugged and kept eating.

As they ate, Lily stared at her Hogwarts letter. It looked just the same as it had for the last six years, but…it was different. It was the last one she'd ever get. And on top of that, it was the most important Hogwarts letter she'd ever received. It and it alone held Dumbledore's decision as to whether she'd be Head Girl or not…and, truthfully, she was terrified of opening it. Despite her ardent protests over the years that she'd never be Head Girl, that her grades weren't good enough, and that it didn't matter to her…well, it really _did_ matter to her, a bit more than she was willing to let on, and her marks the previous year had been so very close to perfect….

She gulped, and not just to force down the bite of toast she'd been mulling over.

"Sirius," she said, rather evenly, "aren't  you going to open your Hogwarts letter?"

Sirius froze, mid-bite, his mouth stuffed with bacon, and he looked at her. "I gueff ffo," he replied, and then swallowed. "Aren't you going to open yours?"

Lily attempted to shrug noncommittally but did not quite pull it off. "Oh, you know, maybe…later," she said quickly, unwisely stuffing another bite of toast into her mouth, which she sent down into her churning stomach.

James rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, Lily, I'm sure you're Head Girl."

Lily's head snapped around and she stared at him intently. "How do you know? Did your dad say so? Has he been talking to Dumbledore?"

"Er…no," James replied, and Lily's face fell. "But you're _going_ to be Head Girl, everyone knows it—"

"You can't say that, James!" Lily said, quite shrilly. "_I_ don't know that."

"Jesus," Sirius said, looking as though he'd like to bang his head against the table. "Why don't _you_ just open it for her, James?"

"Yes, why don't _you_ just open it for me, James?" Lily demanded, shoving the letter at him.

"Oh,no!" James said, holding up his hands so that Lily could not shove the envelope into them. "I don't want you to rip my head off if you're not Head Girl."

"You just said I was _going_ to be, James, so what are you so worried about?"

"I—I just—well—_hey_! If you believe me all of a sudden why don't _you_ open it?"

Ignoring James, Lily threw her envelope on the table, sat back, crossed her arms, and stared at it.

"Oooh, look, Prongs, she's going to open the envelope with her psychic powers!"

Lily snapped her head up and looked at Sirius, then James, then back again. "Why are you calling him Prongs?"

James and Sirius looked at each other for a moment.

"It's just a nickname, Lily," Sirius said. "Nicknames happen."

Lily's gaze continued slipping back and forth suspiciously between James and Sirius. "This isn't some code name for some new prank you're pulling, is it? I thought you'd given up on—"

"What do you take us for, Lily? Of course we have. Why, we haven't pulled a prank in nearly—"

"Why don't I just open your Hogwarts letter for you then, Lily?" James said quickly, snatching Lily's letter from the table.

"Wait a minute," Lily snapped, snatching the letter back. "_When_ was the last time you pulled a prank, Sirius?"

"Oh—I think it was about—" Sirius began.

"I _really_ think you ought to let me open your letter!" James insisted, grabbing for it, but Lily held it out of his reach.

"And I _really_ think you ought to let Sirius finish his sentences," Lily retorted, looking at Sirius expectantly.

"Like I was saying—"

"Damn OWLS!"

Lily, James, and Sirius (who was annoyed at being interrupted yet again) jumped as the kitchen door banged open and Melody entered, looking furious, and clutching a very crumpled copy of the _Daily Prophet_ in her hand.

"Don't those owls believe in _beauty sleep_? I NEED COFFEE!" she yelled, sitting down. She hadn't been very fond of coffee before visiting America (mainly she just drank tea), but now she found it more invigorating than your traditional English cuppa.

"Like you need beauty sleep," Lily muttered, reflecting upon her own appearance. She'd put her hair up before going to bed, but now some of it had tumbled down and tufts of it were sticking up in odd places. She was sure there were deep circles under her eyes and she could feel a pimple forming by the side of her nose. Compared to last night, she probably looked like the Wicked Witch of the West. Except for that whole "green skin" thing. And the pointed hat. And the broom. And the warts. And…okay, so the Wicked Witch was a bad example. Maybe she looked more like a hag, or…something.

The point was that Melody had no room to complain. She still retained some of her supermodel-like aura from last night. Her hair, at least, was not bushy and frizzy and sticking up everywhere. It lay straight and silky as ever, cascading to her waist in an almost artistic fashion. True, there were circles under her eyes and red lines on her face from sleeping on an oddly creased pillowcase, but still. She was more presentable than Lily.

"What are you waving in the air, Lily?" Melody asked, frowning over the top of a heavily creamed cup of coffee.

"My Hogwarts letter," Lily replied, lowering her hand, as James was no longer trying to grab the letter out of it.

"Oh. Lemme see," Melody said, setting down her cup of coffee. She reached across the table and lifted the envelope from Lily's hands. "'S thick," she noted, breaking the Hogwarts seal. Lily stared as she opened it, her hands gripping the edge of the table as Melody removed several folded pieces of parchment…

…and unfolded them, scanning the letters in silence, with no sign that she'd seen or felt any kind of badge indicating Lily's appointment (or not) as Head Girl. Her lips moved slightly as she mumbled the letters to herself, completely oblivious to the fact that Lily was staring at her so intently that her eyes were beginning to bug out of her head.

"Melody," Sirius said finally, sighing. "Why don't you tell Lily if she's Head Girl or not before she has an aneurysm?"

"What?" Melody asked, glancing at Sirius, then at James, and looking finally at Lily. She jumped slightly at Lily's on-edge appearance. "Jesus Christ, woman! Here!"

Melody tossed the empty envelope across the table at Lily, who caught it, feeling confused…at least until her hand hit the solid object between the folds of parchment. She shook the envelope rather more violently than necessary, and presently a shiny silver badge landed face-down in her palm. She turned it over and simply stared for a moment at the glinting letters that spelled out "Head Girl".

"Oh," she said, rubbing her thumb slowly over the badge. "Well…that…" She looked up, smiling crazily. "James, open yours!"

"What _for_?" grumbled James. "Dumbledore's not going to make me Head Boy. I cause too much trouble."

"Oh, just open it!" Lily insisted, shoving James's envelope into his hands.

James sighed and ripped the envelope open, and out fell several folded pieces of parchment—and a shiny silver badge, which landed on top of James's ice cream.

He stared at it for a moment.

"James! Don't let it just sit there!" Lily cried, exasperated, and she removed the badge from James's sundae and wiped it off with a napkin. James took the badge back from Lily and shook his head.

"Is Dumbledore bloody _insane_?"

"James! Watch your language!"

The teenagers all jumped as Mrs. Potter padded into the kitchen wearing a fuzzy blue bathrobe and matching slippers.

"Sorry, mum," James mumbled, returning to his eggs. Mrs. Potter quickly spotted the Head Boy badge James had discarded by his place and began exclaiming about it.

"Oh, James! That's _wonderful_! Your father will be so _proud_—he was Head Boy in his day, you know—"

"Mum, gerroff," James grumbled as his mother attempted to hug him and kiss his cheek and ruffle his hair. Mrs. Potter quit her attempts at physical contact, but did not give up her verbal assault. "Oh—I'll have to owl your father right after breakfast—and we'll have to go to Diagon Alley today—make _sure_ you wear the badge, James—and we'll buy all your school things—"

"Mum, I'm old enough to go shopping on my own!"

"—and maybe a present—"

"—and I don't need you to—_present_?"

Mrs. Potter beamed.

"Let's get going, then!" James exclaimed, and began shoveling his sundae into his mouth so quickly Lily was afraid he'd impale the roof of his mouth with his spoon.

"James, that's rude! Be patient. I'm not going anywhere until after _I've_ eaten, and it won't be until long after you're done, especially if you insist on eating like a pig. What _are_ you eating, anyway?" she asked, sinking into a chair at the end of the table.

"Nothing!" James said quickly, and had a house-elf remove the dish.

Mrs. Potter frowned but decided to ignore it. "Oh, Lily, dear!" she exclaimed, having spotted Lily's Head Girl badge. "We'll have to get you a present, too!"

"Oh! No—that's all right—I—"

"Don't be ridiculous! I want to."

"I'm sure if my mother wants to—"

"Oh, I'll talk it over with her, dear, but really, I insist."

"I—well—all right," Lily said, shrugging. Mrs. Potter beamed at her as well.

Lily smiled and looked down at her badge. Her mother would be so proud, and her father would probably take her out for ice cream like he had after—

Oh.

Her father.

Lily felt suddenly as though someone had clamped a cold metal hand around her heart.

Her father would not see this. He would not give her a big hug and then take her out for ice cream, like he had after she'd gotten first place in the science fair in primary school, or like he had after she'd been made a Prefect, or…after any special event in her life, really…

"Lily?" James asked, nudging her elbow. "Are you all right?"

Lily looked up and nodded, then picked up her badge again and stared at it. "It's just…my father would have loved this. He'd've…been really proud," she managed, her throat tightening of its own accord.

Nobody said anything. There didn't seem to be anything appropriate with which to cut through the silence.

Then, unexpectedly,

"He is proud."

Lily lifted her eyes and saw Melody looking at her across the table, her eyes unnaturally bright. Lily nodded slowly, accepting Melody's full meaning.

"Yeah," Lily agreed. "Really proud."

"Every day," Melody replied.

Sirius, James, and Mrs. Potter looked on with peculiar expressions on their faces, until Mrs. Potter said,

"He'll always be with you, dear."

Then Sirius and James watched as the women had a silent, teary conversation, which persisted until Lily said, "I'm going to get dressed," and left.

She walked slowly up the stairs, digesting the morning, and prepared herself for the trip to Diagon Alley—her first real trip to the wizarding world since the attack.

Several hours later, Diagon Alley materialized around Lily in a flurry of ash and Floo powder. With a small amount of apprehension, she stepped out of the fireplace and looked around. Behind her, James and Sirius fell out of the fireplace, shouting, and Mrs. Potter materialized behind them, shaking her head.

"Pick yourselves up, boys," she instructed, and waited patiently for them to get to their feet. "Now, I have to go to Gringott's, so you all can just look around for a bit—I expect I'll find you at Quality Quidditch Supplies in about an hour?"

"Quidditch!" exclaimed Melody, who had just stepped out of the fireplace. All of the teens looked particularly eager to be getting along to the Quidditch store, so Mrs. Potter bade them farewell and shook her head again as she watched them rush along Diagon Alley in a flurry of excitement.

Lily, Melody, James, and Sirius all fought for entry to the Quidditch store, and it was James who managed to squeeze through first, and then the rest of them stumbled in afterwards. Melody, James, and Sirius immediately began gawking at the display in the window—a brand-new racing broom from the makers of the Nimbus 1001. It was a Nimbus 100_2_.

Lily was thoroughly unimpressed, and also had an irrational fear that if they caught her looking at the broom for too long they'd try to force her on it and make her fly. Lily was not the most talented of fliers. The most action she got on a broom was flying to the Hogwarts roof and back a couple of times a year, and that didn't exactly take the skill of a professional Quidditch player to accomplish.

However, James, Sirius, and Melody were thoroughly convinced that because Lily had quick reflexes, she should play Quidditch, and this was a dangerous idea, because they simply didn't understand that every time Lily tried to turn on a broomstick, she fell off. And there was no way—_no way_—she would _ever _make her broom go into a steep dive, like she'd seen James do a hundred times. She would drive herself right into the ground for sure, and Death by Quidditch was not exactly how Lily wanted to go.

So instead of staring reverently at the new Nimbus racing broom, Lily slinked off to the display in the back corner of the shop, where all of the Quidditch Magazines were kept. She hadn't seen one of these all summer, and therefore had no clue what was going on in the world of professional Quidditch. The Tutshill Tornadoes were easily her favorite team, though she could not for the life of her fathom why. They weren't very good, they didn't have an astonishing team record, and they hadn't won the World Cup for a while, but…their captain was a girl, which was rare, and they did have an exceptionally good Keeper, and besides Lily liked the writer who covered them in _Quidditch Weekly_. He was extremely amusing.

She didn't get a chance to read about the Tornadoes' most recent loss for long, however, before she was attacked, quite unexpectedly, by several people she hadn't seen for two months.

"Lily!" Mimi Ramirez cried, throwing her arms around her friend. Close behind her were Susie and Matt, who also threw their arms around her in a bone-crushing fashion, Matt's socks cheerfully singing out the Hallelujah Chorus.

"Didn't think I'd ever catch you inside a Quidditch store, Lily," Matt teased once they'd all released her.

"Yes, well," Lily replied.

"How have you been?" Mimi demanded, but then rushed over her words before Lily could speak. "Oh, that was a stupid question--I mean, we all saw the _Prophet_ and--oh, I'm sure you don't want to hear about--it's just that I--"

"Mimi!" Lily interrupted. "It's all right. I'm...I'm okay."

"Oh--oh, Lily--that's _good_--" Mimi said, all in a rush, and she hugged Lily again. Lily squeezed her and then let go, and when she pulled back she saw Matt and Susie looking at her rather sadly.

"You're not the only one, you know," Susie said softly. "Not by far."

Lily nodded quickly. "I know. Oh--believe me. I know." It was amazing how quickly her joy at seeing her friends was dissipating.Why did people insist on bringing up depressing topics of conversation?

Matt's socks seemed to sense this, and quieted a bit. "Cheer up, Lily. We'll have fun today. Are you here with anyone?"

Lily nodded. "I came with James and Sirius and Melody."

"Ooh, _James_," Mimi said, teasingly.

"Don't you start!" Lily warned her, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks.

"Start what?" James demanded, coming up behind her. He, apparently, had been able to tear his eyes away from the new racing broom.

"Nothing!" Lily said quickly. "James, have you met Matt and Susie?"

James looked at them and nodded. "I think so. You're in Ravenclaw, right?" Matt and Susie nodded, and James squinted at Susie a bit harder. "Didn't I have class with you one year?"

Susie thought for a moment and then nodded. "I sat behind you and Sirius Black."

"What about Sirius Black?" Sirius demanded, coming around the corner of an aisle stocked with Beater equipment.

"She had class with us one year," James informed him, indicating Susie. Sirius looked at her for a moment before a look of recognition dawned on his face.

"Oh, _yeah_. You picked up my wand once, I remember!"

"Oh, that," Susie said, looking as though she'd rather hoped he'd forgotten the incident.

"Sorry about that, by the way. My wand's very touchy. No one's yet been able to figure out why."

"Been able to figure out why what?" Melody demanded, rounding the corner holding a new Beater club.

"Why Sirius's brain is like mush," Lily replied promptly, and Sirius glared at her.

"My brain is not like mush," he declared indignantly. Then, after a moment, he added, "It's more like porridge, really, if you're going to call it anything--"

Melody groaned. "That's enough, Sirius."

"Enough of what? I was just saying--"

"No more corny jokes."

"I do not make corny jokes. That joke was about _porridge_."

Melody groaned again. "_Honestly_, Sirius!"

Lily glanced at her friends from Ravenclaw to shrug in apology for Melody and Sirius's banter, and noticed that Susie was looking at Melody rather oddly. She frowned but didn't have much time to ponder this, as James interrupted her train of thought with a rather loud "_Oy_!"

Lily, along with Melody and Sirius, jumped.

"Would you two cut it out?" James requested, annoyed, and Melody and Sirius glared at him but remained silent.

"Sorry about that," Lily directed at Matt and Susie.

Matt shrugged. "I was going to tell them to bugger off after another minute, but it looks like your boyfriend did a pretty good job of taking care of everything, so--"

What Matt had been about to say they would never know, as Lily and James both burst into a stream of ardent protests against the fact that Matt had labeled James as Lily's boyfriend. Matt looked at them in surprise, and held up his hands to curb their speech. "Never mind! Forget I said it!"

Lily and James fell awkwardly silent and didn't look at each other for a moment.

"Well, that's enough being silly!" Mimi declared. "I daresay we have some shopping to be got on with. Didn't you want to buy something in here, Matt?"

"Oh--yeah. A Quidditch magazine."

"Well find it, then!" Mimi ordered. "We haven't got all day," she said impatiently, and Matt slinked off to find his magazine.

"Go Mimi! You'd make a very nice dictator," Melody informed her.

"Why thank you," Mimi replied, laughing.

"Found it!" Matt cried, reappearing with a Quidditch tabloid in his hands.

"Well, we ought to be going now. I have to meet my parents in two hours," Mimi informed them, glancing at her watch. "D'you want to come with us, Lily, or would you prefer to stay with this bunch of psychopaths?"

Lily considered for a moment. It would be nice to socialize with her Ravenclaw friends again, but at the same time...she was still feeling slightly unstable, and didn't feel quite as comfortable around Matt and Susie as she did around James and Sirius. This, however, was not the reason she gave Mimi for electing to stay with the 'bunch of psychopaths', as Mimi had so eloquently put it.

"I'd better stay here. I have to meet someone soon."

Mimi nodded. "Fair enough. Maybe we'll run into you later?"

"Maybe," Lily agreed, and Mimi hugged her one last time before heading off to the register with Matt and Susie.

"So what do you think of this Beater club?" Melody asked of Sirius, examining it. "It's a lot better than the ones we've been using at school."

James and Lily exchanged a glance and sighed before edging off toward the magazines. They didn't want to get in the middle of a Beater discussion between Sirius and Melody.

Sirius took the club from Melody's hands. "It's all right. I've seen better. But if you're going to buy a club for yourself I'd go with an Earlman. They don't cost much more, and they're much higher quality than the--" he cut off and stared behind Melody for a moment before speaking. "Er...can I help you?" he directed at the tall, imposing man who had appeared behind Melody.

"Sirius, who are you--_oh_," Melody said, turning around, her eyes widening as she saw who it was.

"'Oh', indeed," the man replied.

"Er--hello, uncle."

Mimi, Matt, and Susie explored the shops of Diagon Alley under Mimi's direction, Susie muttering about her dislike for Melody Cauldwell once or twice. Normally, she would not have been so demanding, but she was on a time budget, and her parents would accept no excuses if she were late. Because of this, she shoved her friends from store to store, buying her school supplies in a most efficient manner, hoping that if she got all her shopping done quickly enough she'd have time to simply _relax_. That was her philosophy, anyway.

Or, at least--it was her philosophy until she ran into Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew outside of Flourish and Blotts. Matt and Susie simply rolled their eyes, knowing that Mimi would stay outside the store talking to Remus forever if she could, and they entered and began looking around for their school books. Peter stared rather uninterestedly at the window display as Mimi and Remus carried on a rather lively conversation.

Mimi asked what Remus had done over the summer--spent a lot of time at his great-aunt's house, he said--and asked if he'd been made Head Boy--no, and apparently no one knew who had been--and Remus asked if she'd cut her hair--yes, and dyed it just slightly--and if she'd gone on holiday anywhere interesting--yes, as well, to Spain for a week, where she practiced her Spanish, which, sadly, was atrocious.

Susie and Matt returned from the bookstore to find Mimi and Remus _still_ talking animatedly, and took it upon themselves to drag Mimi inside Flourish and Blotts to get her schoolbooks, so that she would not be late to meet her parents. Mimi said good-bye rather reluctantly to Remus (who had already bought his books and had to purchase Potions ingredients) and allowed herself to be shoved into the book shop.

Remus was frustrating. She liked him _very_ much, and it was fairly clear to her that he was interested as well, but he was always holding back, always refusing to make his move. She strongly suspected that this was because he was a werewolf. She'd figured out this interesting little tidbit just before the end of school and hadn't told anyone of her discovery. If Remus wanted her to know, she wished he'd just tell her on his own terms. She didn't care that he was a werewolf; despite wizarding superstition, he was no different from any other human, and besides that he was one of the nicest people Mimi had ever met.

But still one of the most frustrating.

If only there was something Mimi could _do_, something to make him see that she didn't _care_ that he was a werewolf, that she liked him _very _much just the way he was.... Maybe if she made him _jealous_ enough...but knowing Remus, that might not work. Mimi certainly thought she'd made it clear enough that she liked him, but maybe he'd interpreted her signals wrong...maybe she thought she just liked him as a friend...but, no, that didn't make sense, did it? Even so, if she tried to make Remus jealous by flirting with other boys, that probably wouldn't send the right message....

Why did relationships have to be so damn _complicated_? Why couldn't Mimi and Remus be more like Lily and James? _They_ both knew where they stood...didn't they?

Mimi looked helplessly at the leather hardbound volume in her hand, and then did a double take and stared at it again. She blinked and looked up, taking in a good view of her surroundings. How had she gotten to _this_ section of the bookshop? Taking one last glance at the book in her hand, she placed _Love Spells and Potions for the Wanting Witch_ back on the shelf and hurried quickly to a more innocent section of the bookshop.

Melody took a long, stressful walk through Diagon Alley and into the Leaky Cauldron behind her uncle. Questions were flitting through her mind like a million Golden Snitches, each grappling for a place at the forefront of her thoughts. _Why is he here? What does he want? How did he find me? Am I in trouble? How much trouble am I in? Where's Catalina? Since when does he have a walking stick thingy? Did I leave my bag in the Quidditch shop?_

Hans procured a private room for them in the Leaky Cauldron, and after Tom had provided them with tea and crumpets (which Melody had no intention of eating), Hans ordered that they be left completely alone, and fixed on Melody a gaze lethal enough to snap a wand. Speaking of wands...hadn't Melody left hers in her bag? She sincerely hoped that between Sirius, James, and Lily, one of them had had the good sense to pick up her bag.

"Well then," Hans said, and Melody's thought process froze. She just looked at him, unsure of what to say. How very different from their last conversation, in which she'd argued with him like a stubborn mule.

"Indeed," she said. "How...interesting to see you again, uncle."

"Interesting," Hans chuckled. "Yes, Melody, my dear. I'm sure you'll soon find that many things in this world are quite interesting."

Melody was beginning to regain her wits a bit. "And what do you mean by that, uncle?"

"I mean, my dear girl, that my life is not as glamorous as you think it to be, and that you are about to find that out right now."

Melody didn't like the tone in her uncle's voice. It had lost all its delicately toned courtesy and cordiality and had become flat and threatening and even menacing in a way. It was amazing the kind of shivers that voice could send up her spine. "Just tell me why you are here, uncle," Melody said finally, daring to look him in the eye even though it made her rather nervous to do so.

Hans shook his head a moment before speaking. "You are so like your father in ways you cannot even know."

At this, Melody felt a rush of pride. She forgot sometimes that Hans was her father's brother. Hans had been so much older than Melody's father that Melody's father hadn't really known Hans all that well growing up, but they got along well enough from what Melody understood, and having Hans compliment her like that (or had it been a compliment?) made her proud in a way she almost could not express.

"Stubborn, proud, and foolish," Hans muttered, and Melody's pride faded a bit. Perhaps her father and her uncle had not been as close as she thought. "You would not want those traits to be the demise of your family as your father allowed them to be the demise of himself, would you?"

Melody's eyes bulged. "Pardon me?"

"Allow me to rephrase. You would not want to allow your stubborn, foolish pride to be the downfall of your family, would you?"

"Are you threatening my family, uncle?"

"How astute you are at times, Melody. _Really_."

"Don't you lay a _wand_ on my family, or--"

"Or what? You'll glare at me? Shoot a few little spells at me? That's interesting, Melody, really, but just to save on time I think we had better establish that _I_ am the only one who is going to be making threats around here."

"And why would that be?"

"Because, Melody my _dear_, I am here to call in your debt."

"My debt? My debt for _what_?"

"Please tell me you're not serious. The hotels, the clothes, the meals, the lavish vacations--"

"You _invited_ me to go with you!"

"And you _agreed_ to go. You didn't have to."

"You can't possibly expect me to pay you back for that! That's _ridiculous_!"

"I don't see why. I provided things for you. I expect to receive compensation."

"Com--compen--_compensation_?" Melody sputtered.

"Have you suddenly gone deaf? _Yes_, compensation!" Hans snapped. "I fed you, I clothed you, I allowed you to go out and buy all sorts of things for yourself. Don't you feel I deserve something in return?"

"I'll send you a nice fruit basket at Christmas, how does that sound?"

"This is hardly a time for sarcasm, my dear niece. I'm afraid that I'm deadly serious about this."

"Well, _this_ is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! You cannot invite someone to stay with you and then expect them to pay you back for everything you've ever given them!"

"Don't presume to tell me what I can and cannot do. I gave you no indication that _anything_ you were receiving was free of charge."

"In--ind--_indication_? I'll tell you about indication! You gave me _every_ indication to believe that I was traveling with you as your 'favorite niece', and that keeping up with the fashions was all part of the trip!"

"Buying three hundred pairs of shoes is not mere _fashion_!"

Melody winced a bit at that. She couldn't quite argue that case. "Well--you--you can have the shoes back if you want, but I'm not giving you anything else!"

"And why would that be, Melody? Spite? Pride? Greed? Or perhaps...you are incapable of returning the garments? The jewelry? The souvenirs?"

Melody thought for a moment, not at all liking the tone in her uncle's voice that suggested he knew more than he was letting on.

"Maybe it's just because you're a greedy old bastard who can't stand being parted from his money."

Hans looked at Melody for a moment before doing something completely unexpected. He smiled. It wasn't a nice, smile either; it was rather nasty and twisted and revealed his darkened, nasty teeth.

"Perhaps," he suggested in an oily voice, "you cannot return these things because you no longer have them."

Melody froze.

This was what she'd been afraid of.

"I thought we'd established, uncle," she said, in a higher-pitched voice than normal, "that I considered those things all _gifts_ at the time--"

"Do not waste breath speaking of things we have already established. Do you or do you not have these items in your possession at the present time?"

Melody looked long and hard at her uncle before uttering one small, deeply significant, painful word. "No."

"No," Hans repeated softly, smiling still wider. "That puts you in an _interesting_ position, now doesn't it, Melody?"

"I suppose," Melody replied, her teeth gritted. "What do you propose I do about it, uncle?"

"I propose that you do exactly as I say from now on, Melody, or you will be treading on some very dangerous ground."

"Would you care to specify, uncle, or are you going to continue to be cryptically threatening?" Melody snapped, unable to take her uncle's menacing hints any longer.

"Very well, Melody. I'm going to be blunt. I want all my money back or I am going to seize possession of all your family's belongings, including their house, and kick them out of it."

Melody, in spite of her mad attempts at self control, gasped and stared at him in fury. "_You wouldn't_."

Hans chose to ignore this pointless comment. "Since it does not seem likely that you will be able to repay me, I have come up with a solution to fix your indebtedness."

"Oh, really? And what would that be? Parading myself around like a little show monkey? I _do_ have to go to school, you know, an--"

"Be _quiet_, child! You are in no position to mock the man who holds your family's livelihood in his hands."

Melody chose not to respond, but instead gazed at her uncle stonily. Every good thought she'd ever had about him--everything she'd ever done for him--every nice word that had come out of her mouth about him--

She'd take it all back right now for the ability to hex him into his grave. How dare he--how _dare_ he--threaten her family! If she could, right now she would "seize possession" of her uncle's liver and kidneys, sell them on the black market, and then use the money to buy poor Catalina a new brain so she'd have the sense to stop gallavanting around with this monstrous greedy _pig_!

Her maddening thoughts quickly disappeared, however, when she heard her uncle's 'solution'.

"Now then," Hans began, "there are few ways in which you can come across a great deal of money in a short space of time. And since I do not wish you to earn money by gambling, playing the lottery, theft, or prostitution, there are even fewer. Plus, since stocks investments are too risky and I do not believe you have the skills required to trade on the black market"--Melody thought immediately of her plan to sell her uncle's liver and her lips twitched upward slightly--"that leaves me one simple, foolproof solution."

Melody, who was still a bit distracted thinking of the liver, could not imagine what her uncle might be suggesting, unless it was stripping (since that wasn't technically prostitution), but one could hardly make several hundred thousand dollars _stripping_. She looked blankly up at her uncle, waiting.

"Marriage," he said, savoring the word and smiling at his own genius. "Marriage into a very, very wealthy family."

Melody froze.

Time stopped.

The world ceased to function.

One thought blazed through Melody's mind.

_He--did--NOT--just--say--that_.

She opened her mouth but no sound came out. She closed it again to think but her head remained a blank. Her was looking at her, awaiting her response, and she opened her mouth again, wanting to give him one--wanting to give him a good one--something sarcastic--something negative--something--just--_anything_--

"Oh..." was what she said. "....my."

Hans's smile twisted itself wider. "Oh, my, indeed, my niece."

Melody looked back up at her uncle and her brain kicked back into action. A thousand thoughts crowded to the front of her mind at once, clamoring to spit themselves out of her mouth. "I won't do it!"

Hans froze and looked at his niece unpleasantly. "What do you mean?"

"I won't do it! I'm too young! It's not fair! I don't care about your money! Leave my family alone! That's disgusting! _You're_ disgusting! I HATE YOU!"

Each thought seemed to infuriate Melody's uncle more, and finally he stopped her shrieking. "That is _enough_! Now listen, Melody, and listen well. You have put your entire family in jeopardy because of your foolishness, and it would not do well if you put _yourself_ in jeopardy because of further foolishness. Now _I need that money_ and _you're_ going to give it to me. I don't care if you have to kill your husband on your wedding night to get that money, but _I will have it_, Melody, or it will be _your _livelihood I'm after and not your family's. _Do I make myself clear_?"

Melody's hands were shaking violently, and she was determined not to allow her voice to shake as well. "Perfectly clear," she replied, as evenly as she could.

"Very well," Hans said, breaking eye contact with her and gathering up his traveling cloak and cane. "I have one last--ah--_gift_ for you. Let us make no mistakes this time--it really is a gift, my dear. And I ask that you wear it at all times."

He placed a small black box in front of her and she opened it to find a small silver ring topped with a tiny sparkling diamond glimmering up with her.

"A ring," she noted. "How appropriate."

"I'll be in touch with you about Christmas," Hans replied, and then he left.

Melody stared down at the ring with a sick feeling in her stomach. Slowly she removed it from the black velvet box and slid it onto the fourth finger of her left hand. The sight made her feel even more ill, and she hastily removed it and switched the ring to her right hand before pocketing the box and hurrying out of the Leaky Cauldron.

She didn't want to think about what her uncle had just said, or what her mother would say if she knew about this, or what she just might have to go through because of her uncle's blackmail. She tapped the bricks on the wall behind the pub frantically, wanting nothing more than to escape into the streets of Diagon Alley and forget how severely screwed up her life had just become.

Her hands were still shaking like mad when she rushed back into the Quidditch shop, and she couldn't quite get her breathing under control. Vision was a little fuzzy around the edges of her eyes because of the tears that were beginning to sting them. How could someone she'd trusted so much turn out to be just a fat--greedy--horrible--blackmailing--

Melody's thoughts whirled in her head as she hurried through the Quiddich store, searching for James, Lily--anybody--when she found Sirius. He was holding her forgotten bag and considering two different packages of Beater gloves when she ran up to him and threw her arms around him, shaking.

Sirius dropped the bag and the gloves and yelled slightly from shock until he realized it was Melody clinging to him, and then he said "_Jesus_, Melody! What's wrong?" and wrapped his arms around her. Melody didn't respond, just shook her head and buried it into his shoulder.

Sirius just stared at her, unsure of exactly what to do or exactly why she was clinging to him. It wasn't that he _minded_ her attaching herself to him, it was just that it was so very _uncharacteristic_ of her. However, once he registered the fact that Melody was shaking like a frightened mouse, he concluded that it wouldn't have mattered _who_ Melody had run into--she would probably have thrown her arms around the first person she knew no matter _who_ they were. Of course, Sirius was glad that _he_ had been the first person she'd seen, but then again he wasn't so glad, because of course if nothing had happened between Melody and her uncle, she wouldn't be so distraught that she was clinging to Sirius and shaking.

"Melody, what happened?" Sirius asked, but Melody just shook her head again, this time violently, so that her long blond hair got tangled in Sirius's fingers.

Lily and James came around the corner, followed shortly by Mrs. Potter, and Lily, seeing Melody's less-than-fantastic state, ran up to her best friend and immediately demanded that Sirius tell her what was the matter. Sirius, who did not know, just shook his head helplessly.

Mrs. Potter, who was not about to allow three teenagers to stand in the middle of a Quidditch store with a very distressed friend on their hands (blocking up the aisle, no less), gently detached Melody from Sirius and ushered them all to the register. Lily, James, and Sirius, who at least had the good sense to realize that this might not be the best place to discuss whatever it was that was troubling Melody, all shoved their desired purchases onto the counter at once and practically threw their Sickles at the man behind the register, and didn't bother to stay to collect their change.

Mrs. Potter led them all to Florean Fortescue's and, though the place was hideously crowded, managed to find them a four-seater table, and then wisely disappeared to allow the teenagers to sort out whatever was the matter. She was deadly curious, of course, as to what was troubling Melody, but as all four teenagers were currently living under her roof and none of them seemed to have any concept of the word "whisper", she expected through a combination of her hearing and the house-elves, she'd find out what was going on sooner or later.

Lily, James, and Sirius all looked at Melody expectantly. Melody felt their gazes on her and attempted to compose herself. What was she going to say? What could she say? What _was_ there to say? She looked up and gazed at her best friends blankly, and it occurred to her in that moment that she could not tell them. They wouldn't understand, they wouldn't believe her, or, even worse, they would try to come up with a _solution_.

And there was no solution, was there? Unless she really did go off and win the sodding lottery, what else could she do? Where else could she get that kind of money? She couldn't very well ask Lily for it, could she? Or James, or--or Sirius--or _anybody_ she knew. And there was no bloody way in hell her _family_ would still have any of that money. It had all been used for paying off bills that had piled up for months; house payments and car payments and credit card debts and sodding _college loans_ leftover from her mum's years at university and then all manner of groceries and clothes and gas and schoolbooks and things to keep the children occupied so they wouldn't drive Melody's mum completely _insane_...

So instead of telling her friends the truth, instead of replaying the entire scene with her uncle and crying out in distress about the whole disgusting situation, Melody found a pack of lies running from her mouth.

"It was just--he was so--_mad_!" she told them. "Because I'd run off on him and all, and--oh--I don't know--I've just never _seen_ him like that, furious and mean and--and everything. And that wasn't even the _worst_ part. Then he just...got all calm and quiet and...informed me that I'd be spending Christmas with him. And _then_--then he gave me _this_ and told me to wear it all the time, and that if I didn't he would know, and then...well...then...I don't know what," she finished lamely, holding out her right hand so that  they could all see the ring he'd given her.

What she'd told them wasn't _completely_ untrue, but it damn sure wasn't the _whole_ truth.

They were all staring at her, looking a bit dumbfounded. Lily's mouth was actually hanging open slightly.

"So--wait--" Lily said, deigning to speak first. "Let me get this straight. Your uncle came from _America_ to yell at you for leaving, and then basically informed you that you are going to spend Christmas with him whether you like it or not, and _then_ he gives you this mysterious ring."

Melody nodded, feeling that her story was ridiculous and unbelievable, but if James, Lily, or Sirius thought so, they didn't say anything about it.

Sirius, however, did have a comment about the ring. "Bet it has a tracking charm on it," he muttered.

"And how would you know about tracking charms?" Melody demanded, still far too emotional and slightly miffed that this possibility had occurred to Sirius before it occurred to her.

"Look, why _else_ would your uncle demand that you wear it _all the time_?"

Melody shrugged and looked down at the ring, her stomach churning. She closed her eyes and attempted to block everything out of her mind. Her uncle--her family--the money--the ring--_everything_. When she opened her eyes again, the very first thing she saw was Sirius, staring at her with all kinds of concern written all over his face. Immediately an image of Paolo's brown eyes flashed in front of Sirius's brown eyes, and Melody's stomach lurched.

Sirius...and Paolo. Several hours ago Melody had still been in serious confusion about _both_ of them--what did she want, who did she want, and _why_ did she have to want either of them? She'd been so crazy about Sirius for so long, and Sirius, she knew, had been mad about her--but for some obscure, unknown reason, both of them had been too afraid to take the next step. There'd always been some sort of hesitation, some sort of _wall_ between them that they just couldn't get through.

Then there had been Paolo. And with Paolo there was no wall. Of course, their entire relationship had been established on the principle of being unattached--which was an odd way to start a relationship, Melody supposed. Then again, her relationship with Sirius had been established on the principle of exploding Dungbombs right in front of Filch's office--so--maybe that wasn't a much better way of beginning things.

But now--_now_--oh, _God--_now none of that _mattered_. Because Melody couldn't have a relationship with _either_ of them, no matter _what _she wanted. Now Melody wasn't _allowed_ to want. It would never matter, the rest of her life, whether or not she had really been in love with Sirius, or whether she really could have fallen in love with Paolo, or whether there was someone _else _out there who was really her perfect match that she just hadn't _met_ yet--

She was going to be married. _Married. _The ring would shift from her right finger to her left and she would have no choice at all who to love anymore, except her family. Her mother--her sisters--her brothers--her stepfather--they were all that mattered. They were the only thing she had left to care for--they were the only people for whom she would even _consider_ going through with this--

Melody's mind returned to her body, and she found herself still looking at Sirius. His dark brown eyes struck a chord somewhere inside her, in some deep hidden crevice of her mind where the truth often lurked, and her heart fluttered brokenly, her stomach lurched again, and her whole body, in one heaving motion, sobbed, tipping her head over onto the table, where tears spilled out of her eyes to make sorrowful little puddles on the glass.

It was occurring to Mimi, with a sinking heart, that she and Remus might _never_ be together. She'd run into him again, this time outside the Leaky Cauldron, and seen that _look_ in his eyes again. He always had this little look of sorrow deep in the pits of his eyes, like he was always holding himself back from something--back from doing something or saying something that might bring him closer to Mimi than he wished.

And Mimi--Mimi was beginning to get so very tired of feeling lonely. It wasn't that she didn't have friends--she had plenty--but it was so very sad not to have someone to _really _look forward to seeing every day--to go to Hogsmeade with--to meet in a deserted classroom--to maybe have a bit of a nap on during the train ride--

Mimi really just _enjoyed_ having a boyfriend. Talking, kissing, slipping notes in class, taking prolonged walks around the lake--plus all those fantastic happy, bubbly feelings she got when she was with someone she really cared about. Fifth Year had been the last time she'd had a real serious boyfriend. Sixth Year, there hadn't really been much of anything--a couple of dates to Hogsmeade, several good snog sessions, but really, nothing _serious_.

And she felt that, for Seventh Year, she'd really like to _have_ that something serious. At least as serious as any relationships were at Hogwarts, anyway. The most serious couple she knew was Lily and James, and they still refused to admit they were _dating_! Sure, there were other couples, but somehow they didn't seem quite as--as _crazy_ about each other--and Lord knew Lily and James were good at driving each other crazy.

She adored Remus--she knew that much, anyway--and she was fairly certain he adored her. But what she _didn't_ know--and this was what bothered her the most--was how long she could stand to wait for him.

Melody was vaguely aware of arms encircling her, of worried murmers and gentle shakes on her shoulders and a dish being set before her on the table, but everything was fuzzed and blurred and overshadowed by the tears. When Melody's mind finally cleared and her tears dissolved, she discovered that it was Lily who was attempting to hug her, however awkwardly, and suddenly intense guilt flooded Melody's veins.

How could she sit here feeling so monumentally sorry for herself and allow Lily to comfort her? How could she cry because she was protecting her family and look Lily, who'd _lost_ her family, in the eye--and _complain_? How could Melody be so selfish and Lily so selfless? What was _wrong_ with her?

"Melody, are you all right?" Lily demanded, her eyes clouded with worry, and Melody wanted to slap herself across the face. Of course she was all right. She was fine. She was dandy. Compared to Lily, she was bloody _perfect_. She had a bunch of siblings at home who loved her and a stepfather who'd die for her. Lily had an emotionally wrecked mother and a sister who hated her. Lily was being forced to deal with the most horrific experience _ever_, and Melody--Melody was falling to pieces because of a sodding _wedding_ _band_.

She--she was still young, wasn't she? And who'd said she had to stay married to the rich bloke forever? Who was to say she couldn't get married, pay her uncle back, and then just divorce the bastard? Her uncle _had_ said he didn't care if she stayed married, hadn't he? Hadn't he said something about murdering her husband on their wedding night to get straight at the money? So--so it wouldn't be the _worst_ thing ever, would it? It was just a little nasty bargain, a little chunk of money, a little piece of her life, and then it would all be over and done with and she'd never have to deal with her uncle again.

Melody reached over and hugged Lily with all her might, attempting to think not of herself but her best friend. There were more important things in this world than Melody's sob stories.

"Better now?" Lily ventured, and Melody nodded. "We--we got you some ice cream. We thought you might need it." Melody glanced over at the dish of mint chip ice cream, smothered in fudge, and smiled.

"You're too fantastic for words," she told them, and slid the dish closer to herself. Lily perched on the arm of Melody's chair and occasionally stole a bit of ice cream, which was fine by Melody, as the sundae was huge and she was still feeling a bit queasy from everything.

"So're you going to tell your uncle to bugger off then?" James wanted to know, and Lily kicked him under the table.

"Let's not talk about that right now," Lily suggested.

"Why not?" James demanded, looking sulky and rubbing his shin.

"It's all right, Lily," Melody said. "I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. But considering the--the--_fit­_ he just threw, I'm not sure 'bugger off' would be exactly the right thing to put in an owl."

"It'd be funny though," Sirius said. Melody smiled.

"Perhaps just a bit," she agreed, and then, quite unexpectedly, their table was _attacked_.

Arabella Figg and Mundungus Fletcher descended upon them in a whirl of noise and shrieks and hugs and shopping bags--which, they discovered, after Mundungus had plopped himself in Lily's old chair and Arabella had situated herself on his lap, all belonged to Arabella--and then stared enviously at Melody's sundae and ordered several for themselves.

Arabella and Mundungus--or 'Dung', as Sirius and James liked to call him--had been dating since the end of Quidditch season (though they'd been secretly snogging in classrooms _long_ before that), and were still in that "beginning" stage of their relationship, where they couldn't get enough of each other--but, thankfully, were not one of those couples that was absolutely nauseating to be around. Lily didn't know either of them all that well (though she knew Arabella much better than Mundungus, as she'd done a fair bit of Potions work with her the previous year), but as they were on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, James, Melody, and Sirius knew them both quite well.

"'S been a bit of a madhouse, hasn't it?" Arabella commented, waiting rather impatiently for her ice cream.

"How do you mean?" James asked.

"Well--getting ready for school and all. I usually come the last day of August and _nobody's_ here--they've all come and gone--but Dung said he wanted to come and see everybody when they were shopping, so it's taken us _forever_ to get through it all--"

At this, Dung made a strangled sort of coughing noise, and Arabella whacked him lightly. "Not _one_ word out of your mouth about my shopping! We'd be _gone_ by now if it weren't for you insisting we stop at that Muggle shop in London and try to sell off some of those _horrible_ watches."

Sirius perked a bit at this. "You been selling watches again, Dung? Care to invest some of that money at Zonko's this year?"

Mundungus grinned. "What else is there to spend money on? _Books_?"

Arabella sighed. "You _know_, Dung, maybe if you _did_ pay attention to books your scores on the O.W.L.S. would have been higher."

Mundungus winced. "Aw, come on, Arabella, you know I don't care about tests--"

"It doesn't matter if _you_ care about them, stupid! How're you ever going to get a _job_ anywhere with those kinds of scores?"

"I've told you _before_, it doesn't matter what kind of _scores_ you've got as long as you've got all the right _connections_--"

Arabella snorted. "Yeah, my _ass_. The only people _you've_ connected with are those swindlers who gave you those stupid _watches_."

"What's the deal with the watches?" Lily demanded, intensely curious, though feeling as though she were intruding a bit on Arabella and Mundungus's argument.

"My watches? Well--_well_, now--you wouldn't happen to be in the market for a watch, would you?" Mundungus asked, perking visibly.

Arabella hit him. "She most certainly is _not_ interested in one of your watches," she informed him coldly. "They're a _sham_," she informed Lily. "It's all a big hoax. They're these really shiny, pretty gold watches--all expensive looking and everything--only they're _not_, really, they've just been transfigured to look that way. And Dung charges an arm and a leg for the things--mostly pawning them off to harmless, ignorant Muggles--and after a couple weeks the spell fades off, and they turn back into whatever it was they were before--pens, bottle caps, napkins and the like. Doesn't really matter what they are to begin with. But anyway, the Muggles find the bottle caps and napkins and things and throw them away, and they can never find their watches again, and get real upset that they've lost them--and some of them have even bought the watches from Dung _twice_--" At this Arabella turned and glared at her boyfriend again, fiercely.

"_What_?" Dung demanded. "It makes a good buck!"

"Yes, but it'd be better if you were making an _honest_ buck."

"What's dishonest about it? It's a real watch, isn't it? It _works_, doesn't it? At least for a while..."

Arabella hit him again, and just then their ice cream came, for which Dung looked very grateful, as it was much harder for Arabella to hit him with a dish of ice cream occupying her hands.

"It _is_ a bit nasty of you to give those Muggles such a go," James agreed after considering for a moment, and Mundungus groaned.

"Aw, come _on_, James, not you too!"

"It _is_ a bit illegal, you know," James reminded him.

"Oh, just a _bit_?" Arabella said sarcastically, through a mouthful of her ice cream, which she swallowed quickly. "It's reassuring to know that the Minister of Magic's son has such clear ideas of where the law begins and ends. It's _completely_ illegal," she assured all of them, glaring at her boyfriend, and Dung just shrugged helplessly, looking as though he'd decided to give up arguing with her.

"Just as long as you don't go over to--_that_ side--I don't care what you do, Dung," Sirius decided. They all sobered a bit at this comment.

Arabella's eyes flitted around a bit before her gaze landed uncertainly on Lily. "Yeah," she said thoughtfully, contemplating the ice cream in her mouth before swallowing. Her gaze dropped abruptly and she stared at her now-empty dish. "It's...it's been terrible this, summer, hasn't it, with all that--that--Vold--well, you know who I mean--all _that_ business."

'_All that business_'. It sounded wrong to Lily, the way she'd said it. Like she was too afraid to mention it outright. Maybe she was afraid of how Lily would react, or maybe she was just afraid for herself, but it annoyed Lily.

"Well, Voldemort's done a lot of damage, hasn't he?" Lily said, and Arabella looked up at her, a bit surprised.

"Y--yeah," she agreed, nodding. "They're saying--well--a few people I've talked to anyway--it won't be long before he starts attacking wizards full-out. I mean--I know there've been a few attacks on--Muggle-borns--" Arabella's words faded into nothing, and she shifted a bit, looking uncomfortable, positively unsure of what to say around Lily. Lily didn't say anything. After all--what was she _supposed_ to say?

Lily's apparent lack of reaction seemed to reassure Arabella, and she spoke again.

"It's amazing, though--you--you know? How--how _weird_ people've gotten."

"How do you mean?" Sirius asked.

"Well--it's just--nothing _big_, you know, but just--_little_ things. Like--Dung and I tried to say hullo to a couple of fifth years we knew from school a bit, and they just--kind of waved hello and _ran_. Like their mums'd told them not to talk to anyone they didn't really _know_--you know? 'S weird, yeah?"

"Now that you mention it," James said thoughtfully, "we ran into some people in the Quidditch shop, and they did seem a bit--well--_shifty_, I guess. Not so much like they were doing something wrong, but more just they wanted to be moving on; didn't want to stay and talk to us, or anything."

"_Yeah_?" Arabella said, interested. "'S 'cos of the rumors, I'd bet you anything."

"Rumors?" Sirius echoed.

"Haven't you heard any of them?" Arabella asked, raising her eyebrows. Her gaze shifted to James. "Your--your dad hasn't said anything?"

James gave her a bit of a funny look. "He's not really at _home_ too much, to tell you the truth. We've got a bit of a national crisis going on...so...when he comes home he mostly just..._sleeps_."

"Oh," said Arabella, her eyes widening. "Well--well, you want to hear?"

Lily did not particularly want to hear, but James and Sirius looked curious enough, so she just shrugged and listened with the rest of them.

Arabella looked around and then leaned in, whispering. "I've--I've heard he's raising some kind of--_army_--or something. And it's not just those Death Eaters, either. It's _other_ things. Creatures, you know? Like--trolls, and vampires, and werewolves and things."

"Werewolves aren't creatures," Sirius said suddenly, and a bit more harshly than may have been necessary. "They're _people_."

Arabella blinked, looking surprised. "Oh--well--you know--I didn't _mean_--" she cut off, looking uncertain. "It's just--well--none of us've ever _met_ a werewolf, have we? So I--I just meant in their werewolf state, they'd be--they'd be creatures," she finished lamely.

"They're still people," Sirius insisted, quite adamantly, and Arabella's eyebrows shot toward her forehead.

Lily was just as surprised as Arabella. She'd known, of course, that there were those who were pro-werewolf--just small support and protest groups, and things, comprised mostly of relatives and friends of werewolves. She'd never known, however, that Sirius was much of an advocate for werewolves. And even more curious than that was the fact that neither James nor Melody seemed a bit phased by Sirius's sudden outburst. Of course--Melody hadn't spoken for a bit, so perhaps she was still recovering from the conversation with her uncle and wasn't about to be phased by anything.

However--Lily still felt she was missing some crucial bit of information, something that linked directly to James and Sirius and, oddly, had something to do with werewolves. Of all things...why in the world would Sirius be so passionate about _werewolves_? Did he--did he _know _a werewolf?

This thought sent Lily's mind reeling on some _very_ interesting lines of thought. _Did_ Sirius know a werewolf? Did Lily know the werewolf Sirius knew? Did James know that Sirius knew a werewolf? Did _James_ know the werewolf? Was there--could there be a werewolf at _Hogwarts_? The more Lily's brain spun around this idea, the more sense it made. There were hundreds of students at Hogwarts--one of them could easily be a werewolf--

Well...Lily supposed it wouldn't be _easy_ to be a werewolf...but_ still_. Despite the fact that most of the wizarding community looked at werewolves with a certain amount of distrust and fear, Dumbledore was the kind of person who could see past the monthly transformations and see the real _person_ behind the--the condition. Because being a werewolf wasn't a _choice_ or anything, was it--it was the result of an unfortunate accident, a bite from another werewolf, something one didn't ask for and certainly couldn't reverse after it was over.  And Dumbledore would understand that, and make accomodations as necessary--

But _who_? Lily's mind whizzed at this thought. Who could _possibly_ be a werewolf? It most definitely wasn't James _or_ Sirius, Lily knew--she'd spent too much time with both of them, and during the full moon, too. And it most definitely wasn't Melody. It just--_wasn't_. Obviously it wasn't Arabella or Mundungus, as they seemed just as surprised as Lily to hear Sirius's sudden defense of werewolves in general.

Lily distracted herself with this, even as they said good-bye to Mundungus and Arabella, even as they prowled through the streets of Diagon Alley, buying school things, running into Remus and Peter, watching Mrs. Potter buy James a large present, and traveled by Floo back to Potter's Cottage. It had to be someone in Gryffindor--didn't it? Well, it didn't _have_ to be, but it seemed likely. Lily thought herself into frustration over it. Who--who in the _world_--could it be?

Remus was a werewolf. That was just all there was to it. He'd been a werewolf today, he was a werewolf yesterday, and he'd be a werewolf tomorrow. That would _never change_.

Luckily for Remus, he had three of the most fantastic friends in existence. Friends who didn't care he was a werewolf--friends who would do anything to help him out--friends who would spend years in agonizing research and trial-and-error to become _Animagi_ so he wouldn't have to face those horrid monthly transformations alone. They were his sanity, his sense of self, on those moonlit nights, and he doubted very much if, in all of his life, he would find more wonderful people than they.

Which was why, with terrible conviction, Remus was positive that he could _never_ date Mimi Ramirez. It wasn't that she wasn't a fantastic person--Remus thought she was one of the most fantastic people he'd ever met--it was just that--_well_--how did you _explain_ being a werewolf to someone? Girls had a horrible habit of wanting to _cure_ things, and there was no cure for being a werewolf. And if it wasn't _curing_ things, it was _taming_ them--and a werewolf couldn't be tamed, either. At least not by a _human_. He'd seen it loads of times with stray dogs. Girls would try to befriend them, take them in, and they'd just be nasty animals, no matter what you did with them, only the girls wouldn't see that until it was too late, and then they got up ending _hurt_--

And the last thing in the world Remus wanted to do was hurt Mimi. In fact, he was paralyzed, sometimes, with the fear that on one of those nights--one of those wonderful, reckless nights full of freedom and full moons and exploration--Sirius and James wouldn't be able to keep him in check, that he'd run away from them all, untameable, and _really_ hurt somebody. It had almost happened once or twice, and they'd laughed it off--because, after all, no one _had _gotten hurt--but at the same time, it was still a fear Remus lived with.

And, though his friends _were_ fantastic, and they really _didn't _care that he was a werewolf--that fear was one thing they just wouldn't ever understand. It was something every werewolf had to live with, Remus suspected. Werewolves weren't bad people--they _really_ weren't--and, in fact, most of them were probably nicer than they had to be. The nicer you were, the less people suspected you of being something they feared. It always paid to be nice and smart and well groomed. Sometimes it was very difficult to be well groomed, but Remus tried anyway.

He'd tried, too, keeping his wits about him when he transformed. He'd _tried_ not ripping things to shreds, scratching himself, biting himself, tearing the Shrieking Shack apart in agony--but it was impossible.When James and Sirius and Peter were there, though, it was easier. They weren't human, so he didn't have the mad urge to attack them, but nor were they completely animal, which he could also sense as a werewolf, and knowing that triggered something in Remus's mind which told him that he wasn't really completely animal, either. And that was why he allowed them to drag him around a bit, even when sometimes he might have preferred to stay holed up in the Shrieking Shack, safe from hurting anyone but himself. His worst fear was being responsible for turning someone _else_ into a werewolf--from forcing them to endure what he had to every month, in addition to all the ridicule and ugly rumors he'd gotten from people who knew he was a werewolf.

And so he couldn't let Mimi know. He couldn't date her. He didn't want to get to close to her, for fear she'd find out. He couldn't bear the thought of her suddenly hating him. He wouldn't--_couldn't_--tell her, for fear it would ruin what little relationship they had. He'd rather have her friendship from afar than her hatred from up close.

Some little voice in his head told him that honesty was the best policy, and if she was the kind of person who would judge him just because he was a werewolf, then he wouldn't want to date her anyway. But another voice in his head, a much stronger one, reminded him, in no uncertain terms, that he didn't _care_ if she was the kind of person who would be repulsed by his condition. As long as she didn't know, she could still be his friend, and in Remus's opinion, having her in his life, no matter _what _she really thought about werewolves, was better than all the honesty in the world.

Mrs. Potter was feeling quite chatty. She wanted to know how they'd all liked Diagon Alley, what they'd all like for dinner, how their night on the town had went, and who those people they'd been talking to at Florean Fortescue's were. The teenagers had a jumbled mix of answers for her, but mostly the gist had been--Diagon Alley was fine as usual, fish and chips sounded good (at which Mrs. Potter rolled her eyes--"Typical teenagers," she said, "offer them a castle and they'll ask for a hut"), the club had been fantastic, and they'd been talking to Arabella and Mundungus, Gryffindor Quidditch Players.

Mrs. Potter's questioning did not provoke only grumbling and thoughtless answers, however. When she mentioned the night club, Lily's mind immediately flew to the mysterious Frenchman, and her hand immediately flew to her necklace.

"Mrs. Potter, do you know anything about jewelry collectors?"

Mrs. Potter laughed. "I know I've had a fair argument with them a time or two. They always ask me about the ancient family jewels--Gryffindor's, you know--and I have to keep telling them that these jewels simply don't _exist_ anymore. Some of them were melted down to make other things, some were sold to museums long ago, and some--as ancient things do--simply went missing or got carried out of the family over time. But I'm sure all that's very boring to you."

"No, not at all," Lily insisted. "So--so you do know a _bit _ about jewelry and all, then?"

"Oh, no, dear--not really--just that I don't really _have _anything worth selling. That's all."

"Oh," Lily said, somewhat disappointed, fiddling with her necklace.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well--" Lily paused, hesitating, and glanced over at Melody (who had become quite a bit more normal since returning from Diagon Alley), and then at James and Sirius, briefly, wondering how just to explain. Melody saved her by jumping in and telling the story.

"When we were at the club, the owner called me and Lily up to his office," she began, and Mrs. Potter looked rather shocked. "He asked us--well, not _us_, but Lily--about Lily's necklace. He said he was a collector of fine jewelry, and wanted to inquire about buying it."

"He wanted to buy _that_?" Mrs. Potter asked, bewildered. "Not that it isn't a perfectly good necklace, dear--but--well, it's not exactly out of the ordinary, now is it?"

Lily nodded in agreement. "That's exactly why we were confused. There are thousands of necklaces like this one--why would a jewelry collector want it?"

"The only thing we could think," Melody continued, "was that it might be magical. Or it might've belonged to Gryffindor himself, at one point."

"Although that didn't really make much sense," Lily added, "as it looks so new."

"We-e-ell," Mrs. Potter said slowly. "James, that _is _the necklace that used to belong to your grandmother, isn't it? The one you gave Lily last Christmas?"

"Yes, mum," James said.

"That necklace _did_ belong to Christopher's mother, but as far as I knew, she'd just _had_ it. Maybe--maybe as a present from her husband. But she never talked about it as thought it were some kind of heirloom."

"Maybe the collector just had the wrong necklace," Sirius suggested. "Maybe he was really looking for something else."

"But why would he be looking for anything like this at _all_?" Lily pointed out. "Whether or not he had the right necklace, I want to know what he _was_ looking for."

"He _did _mention that he didn't think many people knew of the necklace's value," Melody said, "so he might have been right about Lily's necklace being worth something, and he might not have. But I agree with Lily--I _really_ want to know what he was talking about."

"Hm," Mrs. Potter said, considering, and she was silent for a moment. "Well, like I said, I know Christopher's mother never spoke of it as any kind of heirloom--but it's still _possible_. You could poke around a bit in the library if you really want to."

"The library? Mum, didn't you Cloak that up for the New Year's Ball?" James asked.

"Oh--oh, that's right, I _did_. But--well, it shouldn't be too much of a problem, really, the ballroom's all Cloaked up again. If you all want to have a look around, I can Uncloak it for you."

"Wait--_what_?" Lily asked, thoroughly confused. This wasn't the first time she'd been confused about Potter's Cottage, and after a year of visiting, she was determined to uncover all the mystery and magic the Cottage was so obviously shrouded in.

"We can't have everything Uncloaked at once, you know. It's a bit dangerous. So we keep a good count--mostly it's the house-elves, really--of the bits we have Uncloaked and the bits we don't. Helps keep everything nice and orderly."

Lily exchanged a glance with Melody, who looked equally confused.

"Mrs. Potter," they said in unison, and then glanced at each other, and only Lily continued. "We have _no_ idea what you're talking about."

Mrs. Potter looked at them, blinked, and then realization dawned in her eyes. "You mean James hasn't _told_ you why we call it Potter's Cottage?"

Lily and Melody both shook their heads, and Mrs. Potter's eyes widened. "_Well_!" she said, and scooted her chair a bit closer to the kitchen table, around which they were all seated. "It's a small bit of a story, but I daresay it's time you heard it. Only--I think this calls for a spot of _tea_!"

At that, the table blossomed with teacups and saucers, and a nice large tea kettle ready to be poured, along with biscuits and crumpets and such. Mrs. Potter directed the teapot to pour itself, with a simple flick of her wand, and as soon as she had a nice steaming cuppa in front of her, launched into an explanation of how Potter's Cottage had gotten its name.

"Long ago, during the time of the Founders," she began, taking a sip of her tea, "Godric Gryffindor, a brilliant warrior, set out to build a fortress. He'd come from a wealthy wizarding family, but they lived hidden in a Muggle city, and Gryffindor decided he wanted to have his own home, far from any prying Muggle eyes.

"He began his project after inheriting his parents' wealth but was destined never to finish it. Halfway through building the fortress, he met Rowena Ravenclaw, a brilliant young witch who was just beginning to make a name for herself in the wizarding world. Gryffindor's long-time friend, Salazar Slytherin, quickly became friends with Rowena as well, and the three began talking of ways in which to improve wizarding society. (As you can imagine, it was not nearly as organized one thousand years ago as it is now.)

"Shortly after the idea of building a school for wizards came into their heads, they met Helga Hufflepuff, who was the oldest of the lot--thought not by much--and easily the most famous of the age. You know the rest of the story of Hogwarts from there--together, they founded and built the first--and best--wizarding school in all of Europe.

"The construction of Hogwarts took many years and many, many Galleons to complete, and Gryffindor was never able to complete his fortress. As the years passed, however, he did gain several other very important things--a wife, and several daughters and sons. One of these sons, Gildric, was a brilliant businessman, and used his share of the family fortune to create _another_ family fortune. He alone among his brothers and sisters was interested in finishing the project his father started, and took it upon himself to create an immense fortress, partly to live in, but mostly to be used if ever a time of war broke out.

"The fortress was designed half in Muggle terms and half in wizarding terms, with large stone walls and barricades as well as permanent defense spells to protect it. It was the height of engineering at the time, and the height of powerful wizardry. Many of the spells employed in Potter's Cottage were similar or identical to those placed on Hogwarts for the protection of its students.

"The fortress was originally (though not quite _imaginatively_) named Gryffindor's Castle. Though only those of the Gryffindor line inhabited its halls, it was originally intended for a much greater purpose than day-to-day living. Gildric wanted it to be a refuge for all those in need during times of war. He wanted it to be a strategically placed defense fortress, to be used for the protection of wizards, the training of armies, and the headquarters for any and all wizarding wars, past and present.

"As you can imagine, wars were far more violent and frequent in those days than they are now (though, of course, we are facing difficult times) and Gryffindor's Castle was, for centuries, used just as Gildric Gryffindor--and, in all fairness, Godric--originally intended it.

"However, over the years, the fortress became much too large and cumbersome to handle. Wars were becoming less and less frequent--at least the ones that required full scale combat--and as the population of Britain increased, so the open space around Gryffindor's Castle diminished. Before long, the castle was _much_ too close to prying Muggle eyes, and _far_ too big a structure to, first of all, be maintained by the Gryffindors alone, and, secondly, be made Unplottable. Of course, knowing that Hogwarts is Unplottable, this might sound unrealistic, but what you must understand is that Gryffindor's Castle really was positively _enormous_, and also that the Gryffindors who owned the castle, at the time, were not capable of such complex magic. Other, more talented wizards, did not quite see the need for this one--mostly unused--structure to take up so much space, and they refused to perform the Unplottable spell on it, telling the Gryffindors to come up with a better solution.

"What the Gryffindors decided was this: They did not want to leave their home, but nor did they want to inhabit all of it. They agreed that it had become obsolete as a military headquarters but were unwilling to tear it down. They decided, then, that rather than destroying part of their home or trying to make it Unplottable, they would simply employ a string of Cloaking Spells to hide bits and pieces of the castle from view--and consequently, from touch.

"When a room is Cloaked, it is not only unseeable, but also unreachable, untouchable, and Unplottable. The Cloaking Spell, were it to be employed over half of the castle at large, would be one of the most complex spells in existence. However, since the Gryffindors of the time were not talented enough to employ such a large spell, they decided to Cloak each room individually--and, sometimes, as later residents of the Castle discovered, put more than one Cloaking Spell on a particular room--and in this way removed most of their Castle from existence.

"As time went on, more and more of the Castle became Cloaked. Certain generations of Gryffindors would be larger than others, and so bits and pieces of the Castle became Uncloaked as necessary.

"After so many centuries, however, Castle living became obsolete. The Castle had no running water, no indoor bathrooms, too many windows and not enough fireplaces for people who were accustomed to more 'modern' living.

"New parts of the castle were built. Though the Gryffindors no longer desired to live in most parts of the old Castle, they still wished to keep the structure in their family. Certain parts they left Uncloaked--the ballroom, for example, and the library. It was lucky they had, too, otherwise they might have discovered--unpleasantly--some of the consequences of the Cloaking magic the earlier Gryffindors had so copiously imparted on their Castle.

"As later generations discovered, the Cloaking magic only worked as long as parts of the Castle still remained Uncloaked. Attempting to Cloak all of the rooms would nullify the effects of the spell, and the entire thing would be visible again. This is a confusing concept. However, think of it this way:

"Imagine a rainbow. It consists of seven colors. Rainbows are created by fracturing white light, and represent all of the colors in the visible spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. If you could, somehow, take one of those colors out of the spectrum, six of them would still remain. This is how Cloaking works. There is an entire castle, and if you decide to Cloak, say, a bedroom, all of the other rooms in the castle would still remain. Follow? Good.

"Now, imagine the rainbow again. Say you decide to take more colors out of it. Say you decide to take all of them out. What are you left with? Whiteness. You're back where you started. And the white can be used, in turn, to split into the seven rainbow colors again. This is the same as attempting to Cloak an entire castle, piece by piece. Eventually you will have all of it invisible--but, since it is all really there, the spell splits against itself and everything reappars again. Make sense? Almost? Not quite? All right, ignore that.

"Just think...in order to understand that there is light we must understand that there is dark. In order to recognize good we must also recognize what is evil. In this case, in order for something to be Cloaked something must also be Uncloaked. Is that better? Good.

"In this way, the Gryffindors discovered that to keep most of the Castle hidden, at least _some _of it had to be Uncloaked. So by building onto the Castle, the Gryffindors were able to keep all of the original Castle Cloaked and only the new part of their Castle Uncloaked. However, to prevent the spell from becoming undone (if, for example, a future owner decided to Cloak all of the new part of the Castle without realizing that nothing of the old Castle was left Uncloaked), the Gryffindors laid down a rule that any new additions to the Castle had to attached to the original Gryffindor's Castle in at least three places. That is, they wanted anyone who built a new addition to be able to easily access three _rooms_ in Gryffindor's Castle from their new addition. The other rule was that at least one of these rooms had to remain Uncloaked at all times, to prevent the spell from undoing itself.

"The place we're living in--the home we call Potter's Cottage--is actually quite tiny compared to the original, monstrous fortress, especially if you include all the other additions that have been made over time. Actually, if you care to look for it, I think there's a map in the library of the entire structure--all the additions that have been made over time, the original fortress, that sort of thing. Anyway...this part of the Castle was constructed after the Gryffindor name fell out of the family. Potter became the primary surname for the last remaining descendants of the Gryffindors about two centuries ago, and the Potter who built this particular addition lived only about eighty years ago. It is the most modern part of the castle, and, actually, connected to the Castle in more places than the rest of the additions. The library, the ballroom, the trophy room, and even a couple of the bedrooms were all original parts of Gryffindor's Castle--and that's why we keep track of how many we have Cloaked and Uncloaked. We don't like to have too many Uncloaked at once, as it sets an unven balance on the whole Cottage.

"Anyway, the man who built addition decided to name it Potter's Cottage, because none of the additions had yet been named after a Potter, and because he thought the name both amusing and fitting at the same time.

"And--well--here we are!" Mrs. Potter finished brightly, finishing off her third cup of tea. Melody and Lily looked at each other, rather surprised. They certainly had not expected _that_ to be Mrs. Potter's "small bit of a story". James looked partly interested but mostly bored, as though he'd heard the story too many times before to be very interested in it. Sirius was distinctly more interested-looking than James but not half as interested as Melody and Lily.

"Wow," Lily said, after a moment. "That's a fantastic bit of history."

"Well, I always liked the story," Mrs. Potter beamed. "Now, then--how about I Uncloak the library for you, and you see if you can't find anything on that necklace of yours. I'll send a house-elf up with you--house-elves are fantastic at finding books and things."

Lily nodded in agreement, and all the teenagers rose from the table. James looked slightly glad to be standing, but not so enthralled at the idea of spending the evening nosing through the library looking for something about Lily's necklace. He was flattered, of course, that she wore it so often, and always went around playing with it, and that someone thought it was valuable--but really, he thought the Frenchman from the club was a bit off his rocker, and it was mostly the fact that the necklace meant so much to Lily that he propelled himself to the libaray and began looking through old, dusty library volumes for some kind of hint as to the origin of Lily's necklace.

Lily, James, Sirius, and Melody got nowhere. There didn't seem to be anything useful in the library pertaining to the necklace--at least not textbook-wise--and they were at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. Going through library volumes was boring, tedious, rather dusty, sneezy work, and mostly they kept at it because none of them felt they were doing very good jobs of flipping through the books, and felt that if they at least kept looking they might fall on a stroke of good luck.

Even though the work was tedious, interesting things did happen in the library. For instance, the day before they were supposed to catch the Hogwarts train at King's Cross, Lily and James happened to be working very close together, and kept getting a bit distracted by each other. Their hands would brush together, James's arm would bump into Lily's, Lily would accidentally trod on James's feet...or sometimes James decided to tuck a stray piece of hair behind Lily's ear, and Lily would ruffle James's always-messy hair as a joke.

It got to the point where neither of them could really concentrate on work anymore, and Melody rolled her eyes and told them to get a room, and James decided to ask Lily if she cared to go look something up with him, and he grabbed her hand and led her to the back of the library.

Lily did not waste time asking James any stupid questions about why they happened to be in the very back of the library, but instead pulled him against her and opened her mouth against his. From there on their time in the library was a bit of a fuzzy blur, a mixture of safely exploring hands and deep, long kisses, and fiery little fluttering kisses on the neck and the throat and the jawbone.

Thought was a bit useless during this time, really. What was there to think about? There was just Lily, and James, and the intoxicating scent of James filled Lily's nose, and his taste filled her lips, his feel ran through her hands, and the sound of his breathing and his kissing fluttered to her ears. The only thing she didn't need was sight. Her eyes fluttered open and closed, but all the sensations became that much more intense if she let her eyes remain shut.

Lily had never realized how much people kissed, or how _long_ people kissed, before she'd taken up kissing James. Most of James's early attempts at kissing Lily had failed miserably and ended with a slap across the face--which, Lily knew now, had been extremely foolish. Instead of _don't bite the hands that feed you_, Lily mused, the phrase should be _don't slap the mouth that kisses you_. Because, honestly, Lily was beginning to discover that there were very few things in the world she enjoyed more than kissing James. Of course, she couldn't think of what they were right _now_, but she was sure they existed. ....didn't they?

Oh, dear. This _wasn't_ a good sign. There had to be--_something_--she enjoyed better than kissing James. After all, she couldn't spend her _entire_ day kissing him..._could _she? Because if she could, that would be _fantastic_. And...

Oh. No.

_No_.

_I shouldn't be thinking about spending entire days kissing James. I _shouldn't. _And I shouldn't be thinking about spending entire days with James for other reasons, either. This shouldn't be happening. I shouldn't be thinking about him all the time, I shouldn't be with him all the time, I shouldn't..._kiss_ him all the time...No, no, no, no, NO! I can't be...seriously..._we_ can't be...we can't be _we_. I can't do that. I can't be that attached to him. I just...I...I just..._

Lily's thought process froze for a moment as James trailed a long line of kisses along her collarbone, up her neck and along her jawbone before finally catching her lips up in a long, deep, slow kiss. Lily's pulse jumped. Blood rushed to her face, pounded against her ears--she couldn't think--she could hardly _breathe_--

She couldn't begin to decipher all the emotions running through her. She felt lightheaded--very dizzy in a very good way--and happy--_so_ happy--and warm and _safe_ and--and-- There weren't words.

The only thing she could think was to transfer all her emotions--all her bubbly lightheaded insane horomonal happiness--to James through another insane kiss, but that only served to make more bubbly lightheaded hormones explode inside her head, and as the feeling rushed through her and her stomach did its flip-flops and her heart beat chaos against her ribs, something very, very frightening occurred to her, and amidst all the happy, bubbly, amazing feelings, Lily Evans froze.

James, because he was not an idiot, noticed. Reluctantly he separated his lips from hers, breathing a bit unevenly, and holding Lily a bit more tightly than she'd expected, after freezing. He focused his brown eyes, after a moment, on Lily's green ones, and she looked up at him, breathing a bit oddly herself, with a fair amount of confusion and a small bit of shock and fear churning inside her. Hopefully James would not be able to sense all this by looking in her eyes.

Something significant had just occurred to Lily, and she felt that she couldn't continue her rather brilliant snog session with James until she'd fully confirmed and processed this fact. She looked up at him and studied his face for a moment, tracing her fingers along his forehead and his cheeks and then his jawbone before allowing them to gently slide off of his chin.

"What?" James asked, and even just that did strange things for Lily's intoxicating emotions. She'd come to several rock-solid, rather frightening conclusions. She was not in love with James.

But she was falling in love with him.

Very, very hard.

Even as, in the back of the library, Lily and James's relationship was progressing, in the front of the library, Melody and Sirius's relationship appeared to be falling spectacularly to pieces. Melody had received an owl--an international owl, no less--that had sparked the worst fight with Sirius she could ever recall having.

Melody hadn't actually been there when the owl had come--she'd been fetching a book from somewhere else in the library--and Sirius, who had stayed up front by the large, boring stacks of books, had encountered the owl. The owl, extremely tired, had given a feeble hoot and allowed Sirius to untie the letter from its leg before flying off in search of food and water.

Sirius, who was accustomed to owls delivering to their exact customers, did not quite see (or perhaps quite register the fact) that the letter was addressed to Melody, and so received a bit of a nasty shock when he opened it.

                _Melody--_

_                It is sad to me that you are no longer here. There are so many places now that remind me of you. We did not know each other long, but still I miss you and think of you. I did not even know you were gone until I met a girl named Eve who told me of the trouble of your uncle and your friend in England who lost her family. I am sorry that you had to leave so soon and more sorry that I could not help or say good-bye._

_                I hope that your family is all very well, and your friend is all right. What a terrible thing, losing so many people you care about. I would be sad to lose you, Melody. You are so wonderful. I hope that you will owl me from England--yes?_

_                My mama, she sends her greetings and hopes you are well. Isabella, she hopes you still have the drawing of us. Gianni, he says he enjoyed dancing. Antony, he says it is bad that you went but good that I am home more. I have not been dancing so much since you left, but that is all right. I have more work now and I like the time to see my family. I know you understand._

_                Do not give up hope, Melody. Terrible things may happen now but there are still good things. We must remember the good things as we fight against the bad. I hope one day soon I may come to England and help save some of what is good._

_                Do not be afraid to love, Melody. Remember, we have to live for something other than revenge, and love is worth living for. You have such spirit. Do not waste it._

_                Love,_

_                Paolo_

Sirius read the letter, and blinked. Then he read it again. He was halfway through reading it a third time when Melody came back with a rather large stack of books.

"Lily and James are still at it," she informed him, rolling her eyes. "What's that?" she asked, indicating the letter.

Sirius made a rather garbled noise and shoved it in Melody's direction. Melody took it, frowning, and her eyes widened as she read through it. She looked at Sirius. "Did you read this?"

Another garbled noise, and Sirius nodded.

"Sirius, why did you read my mail?"

Sirius found words. "I--the owl came, and it landed right in front of me, so I untied the--the thingy--and the owl flew away, and then I read it, I thought it was for me and then I realized it wasn't and--"

"You might've stopped reading it after you got to the first 'Melody'," Melody snapped.

Suddenly, Sirius was furious. "Well--well--_you_ might have told me there was a boy in America named Paolo!"

"What _for_?" Melody demanded, although she knew perfectly well what for, but at the moment was so completely angry that he'd read her private mail that she thought she'd wind him up a bit.

It turned out that, at this point, Sirius didn't need much winding.

"BECAUSE I MIGHT BLOODY CARE IF YOU HAD A BOYFRIEND, THAT'S WHY!" Sirius shouted. This might be entirely the wrong place, entirely the wrong time, and entirely the wrong situation for saying any of this to Melody, but he just didn't _care_ anymore--this had been going on for too long, all this--tension, and longing, and random kissing that never _led_ anywhere--and it all needed to be got over with, _right now_.

"WELL THEN I GUESS I HAD NOTHING TO TELL YOU BECAUSE I NEVER HAD A BOYFRIEND!" Melody informed him, shouting right back.

Sirius stopped for a moment, considering. "Well--well--you at least might've told me there was someone else!"

"Whoever said he was _someone else_? And for that matter, who ever said there was _someone_? Don't you have to have a _someone_ to have a _someone else_?" Melody demanded fiercely.

"God damn it, Melody, _I'm _someone!" Sirius shouted, and Melody froze for a moment, staring.

"What are you saying?" she asked slowly, afraid of the answer. If he was going to tell her now--_now_, after years of avoiding the subject, after she'd found Paolo, after she'd started to get over him, after her uncle had blackmailed her into marrying some wealthy old bastard--if he was going to tell her _now_ that he loved her, or even _liked_ her, or--cared about her at all--well--then--she had the sudden idea that she just might tell him to go shove a broomstick up his ass. Because she was beginning to feel that it was a little late for all of this to be coming out, and--and--well, even if she was still crazy about him, even if she _was_ just a little too much in love with him for her own good--well--well--what did it _matter_, anyway? She _still_ had to marry the wealthy old bastard, and there was no point--none at all--in starting any kind of relationship with Sirius, even if she still had feelings for him--no, _especially _if she still had feelings for him--because they were both going to end up getting hurt in the end, and she couldn't stand that thought. She didn't want to hurt Sirius any more than she already had.

"I'm saying I'm crazy about you, damn it!" Sirius said, and the words exploded in Melody's ears. "And I know--I know I'm an _idiot_, I should have told you _ages_ ago, I shouldn't have let all this--this--crap--all this--I don't even _know_ what--get in my way. But I'm telling you now, and if I'm too late or this--_Paolo_--bloke really is your boyfriend--then--then--God, Melody, _please_ don't tell me I'm too late--_please_--don't tell me that--" Sirius said, and then broke off, staring at Melody, looking horribly afraid and horribly sincere.

It only took Melody's brain a second to mull through all this, and then she knew. She could _never _tell him. She could tell from the way he was looking at her--the way he was pleading with her--that he really thought it _wasn't_ too late, that no matter what had happened, his coming clean would sort everything right and they'd both skip off to fairy-tale land together and live Happily Ever After.

But there wasn't a fairy tale land, was there? Melody didn't have a Happily Ever After. She had a family. And she had to protect them, even if that meant throwing all her own feelings to shit.

So that was why she looked Sirius square in the eye and said, "I'm sorry, Sirius. But it's too late."

Sirius froze for a moment, looking very numb. "It's--is it--that Paolo bloke--"

"No, Sirius. It's just too late."

"Melody--Melody, _please_--if you--did you ever--" Sirius broke off and looked hard at the floor. "Just tell me if you ever cared about me. Because if you've just been leading me on--"

"Did I _ever care about you_? My God, Sirius, I...how could I _not _have cared about you?"

Sirius looked up at her suddenly and glared at her fiercely. "Well _what is it then_? What changed?"

"I...God, Sirius, I don't even know what to..._where_ to..."

"Come _on_, Melody! Was it Paolo? Was it your uncle? Was it just too long for you to stand? _What changed_?"

"_I_ changed, Sirius!" Melody yelled finally. "People change! They're allowed to do that!"

Sirius looked at her, long and hard, and Melody thought her face might crack, and she dropped her gaze from his.

"So you're telling me," Sirius said evenly, "that whatever feelings you ever had for me are completely over with, and that if I decided to get on with my life and ask another girl out tomorrow, you wouldn't give a damn?"

Melody's throat clenched. _Would_ she care? Would she--oh, who was she kidding? Of _course_ she'd care! She'd care more than she'd ever be able to let on! But what could she do? She couldn't ever have a relationship with Sirius...so why deprive him of a relationship with someone else? If he was ready to get over her...then...well..._damn it_...he could go on and get over her.

It was this train of thought that led Melody to raise her eyes again and lock them with Sirius's. "Yes, Sirius. That's _exactly_ what I'm telling you."

How Melody managed to say that with a straight face, without any emotion at all, she would never know. Nor would she ever comprehend how she just stood there watching Sirius work this all out in agony for a minute without flinching at all.

"_Fine_," Sirius said, finally, evenly, although it was apparent that underneath the thin surface, everything with Sirius was absolutely _not_ fine, and Melody almost broke down again, but luckily Sirius turned away from her and stalked out of the library, furious and hurt and rejected.

Melody waited until she thought he was a good distance away, until she couldn't stand it anymore, and then her knees gave out below her and she collapsed onto the floor, sobbing.

James and Lily, upon hearing furious shouts coming from the front of the library, had hurried through the aisles to see what was the matter, and stopped and retreated when they'd seen the way Melody and Sirius were glaring at each other. They cowered between the bookshelves, listening to absolutely everything, and waited until Sirius stalked out of the library to poke their heads around the corner. Lily's head popped out from behind the bookshelves in time to see Melody collapse in a sobbing heap.

This was the second time this week Lily had seen her best friend dissolve in sobs, and while the first time she wasn't exactly sure what had provoked the tears--except trauma, she supposed--right now, there was no doubt in her mind as to why Melody was sobbing on the floor like a wretch. Melody was a dirty, awful, rotten, nasty liar, that was why. There was absolutely no doubt in Lily's mind that Melody _did_ care about Sirius Black, and she reflected on this as she tried to get her best friend to sit up.

Melody was not easy to persuade, but eventually she was sitting in an upright position, hiccuping, and Lily was glaring at her quite fiercely.

"Oh, d-don't do that, Lily! Sirius already hates me, I don't need you to hate me too!"

Lily's face softened. "Melody, I don't hate you. Only--you _liar_! Why did you tell Sirius you didn't care about him anymore?"

But Melody shook her head. "Don't, Lily. Please don't ask me that."

Lily just looked at her helplessly. "I don't understand you, Melody. I really don't. There he was, confessing his feelings for you--which, I might add, you've been _waiting_ for, for who knows _how_ long, and--"

"Stop it, Lily!" Melody shrieked. "Just _stop_! I can't--I can't explain it, okay? I don't know why I did that. I just--couldn't tell him. It wasn't right. _I'm _not right."

"What do you mean, _you're not right_?"

"Just what I said. I'm not right for him. I'd screw him up. I'm not good enough for him."

"Melody, _listen_ to yourself! This is the biggest crock of bullshit I have ever heard!"

"Oh, _this_ from the girl who's afraid to admit when she's in love!"

"I am _not_!" Lily insisted furious. "I just think--sometimes--we're far too young to really understand what love is."

Melody snorted. "Too _young_. Too young my _ass_. You don't have to understand love to _have_ love. To _be_ in love. _Nobody_ understands love, least of all those of us who are _in_ love." She froze for a moment and then said, hastily, "Not that I'm in love."

"Right, Melody," Lily said softly, angrily. "Of course you're not. Of course you're not sitting here crying because you just lied to Sirius about everything."

"Look, Lily, it's _complicated_, okay?" Melody cried.

"Complicated _how_?"

"Lily, I--" Melody cut off and looked around, alarmed. "Lily?"

"_What_?" Lily snapped.

"Where's James?"

James had heard all he needed to hear. Melody was a psychotic liar, but at least Sirius didn't have to go throw himself off the side of a bridge before he found that out. _Why_ Melody had decided to lie to Sirius, James didn't know--he didn't expect he'd _ever_ know--but he did expect he'd do something about it. Just--fix things up, a bit. Not that he wanted Melody throwing things at him after she found out he'd decided to screw up her "let's play with Sirius's mind" games, but still, bringing his best friend some sanity and possibly getting things thrown at him was better than letting Melody carry on.

Sirius wasn't hard to find. He just had to follow the loud motorbike noises, the kind Sirius liked to make before he took off--

James, on a stroke of luck, found Sirius before he took off, and managed to stop him from flying out of the window of James's bedroom.

"Sirius, _listen_ to me!" James yelled, standing in front of Sirius's motorbike.

"_Not right now, Prongs_!" Sirius yelled.

"It's about _Melody_!" James insisted--but this, apparently, had not been the right thing to say, as it just caused Sirius to rev his motorbike a bit more and attempt to run James down. "She _lied_ to you, Padfoot!" James tried again, desperate, and Sirius stopped trying to run him over, but appeared no less angry.

"Well, it doesn't really _matter_ if she was lying or not, now does it?"

James blinked at him, very confused. How could it _not_ matter? "Padfoot, listen to yourself!"

"I know what I'm talking about, James. Who cares if she lied or not? She still said _no_, didn't she?"

James considered this. "Well--well, _yeah_, Padfoot, but I think you could still get her, you know?"

Sirius shook his head furiously. "Just--just _let_ her be alone," he spat. "I don't _care_ anymore!"

"Yes, and that's so apparent from the way you're trying to fly out my bedroom window."

James had got him on that one, and Sirius, after a brief internal struggle, turned off his bike and ripped the keys out a bit more violently than necessary before throwing them against the wall. He flopped onto James's bed and glared at his best friend, waiting for James to speak.

"She still _likes_ you, Padfoot," James informed him.

"Great. Wonderful. Who cares?" Sirius snapped,but James could see that he was not entirely unaffected by this statement.

"Look," James said. "I figure with Melody all you have to do is play your cards right."

"I don't care," Sirius insisted. "She hates me and I don't care."

"Oh, quit feeling sorry for yourself! Look, Sirius--all I'm saying is--it wouldn't hurt to make her a little _jealous_. That's all. I mean...look what it's done for me and Lily!"

Sirius snorted. "Who was _Lily _ever jealous of?"

James considered. "Um...well..."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Yes, James, I can see how much jealousy has improved your relationship."

"No--no--_hey_! There was that one letter, remember? From that girl we met at the water park! Y'know--before Lily invaded Potter's Cottage and all. Last summer. And she found it the day we went to King's Cross and my stuff got flung all over the place! Remember?"

Sirius shrugged. "One letter. Big bloody deal. You already _had_ her by that time, Prongs. I don't know what you're going on about."

"_Look_--I know you're supposed to be the big relationship expert and everything--but just--_trust_ me. A little jealousy might go a long way."

Sirius looked up at him. "What the hell d'you want me to do then? Ask out the first girl I see at King's Cross tomorrow?"

""Well, if you think she'd say yes..."

Sirius's eyebrows shot up. "Y'know, I _tried _dating one girl to make another one jealous, remember? In fourth year?"

"Sirius, what _didn't_ you do in fourth year?"

"Well," Sirius said, considering, "I never climbed into bed with anyone."

Briefly the thought of climbing into bed with Lily flashed through James's mind, and then quickly shoved the thought aside. After all--they weren't even really _dating_, and Lily had never shown interest in doing--well, _anything_ like that--and she'd just lost her family, so now _really_ wasn't the time to be thinking about climbing into beds with--

James decided that he had better change the subject.

"It's worth a try, Padfoot," he said, reverting to the whole 'make-Melody-jealous' idea. Sirius considered this for a moment, and then sighed, rubbing his face with his hands.

"Well," he said, his voice slightly muffled through his fingers, "it couldn't hurt to _try_."

Mimi Ramirez had not expected to spend her entire trip to Hogwarts sitting next to Sirius Black. Nor had she expected that she would not run into Remus at all during the trip--or Melody, for that matter.

The train ride passed in a blur of talking and laughter, Sirius and Lily and James and other random friends popping by the compartment, Lily and James occasionally leaving to talk to other people (or maybe they were leaving to go "talk" somewhere in private--who knew?). When the smiling witch came around with her cart, they bought Pumpkin Pasties and Every Flavor Beans, Fizzing Whizbees and Chocolate Frogs, and ate until their taste for candy ran out.

By the time they neared Hogwarts, it was raining, and all the food had run out, and they were all terribly hungry again. Sirius had gotten to feeling restless and impulsive, and began suggesting imaginative ways of escaping from the train and terrorizing the nearest town for food. It was probably because of this impulsive feeling that Sirius did what he did when the train arrived in Hogsmeade.

As all the first years flooded off the train and were shuttled over to the lake to take their rides on the boats, as all the younger students of Hogwarts found space in the carriages, Sirius pulled Mimi aside and asked her if she'd like to be his girlfriend.

Mimi, rather dumbfounded, didn't know what to say for a moment. She--well--she _liked_ Sirius all right, she supposed, and she certainly wasn't getting anywhere with _Remus_...and she _had_ been wishing for a boyfriend, hadn't she? Sirius certainly wasn't hard on the eyes, after all, and he was fun to talk to, and--well--even if she didn't like him _too_ much that way, she'd _once_ had a spanking crush on him, hadn't she? Maybe she'd grow to fancy him a bit more over time. Or maybe--just--well--maybe it'd make Remus a bit _jealous_.

With these thoughts in mind, Mimi found herself saying, "Yes."

Grinning, Sirius landed a swift kiss on her, and then grabbed her hand and led her over to a carriage, which was half-occupied by Lily and James. Both of them looked quite a bit surprised to see Sirius and Mimi holding hands, and they looked a bit _more_ surprised when Sirius informed them that Mimi was now his girlfriend.

Well, Mimi supposed, they did have a right to be a_ little_ surprised. After all, she hadn't seen Sirius much over the summer--hadn't really formed much of a romantic relationship with him--but--well--they _knew_ each other, didn't they? They were friends and everything, so--it wasn't _that _odd. Maybe a little--sudden--but--not exactly _weird_ or anything.

A thought occurred to Mimi as they rode up to Hogwarts front doors, and a smile twitched onto her lips. _I said I wanted a serious relationship this year, not a _Sirius_ relationship..._

A/N: OK, so I'd beg you to review for this, but since it's really just…a piece of crap, you can make up your own mind about reviewing. However, even though I expect to get like…two reviews for this chapter…and probably a couple flames or something for screwing the whole entire story up…I still have to have the standard thank you section.

Just a note to all you reviewers: I am leaving for drum major camp (for those of you who don't know what a drum major is…you are losers for not being in marching band…and no I do NOT play the drums) tomorrow, and I won't be back for a week, so I really have a lot to do today…so don't feel bad if all responses to your brilliant reviews are very brief and/or nonexistent.

Allow me to dance a bit before posting this. I BROKE SIX HUNDRED REVIEWS!!!!!!!! dances insanely Let it be noted that on this seventeenth day of July (hahahahah…it's the seventeenth!!!! Bwahahaha!), 607 reviews were counted for "Eyes as Green as a Fresh Pickled Toad…" dances again This is VERY exciting for me, I have to say, so just…you all ROCK!!!

But anyway…enough of that… here I go!

Huge, whopping, sizzling, greasy, hot, quarter pounder of a THANK YOU (no, not a hamburger, but a thank you) goes to:

**Cajun Rogue** –"disturbingly enough" is a fantastic phrase. Continue to use it frequently, and with passion.

**Limbo-gal**

**Lil Bazza** –You people ask me questions like I have answers or something…honestly…I have NO idea how many more chapters this monster is going to be. Probably far more than I originally intended. However…I would be VERY surprised if it ends up with less than twenty-five.

**Ice-princess2515**

**  
Sahana**

**Spazzie** –sadly…Sierra is not my real name.

**Miranda** –I'm sure you write just fine. Just try to write a little every day, and in no time you'll be twice as good as me…I sure as hell don't write every day…also, read as much as you can. There's nothing like reading to fuel and inspire your writing! (Hence…fanfics!) But anyway…don't be down on yourself; if you love writing, write, and don't think about whether or not people are better than you.

**Britz** –aah! I haven't talked to you in…FOREVER…and of COURSE I know about Amelia Peabody! (Not that you have ANY idea what I'm talking about now…) But wow…I need to talk to you sometime, because you're the only person I know who TRULY understands the pain and frustration I feel over hockey, and the STRIKE, and…AAAAUGH!!! BAD THINGS!!! Anyway…hope everything's going well with you, my summer's just been…odd…

**Certified-weirdo**

**Anar ar Isil** –if you don't know already how much I adore you to PIECES…then what am I still talking to you for? LOL…no…really…I'm SORRY I didn't e-mail you warning you about this update, I COMPLETELY forgot about your whole contest-thingy, and…well, I've been gone for a while, haven't I? First I was just being an ass, and then I was in Maryland, and then I was doing this, and then I'm going off to drum major camp tomorrow…so…augh, I'm SORRY!!! But…sigh…you, being the brilliant, wonderful person that you are, are going to forgive me…um…right?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Anyway…umm…if you want to start all the award thingies for this chapter, that'd be fine…

**Whit2FARgone** –I'm glad my readers are smart, because it totally slipped my mind to mention in this chapter that Hans _did_ get a tipoff from the mysterious Frenchman as to where to find Melody, so…I'm glad you figured that out and everything…because really I'm just careless and such…

**Funkyrocker** –ahh…yeah…I've kinda abandoned as well. I don't really do anything on here except post…so…it happens…glad you're sticking with this story, though…and this update wasn't as long as some of the other ones…so that's good…cheers!!!

**Orlandoismyhero**

**Harmony Slytherin** –I have no idea what chapter you're on, dear, but you probably won't get to this for a while. I REALLY need to read your fics, don't I? Ughhhhh….I'm so BAD at this….

**Aria327** –wow, 3 in the morning? You sound like me…that's scary…you…you should sleep…sleep is valuable…lol…

**Emrisah**

**Kitty** –lol, sorry, Lily and James haven't declared anything officially…just because they're silly like that…not that everyone else hasn't declared it _for_ them…but I think, really, that they're just not going to feel the need to ever identify themselves as a couple…um…that will come up later, though…. I'm glad you like me dropping in random minor characters…although I would just like to say that usually, if there are bits and pieces from minor character's points of view, it means that they are going to pop up again later in the story. Fun, fun stuff….also, you wanted to know how old I am? I'm seventeen. My birthday is April 17th…so I'll be seventeen for a while. But that's OK. Being seventeen is pretty good so far.

**Sexy Gabby **–hahaha…Sirius and Melody…relationship…that's very funny. Don't hurt me! It'll get better…you know…eventually…

**Stormy Day** –if you thought last chapter was boring, I bet you found this chapter _really_ boring. Sorry about that. I'll try to make next chapter interesting, but…I kind of realized a while ago…this whole story is just kind of slow-moving, and…slightly boring…and such. But Auror Training should be slightly more complex, and action-packed, and once they get back to school there will be a lot more characters and relationships and things to screw with…I mean deal with…so umm…if you still think you're going to be reading by that time, that's something to look forward to.

**Siriusforeva**

**  
DistinctVagueness**

**MilesFromNormal**

**Wildcat Ohrya** –oh, I adore you, I really do, it's just that I'm bad at correspondence—I should e-mail you—and everything—but as I'm going away for a week I probably won't get the chance. I'll try to e-mail you when I get back, though!!! I LOVE YOU!!! I LOVE YOUR REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot express to you how flattered I feel every time I read one of them. There just…aren't words to convey it…and there really isn't enough time to tell you how much appreciate them…so just believe me when I say…I appreciate them more than you can imagine.

**MarauderFan4ever**

**Careme777** –Hahaha, I love you! You're brilliant! My story is extremely disjointed…but people will insist on avoiding this little detail…probably because they think it's just disjointed because it takes me three months to post (or longer) and they don't want to go back and reread everything, so they're always just a bit confused…umm but yeah…I appreciated that, because I agree with you, bits of the plot and little details and things…they just don't add up…and the characters change a bit every chapter…so nothing's really very consistent, is it? Oh well…it's all crap anyway…not like I can publish it or anything…so it's all fun and games really. Appreciated your review, though, immensely! Continue to be critical—it's the only thing that's going to help me get better!

**Stardust3ANNOYEDW/AUG.2ND **– ha ha ha, I still love your pen name…and your reviews…and your stories, really, not that I ever read them, but I know they're good, and yesterday Emily spent like an hour explaining all the character relationships and all the families and Harry and Hermione's drama from Zirconia to me, so wasn't THAT fun…no, really, it was one of the most amusing things I've done in a while, so…it made me think how I'm an awful friend and I really just need to get to reading all of your fics…and Emily's…and everything…sighhhhhh….but I hope you read this chapter at midnight, because really it just sucked…and it wasn't funny like at ALL…ughhh…except maybe for a bit at the beginning…but…oh well….****

**Kat44** –that's a good question. I'm not really sure about my writing skills. Most of the time I'm kind of…falling asleep over the keyboard and my fingers just kind of pound crap out and when I wake up the next morning I have to rewrite everything…so it's all a mystery, really…especially with all that horrific BABBLING I do…

**LadyElla64 **–Ethan and James don't know each other…not really…James just recognizes him, that's all. Remember…when Sirius and James went looking for Lily after she mysteriously disappeared in that one chapter…? And they went to the coffee shop and James wanted to fight with Ethan or whatever, and he was telling Sirius that Ethan fancied Lily and blah blah blah…any of this ringing a bell? So the little reference to James recognizing Ethan…that's all THAT was…

**Keth aka Adaliah**

**Lightning Rain**

**Laughinggurl**

**Chiquita-3** –Molly is not random, Molly is fantastic, Molly is brilliant, Molly is…most definitely going to pop up in future chapters. But umm…since when does Molly like Ethan? Molly doesn't like Ethan. I would love for you to point out in the story where Molly and Ethan even meet? Did I make some kind of insane typo???? There is no Molly and Ethan. I'm sorry, but there just isn't. I do love Ethan, though! He's going to pop up again…and again…and again…just because I love him so much, and he's going to absolutely annoy the crap out of all the hardcore L/J shippers out there…hahahaha….I probably e-mailed some of this to you…I think I sent you some kind of note about being obsessed with the End Of the World video thingy…oh well…

**Softballsweeti11**

**TheRiddle** – you asked me what I thought of Tom Riddle. What I think…is that he is not a character I have tried to explore. However…from the brief thoughts I have given to him…I have concluded that, personally, Tom Riddle was never a good person, and that he was far too interested in power and the Dark Arts and Salazar Slytherin's secret chamber for his own good. He was a foolish boy who grew, through his conquest of power, into a foolish man. His greatest fear—above anything—is death, and to him, death is the worst fate anyone can undergo. He is very childish in this way, and cannot see that there are things worse than death, just as there are things better than death. In the words of Dumbledore, "To the well-organized mind…death is but the next great adventure." Voldemort (and Tom Riddle as well, I imagine), is too obsessed with escaping death to accept that it is a natural part of life, and his conquest of ultimate power and permanent life has carelessly, evilly destroyed too many other lives to justify any reasoning behind it. I do not believe that Voldemort was ever capable of love—not even as Tom Riddle. He was raised in an orphanage, as we know, and based on his actions later in life, he never quite learned what love _is_. And _that_ is what I think of Tom Riddle. Also…yes…any references to newts or migrating swallows or coconuts (not that there've been any such references besides the newt one, I don't thing) in this story were inspired by Monty Python.

**Joslyn sparrow**

**Plumkin**

**Nightswift**

**Under the Black Flag**

**Sabrina**

**Princess** – you know, not all romances have to include sex. Sure, I guess if they get married and everything…it's inevitable…but keep in mind that this fic is  PG-13 and not R-rated, so while there is cussing and perhaps some suggestive subject matter, it is not the kind of fic in which you will find full-blown sex scenes. Or even watered-down sex scenes. Or any kind of sex scenes, really. Not that there isn't innuendo, and not that nobody _ever_ has sex—but right now, Lily is only seventeen. She's not ready for sex yet. Call her a prude if you want, but this is a major life decision, and sexual actions can have serious, unwanted repercussions on anyone who chooses to perform them. Sex _will_ be explored in this fic, just a bit, as it is a part of life (and sadly, a part of many teenagers' lives), and Lily will have to come to terms with her feelings about the whole business. _However_—Lily and James will _not_ be having "bedroom time" any time soon, so don't allow James's extremely brief mental train of thought near the end of this chapter along that line to fool you. If you wish for me to talk your ear off about this any more, by all means e-mail me and I will. But that's all for now.

**Siriuslysirius08**

**Mintandsage**

**Kenshin-chan345**

**Movielvr**

**Yukiru foreveranime rulz**

**Amy**

**Danni is Divine, James is Mine** –Wow…don't burn your fingers over my fic!! I appreciated the review though!

DONE!!!  
  
hahaha…what was that I said about not writing very long responses to people's reviews? Haha…yeah…I'm such a liar…

Okay, and, randomly, just to put a few of my thoughts down before they spill out of my head…in the next chapter…Lily talks with her fourth year friend Lin (not a third year anymore!), Lily talks with Windkey, there's a bit of garbage about the Auror Training Program, school swings fully into session, Lily and James get to do a bit of Head Girl/Head Boy nonsense (alone…together…under the mooooooon….ok, sorry, just kidding), Lily ponders (and may even figure out, the clever little tyke!) over who at Hogwarts could _possibly_ be a werewolf, certain people get jealous of other certain people who are now randomly dating (bwahahaha…bet you didn't see that coming, did you?), and basically a lot more ground gets covered. Sometime in the future, Lily is going to have a highly important session with Dumbledore about picking a career, but I just don't know if I can, in all good conscience, put that in the next chapter…

See, things get tricky now. Very tricky. They've all been away from school so long (well, not really, but I've written a damn lot of chapters with them away from school—far more than I did the _last_ time they were on holiday) that it's going to be a bit interesting trying to write them in school again…oh well…that's what I get for being a dunderhead…sighhh…sooooo…then I suppose if all of the above, including career advice, happen to happen in the next chapter, I will have to employ my newest weapon, a shiny little fic-enhancing device I'm going to call Storytime with Sirius…bwahahaha…try figuring out what the hell THAT is…and those of you who know had better keep your mouths shut about it…

Okay, that said (and aren't you all just too sorry I said it? I am rather boring, aren't I? Oh, well…), umm…go on with your lives. Live! Play! Frolic! Be happyyyyyyyyyyy! And review if you can stand it!

CHEERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sierra Charm

PS Do you think it's about time I updated on Schnoogle? Or…d'you think I should just say  "bollocks!" and leave it alone?


	15. Hogsmeade

A/N: Okay, so WOW. I really, really hoped that I'd get this chapter up early during break, so I could get started on the next chapter, but I didn't know if I actually WOULD. You know what, though, I'm so glad I did.

A few apologies to make.

Sorry for the delay, as always. Though hopefully most of you are used to it by now, and you can forgive me, as it's the holiday season after all, and you're getting this update right before Christmas, so I think that's pretty nifty. (Unless of course you don't celebrate Christmas, in which case…hopefully you're getting this chapter over winter break. And having something fun to read during vacation is good, right? Let's hope so.)

Second, I apologize for any typos. I tired to proofread it and spell/grammar check it, but there's only so much you can do when your contacts are threatening to pop out of your eyes. I should probably go to sleep and delay posting this until tomorrow so I can properly check it over and maybe even polish some scenes…however, being me, I'm just not going to, because I'm lazy and I really want to post now. So…you'll just have to live with it. Probably there aren't any typos until the very end of the chapter anyway, so it should be okay.

Third, I apologize for the content. It's kind of boring and there isn't much humor, and there's very little plot, except at the end, when there's some plot, but then the chapter ends, so you're out of luck. Also the writer's block has been so terrible lately that some scenes are a bit shorter than I intended…but…they just didn't seem to be going anywhere, so they ended. And some of the dialogue seems kinda iffy to me, but maybe that's just because it's late and my brain is fried. Who knows? It's really up to you to decide if the chapter's worth shit or not, so…go ahead and read it and decide, would you?

Chapter Fifteen

Hogsmeade

Lily had no small apprehensions about the coming year. Sometimes things were fine, normal, and happy, but there were moments when she felt overwhelmed by even the simplest task. There were times she felt that ghosts were haunting her, times when the memories of her family welled up so powerfully that she could barely breathe. And there were times--many, many times--when she was seized by a gripping, irrational fear of the coming end of this year. Not the end of December and the start of the new calendar year, but the end of June and the school term and her time at Hogwarts.

Since the end of Sixth Year, a realization had been bubbling in the back of her mind that this was her last year in school. She'd already finished her last summer as a student at Hogwarts; next summer she'd be done with it all, finished, out in the real world looking for a job and losing the loose contact she had with all the wizards at school. A part of her life was ending, and she didn't feel at all prepared for it.

Lily had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. None. She expected that if Auror Training went well, she might go for that. Or perhaps teaching. Maybe she'd get a job at the Ministry. Who knew? She certainly didn't, and that was a bit of a problem for Lily, who liked to have plans for her future. However, unfortunately, though she was Head Girl and got good marks (okay--well--top marks, really) in all her classes, she didn't know that she really _enjoyed _any of it enough to attempt to make a career out of it. Sure, she liked Potions and everything, but what was she going to do--open an apothecary or something?

Even worse than her worries about a career was the thought that she'd never again have the life she did now. That she'd become an adult, and be expected to own her own flat and pay for all her own food and clothes and electricity and everything. Of course, that was only if she intended to live in a Muggle flat. She supposed with magic, living would become a bit less expensive. After all, they couldn't charge you for things you could produce yourself, could they? Still, that wasn't the point.

The point was...school had been a part of her life for so long that...well...it was almost like it was all she _knew_. She could of course, end up having to go to _more_ school--especially if she intended to become an Auror--but still, it wouldn't be Hogwarts. Hogwarts wasn't so much a school at times as it was a way of life. It was her second home. She'd changed and grown and experienced so much since she'd first walked through its doors that it seemed very sad to have to leave. After leaving, life would just...never be the same. Who knew who she would stay in touch with? Who knew what would happen?

Lily hated uncertainty. She'd always been fond of surprises when they came in the form of presents and such, but nasty shocks like the one she'd received this summer no longer served any place in her life. She expected she would still be in touch with James after school, as her mum happened to be living in Potter's Cottage now. Well--not just Lily's _mum_. It was Lily, too. So there really was no escaping the James factor in her life. (Not that she'd want to, of course...)

And of course she would keep in touch with Melody and Mimi, and Sirius and Remus and Peter as well, as they were all friends of James--of course, Remus and Peter weren't as close to James as Sirius (nor were they as close to Lily), but still, Remus was very nice, and Peter certainly wasn't the most unpleasant individual--though, admittedly, he wasn't the shiniest wand in the shop, and he tended to be very easily impressed--but still. She expected she'd be in contact with all of them after school ended.

But what about the others, the people she knew and liked and saw every day simply because she was in their house or had class with them? What about Matt and Susie--and Gertrude from Hufflepuff--and--hell--even Arabella and Mundungus? And people like Wendy and Lin? Would she still see them? Would she owl them? Would she ever talk to them again?

Uncertainty ruled Lily's life, and she hated it.

"At least this is certain," Lily mumbled, staring down at her Potions homework. The potions they'd begun for Seventh Year were extremely exacting and nit-picky--in short, the kind Lily loved most. They required skill, thought, and attention. Some might call them tedious, but Lily personally saw them as a challenge--and one she was well prepared to meet. After all, if you could get one of these potions right, you could get _anything _right, and Lily liked having that confidence. It was important for her to have confidence in her schoolwork these days, when her confidence in so much else had completely shattered.

The Ministry, for example.

Not to cast aspersions on James's father, but it didn't appear the Ministry was going to be able to do much of anything to contain the Voldemort threat. It also wasn't clear to the public what the Ministry was _attempting_ to do to combat Voldemort--or, in fact, if they were attempting anything at all. Newspapers and magazines like the _Daily Prophet_ were being heavily censored by the Ministry, and those that weren't being controlled were printing stories too ridiculous to believe. _The Quibbler_ had received newfound fame and glory by being the first publication in Britain to declare itself completely uncensored. To reassure the public of the validity of its claim, the magazine printed an article full of complete tosh about the Minister of Magic, posing some ridiculous allegations involving deadly weapons fashioned from Fizzing Whizbees, an army of house-elves, and a list of the Minister's scandals (mostly related to deep-sea tuna fishing).

James had read the article concerning his father, and then happily gathered up every last copy of it he could and used them all to warm the fireplace. James didn't care what people had to say about himself, the growing threat of war, or the Ministry in general, but when it came to his father, he was very touchy. Lily strongly suspected that his attitude was connected somehow to the events of this summer, but she hadn't ever asked about it. In the past, James had ignored any ridiculous statements about his father, but now, for some reason, it mattered. Everything lately seemed to matter more.

Lily sighed and returned her mind to her Potions homework. She didn't have time to think about what mattered and what didn't; that just gave her a headache. She needed to get through this essay and work out some Arithmancy problems so she could, for once, get some sleep. Despite her brand-new, secluded sleeping quarters (one of the many perks of being Head Girl), she hadn't been able to sleep much lately. Maybe her mind was troubled, or maybe she wasn't getting enough exercise. Maybe it was because she spent too many nights up late studying. Maybe it was the late-night meetings with James in secret school passageways that were mostly responsible for her loss of sleep. But more likely than not it was the nightmares that warded her away from the realm of the subconscious.

Not one night had passed since the one in August where she hadn't had a dream about the Dark Mark hanging in the sky. Sometimes it hovered over Lily's house, and she was forced to replay the events of that night over and over until she woke up sobbing. Other times, though, it was worse. She dreamed of other houses and other Dark Marks, of witches and wizards she didn't even know screaming in terror before they fell to the ground, silent and dead. The worst dreams, though, were the ones where the Dark Mark twinkled in the sky above Potter's Cottage, and Lily's subconscious presented her with pictures of all of the people she loved most in the world dead. Not just dead, either--not _Avada Kedavra _dead--but mangled, totally and completely, their skin ripped apart, their insides showing, all of their bodies hopelessly marred except for their perfect, unharmed faces, frozen in such expressions of pain and horror they'd made Lily awaken and vomit more than once at the sight.

So really, all in all, Lily didn't need sleep. She much preferred the waking hours, when she could control what visions passed through her mind. Often enough, her eyes presented her with a view of something pleasant--James, Melody, a couple of first or second years running through the hallways laughing. Not that students were allowed to run through the hallways, mind you, but Lily still liked to see them laughing. Sometimes Lily felt that it was good to see _anyone _laughing, no matter what the cause. Those who were yet untouched by pain deserved to remain untouched by pain, for as long as possible, as far as Lily was concerned.

These were the bleak thoughts that floated through Lily's mind as she went about her days, as she completed her homework and fulfilled her duties as Head Girl. There were far more duties than she'd realized, and though she split them evenly with James, they still took up more of her time than she had anticipated. There were, of course, always first years to look out for and point in the right direction if they happened to look lost. She was responsible now for not only disciplining the students in her own House but any and all students she saw breaking minor rules in or out of class.

She was responsible for posting many miscellaneous messages on the board outside of the Great Hall--especially, at the very beginning of school, those pertaining to various student organizations and their meeting times. Compiling _that_ list had been a nightmare, especially as James wasn't very inclined to help and insisted on spending most of their time during that venture in secluded secret passageways that Lily hadn't known existed.

Also, Lily and James had to memorize all of the passwords for just about everything in the school, and often were called upon to invent new passwords for one purpose or another. Lily had taken to doodling password ideas on the margins of her notes in class when she got bored--which was slightly risky, if anyone happened to be paying attention to her notes, but she doubted most people would understand the significance of the words, as most of the words either pertained to her notes or were simply pure nonsense.

The perks, of course, were enormous. The Head Boy and Girl were each granted their own private sleeping quarters within their Houses, as well as their own private baths. Located about the castle were private study and dining quarters, and even several private toilets for their convenience. All of this had not been originally available to the Head Boy and Girl; rather, most of these rooms were a relatively new addition to the Head Boy's and Girl's perks. As anyone who has read _Hogwarts, A History_ knows, many of the rooms now used for the Head Boy's and Girl's convenience were originally used for the Founders' convenience.

At the moment, Lily was in one of the private study quarters, which, pleasantly enough, had a window. Very few of the hidden rooms of the castle had windows, though Lily wasn't entirely sure why. Regardless, the soothing pitter-patter of raindrops against the windowpane helped Lily to focus, and she was deep into her Potions essay when the entrance to the room slid open and a very wet distraction entered.

"Hullo, Lily!" James said cheerfully, dropping his soggy bookbag on the floor and discarding his cloak next to it.

"James, why are you all _wet_?" Lily demanded, turning in her chair and looking at him disdainfully.

"Quidditch practice," James said, quite matter-of-factly, and Lily raised her eyebrows.

"James, Quidditch doesn't start for another _month_."

"Yes, and Gryffindor plays in the first game, and we've got to be _conditioned_!"

"You're crazy."

"No, I'm _captain_," James corrected, grinning, and Lily rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to start training in October for--"

"October! I'm not going to wait until _October_ to start training! The _game's_ in October! Even if we are just playing Hufflepuff, we've got to redeem ourselves after losing the Cup to those bloody bloated Ravenclaw _git_--er--hello, Lily, how are you?"

"Well, I'd say for being a bloody bloated Ravenclaw git, I'm doing rather well," Lily said flatly, directing a glare at James, who was avoiding eye contact.

"They're--they're not _all_ bad, Lily, really."

"Uh-huh," Lily replied, just as flatly, though in all honesty she was looking forward to watching James try and dig himself out of this hole.

"Just--just the _Quidditch_ players, you see."

"Of course. Because Quidditch players bear no actual reflection to the House they represent."

"Er--well--it's interesting you bring that up, Lily, because--er--that is--"

"Have the Gryffindors have decided to add 'stuttering' to their list of attributes? Is that what you're trying to tell me? Gryffindors: The Brave Stutterers! Well, I don't know if Sirius'll like it, but it sounds good to me," she said, grinning.

James glared at Lily for a moment, and then picked his wet cloak off the floor and threw it at her. Lily shrieked and pushed the wet garment off of her, standing quickly and kicking it back toward James.

"I'm all wet now," Lily whined, and James, who was still dripping with rainwater, grinned.

"Good, then it won't make a difference if I hug you!" he reasoned, advancing on Lily with his arms outstretched. Lily, who had no desire to be damp, attempted to assess all possible escape routes before realizing that there weren't any. So, try as she did to skirt away from James, he managed to encircle her in a wet, squishy hug that she only halfheartedly returned.

"Are you really running practices already?" Lily asked, her heart sinking a bit. The more he ran practices, the less time he had to spend with her. Not that they were...dating or anything. Not...officially. And...not that she...loved him or anything. Not...officially... Either way, she still liked to _see_ him as often as possible, and if he started up with Quidditch training, their time together would shrink considerably.

"Well, yeah. I mean, we do only have a month or so to prepare for the game, and then right after that at least _one_ of us is going on that Auror thing, so we've got a couple new recruits training to replace either me or Sirius if we go. Although," he reflected, attempted to shake the water out of his ears, "we might both go."

"What about Melody?"

"Well, she's a Beater, same as Sirius, so it doesn't matter which of them go; they'll still have a replacement."

"But...what if both Sirius and Melody go?"

James froze. "Oh. That. Um...well..."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Nice planning, James."

"Shush. You're not a Quidditch captain, what would you know about it?" James said, though not very seriously. Lily stuck her tongue out.

"I know I can see the Snitch better than you."

"You cannot!"

"Oh, I can too, and you know it."

"It was a fluke!"

"Uh-huh. _Sure_, James. It was a fluke four times."

"Flukes can happen more than once!"

"Doesn't that kind of defeat the meaning of the word?"

"Meaning! Who cares about the meaning? Words aren't about meaning!"

"Oh, really? And what are they about?"

James didn't appear to have thought that far. "They're about...um...spelling."

Lily couldn't help herself. She laughed, without really understanding why.

James, who didn't know why it was funny either, grinned and assumed what he thought was an expression of wittiness, and this just made Lily laugh harder. James, who did not entirely appreciate being laughed at, glared at Lily (who was not paying attention to his glare) and sat down to take his squishy shoes and socks off.

Lily, when she was done giggling, stepped around James's discarded shoes and socks and attempted to collect her nearly-finished Potions homework. "You dry off," she said. "I should go finish this."

"Why not finish it here?" James demanded as Lily shoved the parchment and quills into her bottomless bag.

"You're sitting in my chair," Lily pointed out.

"There's another one over there."

"Well, you're a distraction."

"I am not!"

"Oh, you are, too, and you know it."

James attempted to pout, but it came out as more of a scowl. Lily rolled her eyes and kissed him on the forehead. "Tomorrow's Friday. You can distract me then."

"But...but...I want to distract you _now_."

Lily shrugged. "You know what the Rolling Stones say..."

"The Rolling what?" James asked, blinking, and Lily sighed.

"Never mind..." she said, and turned to leave, but James stopped her.

"No, wait! What are the--the Rolling Scones?"

Lily didn't know whether to laugh or bang her head against the wall. "The Rolling _Stones_, James. They're a Muggle rock band."

"Oh. Well--what've they got to do with anything?"

"I don't remember, James."

"Well then why did you bring them up?"

"I don't _remember_!"

"You could stay here until you do remember."

"_James_!"

"What?"

"I have to do my Potions homework!"

"Nah, do it tomorrow," James insisted, taking hold of Lily's hand.

"James, it's _due_ tomorrow."

"So what? Do it during breakfast."

"James, let me go."

"OK, fine, do it now. But do it here!"

"James, we've been over this."

"I won't distract you, I promise!"

"You _are_ distracting me."

"Well--but--if you stay I could help you!"

Lily looked at him pointedly. Last week he'd melted Remus's cauldron and blown up his own, and this Tuesday, instead of concocting a blue, shimmering Memory Aid potion, he'd created a brownish-greenish mixture that was roughly the texture of cement. (Sometimes Lily couldn't fathom how he'd ever become Head Boy.) James considered this.

"All right--well--I could _pretend_ to help you!"

Lily sighed. "I'm serious, James. I have to go. I have to finish this tonight. I'll see you tomorrow. I _promise_."

"But we've got that Auror Meeting! They're posting the final list tomorrow, remember?"

"James, we've got all of tomorrow afternoon. Can I _please_ go finish this somewhere?"

"Only if I get a big wet hug good-bye!"

"James, _I'm_ not wet, _you're_ wet."

"I can fix that!"

"I'd rather you didn't."

"I still want a hug."

"James, you already hugged me, and I gave you a kiss, so what more do you want?"

"Well, it wasn't a very _good_ kiss," James insisted, standing.

"Men. They're never satisfied," Lily said, sighing mockingly. She kissed James good-bye, though, much better than she had the first time, and then, finally, took her leave.

* * *

Lily was not the only Seventh Year Ravenclaw being distracted by a dripping wet Gryffindor Quidditch player. Mimi Ramirez, while attempting to do her homework in the library, fell victim to the wet-dog look of Sirius Black. 

Though Sirius was as damp as James, he did not attempt to foist his wetness on his girlfriend. Instead, he simply sat beside her, letting all of the water drip off his robes and create a friendly little puddle on the floor. Thankfully, Madam Pince was nowhere to be seen, or she would have whipped out her wand and chased Sirius halfway to Denmark by now.

"You're late," Mimi informed him, "and I'm trying to study."

"I'm only a little late, and you're only half-studying."

"You're an _hour_ late, and I'm studying very hard, thank you very much."

"Of course you are," Sirius said, snatching her book away. "In what year did Geoffric Goddleby claim he found the thirteenth use for dragon's blood?"

"Nineteen thirty-four," Mimi said, looking bored, "but his research was discredited when a review board determined that his workings with the 'thirteenth use' of dragon blood were nearly the same as Dumbledore's workings on the third usage of dragon's blood."

"Damn, you're good."

"I know. Can I have my book back, please?"

"No, I want to ask you another one!"

Mimi sighed and sat back in her chair as Sirius fired a round of questions at her, all of which she answered correctly. Then, dumbfounded, Sirius handed her book back.

"When did you get so smart?" Sirius asked, and Mimi hit him with the book.

"I've always been smart, Sirius Black, thank you _very_ much."

"Well--well--yeah--but--now you're smarter than _me_!"

"You say that like it's hard to accomplish or something," Mimi teased. Sirius glared at her and shook his head, spraying water droplets everywhere, and Mimi emitted a small "Eek!" and hid behind her book from them.

"What's the matter? It's just a little water," Sirius said innocently.

"And you're just a little muddy, dear."

"A little mud never hurt anyone!"

"No, but it made them _smell_."

"Do I smell?"

"Just a bit."

"Damn. I should fix that."

"There's a capital idea," Mimi said, a bit distractedly, as she was attempting to return to her studies. In all honesty, she didn't like to study, and she hadn't much before this year, except for the O.W.L.'s. There was something about Sirius that just infuriated her enough to hit the books and show him up in _something_. He was brilliant--incredibly brilliant--without trying, and at times made Mimi feel a bit slow, which she didn't appreciate. It wasn't something he did on purpose; he (and James, for that matter) was just smart without having to work at it.

Sirius and James got away with being the class pranksters because they had the grades to back their actions up. How they accomplished these grades, Mimi didn't know, as they always had the outward appearance of goofing off, even when they were attempting to do homework. Sirius, for example, constantly cracked dumb jokes when Mimi attempted to have study sessions with him, and distracted her so much that she got very little done. Whereas Sirius, despite his silliness, always managed to complete the entire assignment.

This was wholly infuriating.

"I'm going to get cleaned up, then, and go to bed," Sirius said, derailing Mimi's train of thought. "Don't stay up too late," he advised, kissing Mimi gently on the cheek before standing and attempting to sneak out of the library.

"Good night," Mimi replied, and watched him go.

Dating Sirius wasn't something Mimi expected she'd ever get used to. They'd been at it for two weeks now, and things were going fairly well. Sirius was, of course, adorable and funny and wonderful, and appropriately affectionate (as well as a talented kisser), and Mimi enjoyed her time with him. There were, of course, certain infuriating things about him--his intelligence, his intermittent preference of James's company over hers, and his tense relationship with Melody Cauldwell.

Of course, Mimi's relationship with Melody had become a bit strained as well. Ever since their prank war with Lily in the fall of Sixth year, Mimi and Melody had developed a lovely friendship. However, it had been broken up a bit by the long months of summer and then cracked further by Sirius and Mimi's rather abrupt relationship.

There was a certain amount of hate mail that went with the job of being Sirius Black's girlfriend, Mimi had discovered. She'd known Sirius was highly attractive, of course (she herself had twittered quite a bit about him in fifth year), but she hadn't known there was some kind of cult following that deemed itself worthy of sending angry, nasty owls to whomever Sirius happened to be dating. Mimi didn't really appreciate it.

But then Mimi supposed there were things about herself that Sirius might not appreciate, either. For example, her ongoing obsession with nail polish and hair care. So what if she was attempting to apply herself to her studies? She could still look good, couldn't she?

There was also her small infatuation with Remus Lupin to consider. She didn't think Sirius noticed, because she didn't stare at Remus across the room or anything (well...maybe once or twice), and she didn't talk to him more often than normal--which, sadly enough, was much less often than she'd like--but the attraction was still there.

Guilt ate away at Mimi sometimes when she was with Sirius. He didn't deserve that. After all, he wasn't off pining over someone, was he? And it wasn't as though Mimi would ever have had a relationship with Remus, anyway. She blamed herself for that. She had operated under the stubborn conviction for so long that_ he_ should tell _her_ about his status as a werewolf that it had never occurred to her that he might not ever tell her because he _liked_ her too much.

It was too late for all of that now, she supposed. Even if she broke up with Sirius, would Remus ever believe that it was him Mimi had liked all along? What kind of message was it sending that Mimi was going out with one of Remus's best friends? Did she really need answers to any of these questions?

Mimi sighed and banged her head against her History of Magic book.

This was not turning into a healthy relationship.

* * *

James ran into Sirius at the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room, and they both walked in and plopped themselves down in chairs by the fire to dry off. 

"How're things with you and Lily?" Sirius asked, spreading his cloak out on the floor.

James shrugged, not bothering to lay out his cloak. "She's obsessed with studying, Padfoot, what can I say?"

"That's what you get for trying to date the Head Girl."

"Well at least I'm not just dating someone to--" James cut himself off. He'd been about to say 'make someone else jealous'. The problem with this was the whole concept was beginning to bother James--in no small part because it had been his suggestion in the first place.

"Yeah," Sirius said, slumping in his seat a bit. "At least you're not like me."

"Aw, come on, Padfoot, it's not--it's not as bad as all that."

Sirius stared at the flames for a few moments before responding. "What if it is, Prongs?" he asked quietly.

James didn't respond. After a few minutes, Sirius shook his head. "Sometimes I think I'm the worst guy in the world, going out with some girl trying to get another one. But...sometimes I'm with Mimi and I'm trying to be good to her and I feel like she's not even thinking about me. It's weird, isn't it? Not like you and Lily."

"What d'you mean, not like me and Lily?" James demanded.

"Oh, shut up, Prongs, you know exactly what I mean. It doesn't matter if you're 'dating' officially or not...when you two are together...you're...well..._together_. You're not thinking about other people."

"How do you know that?"

"D'you have to be such a prat about everything? I'm telling the _truth _and you know it, so just _accept _it, why don't you?"

James mumbled something in response and shook his head. When Sirius didn't speak, he said, "I dunno, Padfoot. Sometimes I just feel like Lily doesn't..._care_ as much as I do."

Sirius looked ready to strangle James. "You're an _idiot_. The girl is _crazy_ about you, and she's _yours_. Don't you waste your time with her worrying about how she bloody _feels_." He shook his head at James one last time before stalking upstairs to the boys' dormitories.

James sat by the fireplace for a few minutes feeling stupid before trudging up to bed.

* * *

Melody had got into the habit of curling her hair. It wasn't so much that she liked it that way as it was that Sirius liked it that way, and she was trying to infuriate him. It wasn't fair, she knew, to make herself stunning just to make Sirius jealous, especially when she had no intention of pursuing a relationship with him. Plus there was the minor detail of Sirius having a girlfriend, but never mind that. Melody was feeling too selfish at the moment to care. 

She looked at the glass and stared at herself for a moment before shaking her head at herself. Her reflection no longer mirrored who she was.

During the past few months, she'd begun to shed the Fake Melody, the one she'd been around her uncle, and find the Real Melody, the one she'd been around her friends. Although Sirius had been the first to point out how fake Melody had become, the first person to invoke a change in the Fake Melody had, in fact, been Paolo.

Now, however, Melody was neither Real nor Fake. She didn't know what to make of herself.

She spent hours every day primping. She curled her hair and plastered on her make-up around dawn. By the time she'd finished with this ordeal, she had very little time left to dress herself stylishly--though, really, there wasn't much to be done with school uniforms.

Melody had never felt so shallow in all her life.

There were, however, ego-boosters that kept the superficiality going: the way Sirius's eyes bulged out when he saw her, the male eyes she could feel following her as she walked into the Great Hall, and the dozen offers she'd gotten for escorts on the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year. The knowledge that she was, by most counts, the prettiest girl in school only fueled her desire to be as stunning as possible. Perhaps the more guys drooled over her, the more jealous Sirius would be. If he even cared.

In all theory, Melody knew, Sirius should care. He'd told her mere weeks ago that he was "crazy about her"--didn't that count for _anything_? His practically overnight decision (screw overnight---more like "over-the-course-of-a-few-hours") decision to date Mimi was suspicious at best. Melody occasionally wondered if Sirius was dating Mimi simply to infuriate Melody.

However, it was impossible to tell, as Sirius rarely talked to her anymore.

This hurt, in more ways than one. Melody felt the emotional pain of Sirius's avoidance as well as a physical ache that she got occasionally from missing him so much. No one but herself knew of these pains.

She hadn't discussed them with Lily, as Lily was still operating under the infuriating conviction that teenagers were not capable of being in love. Melody strongly suspected that this was because Lily was still thinking of love in the storybook fashion, the "I-fell-in-love-with-you-at-first-sight-and-now-we're-going-to-live-happily-ever-after" fashion that simply didn't _exist_ in the real world. Melody believed that love was not hard to come by, and that falling in love didn't take very much. However, in Melody's world love was also fickle. It was equally easy and equally possible that one should fall out of love as it was one should fall in love, and nothing on either end was likely to be permanent. Lily seemed the kind of person who believed in everlasting love (which Melody strongly suspected had to do with her religion).

Lily's religion was a relatively new and unusual aspect of her personality. Melody had always known, in some corner of her mind, that Lily used to go to church every week, and had, when she'd first come to Hogwarts, prayed every night. Over the years that had dissipated a bit--but now, it seemed, Lily's faith had renewed. Melody saw her friend saying grace before she ate, and praying whenever she was feeling particularly depressed about the family deaths she was still dealing with. Melody didn't know quite what to make of it.

Wizards, as a whole, were not particularly religious. This may have had something to do with the fact that none of the major world religions produced any explanation whatsoever for magic. There were those, of course, who attempted to begin wizarding religions, but those usually ended up as cults, whose members eventually got involved in many highly suspicious "religious" activities that, sooner or later, turned out to be illegal. As a result, those wizards who wished to participate in religion at all generally chose whatever was prevalent in their home country--in England's case, Christianity. All of the deeply religious wizards Melody had come across were Muggle-born; however, it was entirely possible that there were deeply religious purebloods as well. Melody did not know. She had not met every wizard in the world.

Melody's mind spun back, trying to figure out how her thoughts had drifted off to religion. She stared in the mirror and blinked at herself. She didn't look like Melody Cauldwell anymore; she looked like a supermodel. Was that a good thing, or a bad thing? And was it at all ironic that she had to ask herself that question?

She knew the answer to one of those, anyway..."yes" to the latter. Melody sighed and stared at herself further, trying to figure out why she was doing just what she was doing. She knew--at least, she had a reason behind it--but--_really_--why bother? She couldn't be with Sirius. She knew she couldn't. So what was the point of messing with it all?

There was a reason, lurking deep somewhere in Melody's mind, but she didn't want to confront it. She didn't want to quite admit that she was still hoping for her one true love and her fairy tale ending.

But not everyone could be like Lily and James, and that was something Melody was just going to have to deal with. She sighed and took one last look at her flawless face and hair before turning from the mirror and heading to breakfast. She ignored the books sitting by her bedside. Who needed a Potions manual anyway?

* * *

Potions was awkward. Seventh Year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws had the class together, and the students did not mesh. The professors considered this highly unusual; normally the only classes where students quarreled were ones in which Slytherins were paired with...in which Slytherins were...well, just in which Slytherins _were_, really. 

The students, however, were not surprised. Even if Wizarding Britain was in a state of panic, inside Hogwarts teenage gossip still prevailed. Everyone knew about Sirius's relationship with Mimi and Melody's severed friendship with the couple. They knew, too, of Lily and James's rapidly progressing relationship and the small rift this created between Lily and Melody. It seemed natural, therefore, for James and Sirius, the best of friends, to share a Potions table and partner with their girlfriends. This left James and Sirius's cohorts, Remus and Peter, to partner together and share a table with James and Sirius's less-well-known cohort Mundungus Fletcher and his girlfriend Arabella.

So it was understood by the general student body why Melody, on the first day of Potions, marched to the side of the room opposite her friends, snaked her arm through Adam Johnson's of Ravenclaw, and flirted her way to a table with him. It was less understood why, at Sirius and James's lab table, several glass vials were knocked to the floor, but then with Sirius and James you never did know exactly what was going on.

Potions continued in this manner for quite some time. Melody snaked her arm through a Ravenclaw boy's every day--never mind which boy, just so long as there was one--and made a point of sitting as far from Sirius's lab table as possible. This annoyed Lily, for a multitude of reasons, but then Lily's sitting with James and Sirius annoyed Melody, so, after a few brief arguments on the matter, they decided to drop the subject and pretend Potions class was normal. And, despite Sirius breaking an unusual amount of Potions equipment, things went fairly smoothly.

Today Melody chose her favorite lab partner, Adam. He played Quidditch and was fairly good at Potions; he also happened to be dating Alyssa Prewett of Hufflepuff, which meant she didn't have to flirt with him to be his lab partner. This wasn't to say she didn't flirt with him; she just didn't _have_ to. Adam enjoyed partnering with her for reasons other than romantic interest. She was smart and easy to talk to, plus she had a tendency to mutter amusing, sarcastic things under her breath while Professor Thorne was speaking.

Sirius, however, didn't know any of this, and occasionally allowed it to distract him.

"What," he demanded, attempting to dump an entire jar of worms into his cauldron, "is she doing?"

"What's who doing?" James asked, a bit distracted by Lily, who was attempting to shove worms down his robes to get back for the one he'd put in her hair at the beginning of class.

"Sirius, what are you doing?" Mimi shrieked, snatching the worms out of his hands before they all fell in the pot. "Are you trying to get us in trouble?"

"Oh, it's just a _worm_, Mimi, it would've been fine...James, d'you think she likes him?" Sirius whispered to his friend.

James paused to glance over at Melody and then shook his head. "Padfoot, you _do_ know you've got a girlfriend, don't you?"

"Sirius, you heard what Professor Thorne said! If you put in more than two worms, the Potion'll bubble over and stick _everywhere_!" Mimi scolded, dropping two worms in and securely fastening a lid over the rest. "And if this gets on my new robes, I swear to God..." she trailed off, glaring at her boyfriend, who was ignoring her.

"Well...yeah, but..." Sirius began, still talking to James.

"Well then forget about Melody and--AAH!" James yelled as Lily succeeded in shoving a handful of worms down his robes. Lily shrieked in laughter as James jumped around attempting to remove the wriggling creatures from his clothing.

"Sirius Black, are you even listening to me?"

Sirius had only a second to register this query before Mimi grabbed his ear and yanked on it, placing it right next to her mouth. "Aaah!" Sirius cried, and Mimi glared at him, unforgiving.

"Would you like to switch lab partners, Sirius?"

"No."

"Do you want to fail Potions?"

"Not particularly."

"Well, then pay attention!" Mimi commanded, releasing the ear, which Sirius rubbed, feeling annoyed.

"You sure are an abusive girlfriend."

"Well, you're an abusive boyfriend. You keep _ignoring_ me. What do you expect?"

"Never-ending love and devotion?"

"Fat chance. Hand me the newt extract."

"You forgot to say the magic word!"

"Hand me the newt extract, dumbass."

"That's not the magic word."

Mimi made a noise of irritation and whipped out her wand. "You know what _is_ a magic word? _Accio_!" she cried, and the beaker of newt extract flew into her hand. She turned away from Sirius and began working on the Potion again, mixing newt extract and dragon's blood together in a beaker rather violently. She ignored Sirius's attempts to assist her.

Lily and James, meanwhile, had gotten into a bit of a row.

"James! What did you do with the worms?"

"What, the ones on the lab table or the ones you shoved down my shirt?"

"Either! I don't care, but we have to put two worms in the cauldron in the next minute or the potion won't be good for anything."

"What, like it was good for something to begin with?"

"_James_!"

"Well, maybe if you hadn't shoved the worms down my _robes_ I'd be a bit more willing to tell you where they are."

"Oh, for heaven's _sake_, it was just a _joke_ and anyway I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't decided to put one in my _hair_!"

"Well, _fine_, if you want the stupid worms, have the stupid worms," James said, and threw several at her, ignoring the fact that most of them soared past Lily and landed on various people's shoulders and noses and chest areas instead. Lily, infuriated, picked them up and threw them back.

"You put them in the pot. It's _your_ fault they're not in there in the first place."

"How is it my fault?" James demanded, throwing them back to Lily.

"It just _is_!" Lily informed him, tossing the worms at James's head.

"Well maybe if--"

"THAT IS ENOUGH!"

Lily and James, along with most of the classroom, froze and looked up at Professor Thorne.

"This is not primary school. If you want to play with worms, I will gladly send you back. Twenty points each from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, now get to work!" he snapped, removing the worms from Lily and James's table before stalking off to the other side of the room.

Melody blinked at Lily and James from across the room. She first felt annoyance at their blatant immaturity. Shouldn't the Head Boy and Girl be more responsible? And since when did Lily cause trouble in Potions, of all classes? Had Melody missed some essential part of Lily's development? What had James done to her, anyway? She was glad she'd been sitting with Adam, because she wasn't sure she could handle how stupid they were being right now.

This emotion was quickly canceled out by her sudden, powerful, irrational urge to be flinging worms across the room with them.

* * *

Professor McGonagall heard of the incident in Potions. She was not particularly pleased with the Head Boy and Girl. As such, she detained them on their way to the Auror Training Meeting and had a brief word with them about classroom decorum. 

When they arrived at the meeting, ten minutes late, they were rather surprised to see only six other students in the classroom, along with Professor Dumbledore, Alastor Moody, and a tall, dark, muscled man Lily didn't recognize.

"Sorry we're late," she began, apologetic, "but Professor McGonagall--"

"Thank you, Miss Evans," Professor Dumbledore said. "Minerva informed me she might be detaining you. I don't wish to be rude, but we have very little time for this particular meeting, so please, have a seat."

Lily and James took empty seats near Sirius, both still puzzled by the slim number of occupants in the room. From the list of sixteen that had been posted at the end of last year, only eight remained--and not by any means were they the combination of students Lily would have expected. "Where's Melody?" she hissed at Sirius, and Sirius whispered to her swiftly, "Didn't make the final list. Went off in a mad rage," just before Moody began speaking.

Lily tuned Moody out for a moment and surveyed the room in wonder. Melody was one of the best duelers Lily knew...how had she failed to make the final cut? Further inspection of the remaining students revealed that only two were present from each House. It almost made sense to Lily why James and Sirius had been picked over Melody, but not quite.

Present from Lily's own house was Adam Johnson. Hufflepuff boasted Frank Longbottom and Naomi Watts, and Slytherin House sported two of its most disagreeable members--Vivian Horvath and Sally Parkinson. However, Lily supposed, Vivian and Sally were better than Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape, both of whom failed to make the final cut.

She slowly tuned back into reality and attempted to register Moody's words. She was immediately lost.

"...the other part of the session you'll spend with Fletcher Hawkes at the Ministry."

Lily assumed Fletcher Hawkes was the tall man standing next to Moody.

"You'll have all your meetings before the session with the same group, so make sure you copy down the right dates when we read the list off. Groups are as follows...Group One--you'll have to give yourselves a code name, which you can decide at your first meeting--Potter, Johnson, Horvath, Longbottom...Group Two, Evans, Parkinson, Black, and Watts."

He reeled off a list of dates, only about half of which Lily managed to copy down, and half of _those_, she was sure, were for the wrong group. Oh, well. Maybe Sirius had been paying attention. Lily glanced over and saw Sirius and James passing a piece of parchment back and forth covered with insane scribbles she could only assume were words. Perhaps it had been a stretch to think Sirius had paid attention. Maybe Naomi Watts had gotten all the dates down...Lily made a mental note to ask after the meeting.

Moody prattled on to the small, inattentive group of teenagers. When he stopped, the room was seized by a feeling of panic. Its youthful occupants realized they'd missed a large amount of crucial information, and they suddenly straightened in their seats and stared at the adults before them, each student silently wishing one of the adults would repeat Moody's speech.

Moody rolled his eyes. "Fine bunch of Aurors these are going to be, Dumbledore," he growled to the headmaster. Dumbledore simply smiled and nodded.

"I think you had better leave the meeting dates with me, Alastor. I daresay some of these fine young ladies and gentlemen will be needing reminders."

Moody surrendered a slip of parchment to Dumbledore and turned back to the students. "We're done here. Pay attention at the next meeting. If you lose focus like that as an Auror, you'll be dead." With that, Moody left, followed by the tall, mysterious Hawkes, who hadn't said a word.

"Congratulations to you all," Dumbledore said. "This list will be posted outside the Great Hall in the morning. I suggest you all take care to copy these dates down correctly before your next meeting with Alastor Moody. Now, I daresay you'll be wanting to get back to your studies. Off you go!"

As the students rose and filed out of the room, Dumbledore beckoned to Lily. Lily waved James and Sirius along impatiently, rolling her eyes at their puppy dog faces and mock heartbreak at leaving her behind.

"I wanted to talk to you about your music lessons with Windkey," Dumbledore began as soon as the other students had gone. "How much progress have you made?"

Lily grimaced. "Not much," she replied. "But then I haven't seen him for a few months, and I played over the summer. Well...it wasn't much...just a little, but...he said that even a little bit will help me, so...that's something, I suppose."

Dumbledore nodded. "Have you thought about continuing with him this year?"

"Well...I want to, as long as Windkey still thinks it's worth it."

"Good. He'll be pleased to hear it. However, in light of the events of the summer, we're going to arrange things a bit differently this year. You'll have to sacrifice part of your Hogsmeade weekend for lessons, and you cannot have lessons outside of Hogsmeade weekends."

Lily nodded. "That's fine. But--professor--"

"How will you practice?"

"Yes."

"Windkey is going to send over a piano. We'll place it in one of the Head Girl's rooms. I assume you don't want it in your dormitory?"

"No, thank you."

"Very well. I'll find a suitable place for it."

"All right. Thank you, Professor. Er--is that all?"

"For now, Miss Evans. Oh--and--insufficient as they may be...my condolences about your family."

Lily's eyes sank toward the ground. "Thank you, Professor," she mumbled.

"Ah, but perhaps I've said the wrong thing at the wrong time. I don't mean for you to dwell on it Miss Evans."

She just nodded, beginning to feel a bit numb.

"Well, I suppose you'll be wanting to go off to your studies, then?"

Lily smiled halfheartedly. "Oh yes," she replied dryly, "I can't wait to do my History of Magic homework."

"Have a good evening."

"You as well, Professor."

Lily left, trying to focus on the arrangements for her music lessons instead of Dumbledore's ill-placed comment about her family. Not until she reached her dormitory did she remember that she'd wanted to ask the headmaster about her necklace.

* * *

Every third day Lily ate breakfast at the Gryffindor table with James, Sirius, Mimi, and anyone else brave enough to sit near Sirius when he was hungry. Remus and Peter were generally the only people who fit into this category, though Melody joined them sometimes. Watching Melody and Mimi eat breakfast across the table from one another was odd. They didn't exactly ignore each other, but they never spoke to each other, either. 

Today Melody had opted not to eat with the Marauders; instead, she was enjoying Arabella and Mundungus's company. Between Melody's seat and Lily's was a rather large group of giggly fourth year girls. Lily severely hoped she had not been quite that giggly when she was fourteen. She turned to Mimi for her opinion but discovered that her friend was giggling madly at something Sirius had said, so Lily just rolled her eyes and returned to her meal.

She glanced down the table to see how Melody was faring. Melody looked gorgeous, as usual, but picked at her food absentmindedly, and didn't show any of her usual sparkle when responding to the eager ramblings of several fifth and sixth year Gryffindor boys who had crowded around her in hopes of...well, who knew. Maybe a date, maybe a snog session--Lily didn't really understand boys' minds that well, and she didn't think she'd ever be beautiful enough for it to be much of an issue. She understood James--most of the time, anyway--and as far as she was concerned that was enough.

Lily's eyes flitted over the group of fourth year girls again and she blinked, noticing a very familiar blonde ponytail bobbing back and forth as the girl it belonged to shook in laughter. Wendy was sitting with these girls, talking and giggling and joking, and her best friend Lin was nowhere to be seen. From what Lily understood, neither Wendy nor Lin had been particularly popular amongst the other fourth years, least of all the fashion-obsessed, giggly, 'hip' ones Wendy appeared to be sitting with today. Lily frowned and looked up and down the Gryffindor table, hoping for a glance of Lin, but that search did not prove successful.

Perturbed, the Head Girl returned to her scrambled eggs. _Maybe Lin's not feeling well today_, she considered, slowly chewing a bit of egg. _Or maybe she's just overslept_. _But then why wouldn't Wendy have woken her up?_ Normally Lily would not have been so concerned over the state of two fourth year girls, but she happened to be particularly attached to Wendy and Lin, and considering what had happened to Lin's family at the end of last year, Lily felt she had a right to be concerned.

When the fourth year girls began to gather up their things and leave the Great Hall, Lily wasted no time in excusing herself from breakfast and hurrying after them.

"Wendy!" she called, catching up to them at the doors to the hall. The group of girls stopped and turned to look at Lily.

"Ooh, Wendy, the Head Girl wants to talk to you. Are you in trouble?" demanded a brown-haired girl wearing sparkly earrings and far too much eye shadow.

"Of course not!" Wendy said, flushing a bit. "You go on ahead. I'll catch you up."

The girls shrugged and continued on toward the stairs, following the loud, brown-haired one. Lily pulled Wendy to the side of the hallway and raised one eyebrow at her. "Who was that charming girl?"

"Oh, her? That's Lucy Forester. She's--she's just a friend of mine."

"I see," Lily replied, trying to remember whether it had been a girl named Lucy or a girl named Carly whom Wendy and Lin hated last year. "How are your classes this year?"

"Oh. They're...they're all right," Wendy shrugged. "It's school, you know?"

"Just wondering if you and Lin wanted any more study sessions with me, that's all."

"Oh, yeah. That. Well...no, I don't think so...at least I don't, you'll have to ask Lin if she does."

"Well if you don't do it I imagine she won't want to," Lily reasoned.

Wendy just shrugged. "I don't see why she'd care if I did it or not."

In moments like these Lily visualized herself having bangs, just so she could imagine her eyebrows disappearing behind them. "Why wouldn't she?"

Wendy's eyes wandered away from Lily's before she answered. "I just don't talk to her that much anymore, that's all."

"I see," Lily said as a wave of disappointment washed through her. "Well...do you happen to know where Lin is? I'd like to talk to her."

Wendy shrugged and shook her head. "Probably off brooding somewhere. She doesn't go to class that much."

"Why not?" Lily cried, without thinking.

Wendy looked at the floor and shook her head again. "Who knows?"

"Well why don't you talk her into going?"

Wendy looked Lily in the eye again. "We're not really friends anymore, all right? So if you have any more questions about her, you probably shouldn't ask me. Anyway, I have to go to class."

She turned and walked away so quickly that her blonde ponytail was out of sight before Lily could think of anything to say. Dismay shot through the Head Girl's mind, and she leaned against the wall, marveling at Wendy's attitude.

A flood of students from the Great Hall disrupted Lily's thoughts, and she joined Melody on the stairway, forgetting her concerns about the fourth years--at least for the moment.

"Do we have a Charms test today?" Melody demanded as soon as Lily reached her side.

"_I_ don't. Maybe you do," replied Lily, who didn't have Charms until Thursday.

"Oh, you know what I mean!"

"Yes, there is a Charms test this week, and I hope you've studied because it's a Theory exam and last time you took a Theory exam you--"

"Do you have to keep reminding me about that?" Melody groaned.

"Well you have to admit that Charming a piece of paper to eat itself isn't the best idea in the world--especially if it happens to be your exam."

"Professor Flitwick was very impressed with my technique, though. He said that had it been a practical exam I would have gotten top marks."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Well, it _wasn't_ a practical exam, was it?"

"Minor details!" Melody exclaimed as they reached the Charms room. Lily rolled her eyes but smiled anyway.

"I'll see you later, Melody."

"Bye, Lily!" Melody called after her, and Lily continued the walk to Ancient Runes class by herself.

In the middle of a lecture about Rune Coloration, thoughts of Wendy and Lin popped into Lily's head. It concerned her that the girls were no longer friends, and that Lin didn't seem to be making it to class much. She strongly suspected both issues were connected, and that they had very much to do with Lin's family. Although that didn't quite make sense--why would Wendy, of all people, desert her best friend when that friend needed her the most?

Lily decided she'd have to track down Lin to sort all this out. In the meantime, there were exhilarating Runes lectures to occupy her mind...

* * *

Marauders' Headquarters had taken a sharp downturn in use since the end of the previous year. Over the summer, the room had undergone no use at all, and this year, what with James and Sirius having girlfriends (not that James and Lily admitted to being boyfriend and girlfriend, mind you) and both being swamped in Auror Training _and_ Quidditch, there was a fair amount of dust collecting in MHQ. Remus found himself going there often to be alone and simply...think. 

Lately he'd been preoccupied with thoughts of a career. He couldn't very well be an Auror, not with his condition, and in all honesty he'd only attempted the Auror Training Program because James and Sirius had. Occasionally he disturbed himself by thinking that maybe, for a werewolf, there wasn't any suitable career, and that even as a Hogwarts graduate he'd have a lot of trouble finding steady work.

A year ago he had not been so pessimistic. He had three amazing friends who knew his secret and were willing to go through great lengths to make sure he did not suffer through it alone. He'd thought that surely with a Hogwarts education, finding work would not be a problem--especially not with Albus Dumbledore as a reference.

Now, however...he often wondered if maybe the adventures he had every full moon were a little too risky for their own good. There had been several close calls with some of the village children, and he'd stayed awake several nights replaying them over in his head, horrified with himself and his own foolishness. James, Sirius, and Peter did not seem so perturbed. They'd taken to planning out their monthly adventures, sometimes deciding on their plans without bothering to ask Remus if it was all right with him or not. Of course at this point Remus expected James and Sirius would have been shocked to hear Remus say he had any objections toward anything they did, as it had all been going on for a while now without protest.

Secondly, there was all this "You-Know-Who" business. People were getting very shifty and suspicious, and it bothered Remus, probably more than it bothered the rest of his friends. As a werewolf, he was subjected to a great deal of shifty and suspicious looks, and more than once had been approached by shady-looking characters on the outskirts of Knockturn Alley who could sense what he was. So many werewolves

had taken to lives of crime--swindling, illegal trading, stealing, and even kidnapping--that people like Remus had very little chance of being viewed as anything other than dishonest, dangerous, or downright dastardly.

His thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the door to MHQ. Remus turned in his chair, surprised, and saw Peter entering.

"Hullo, Moony," Peter said, looking a bit surprised to see Remus.

"Hullo, Wormtail," Remus replied. "Looking for someplace to think?"

"Well--and try and work through my Transfiguration," Peter admitted. "I know James and Sirius could help me through it, but--I always get confused when they try and explain things."

Remus chuckled. "They're a bit impatient with homework, I think. They tend to go through everything pretty fast."

"No kidding," Peter agreed.

"Well--if you need any help, just let me know," Remus said. "I'm all right at Transfiguration."

Peter nodded, and dove into his essay with a rather uneasy look on his face. Remus stared at the fireplace and tried to delve back into his thoughts, but Peter was a bit distracting, as he tended to mutter under his breath and scribble things out every few seconds.

Neither Peter nor Remus got very far into their respective tasks before the door to MHQ burst open and James and Sirius entered, exploding with excitement.

"There you are!"

"We knew you'd be here!"

"We sure did!"

"Not a doubt!"

"Not a one!"

James and Sirius were both grinning so widely that Remus thought for a moment someone had zapped them with a Cheering Charm. Remus and Peter exchanged a glance and then Remus looked at James and Sirius and nodded.

"Good for you."

"Aren't you going to ask how we knew you were here?" James demanded, grinning, bobbing up and down as though he were ten years old.

"Um...did you guess?" Remus ventured.

"No, stupid, _we used the map!_" cried Sirius, losing his patience.

At this both Remus and Peter jumped out of their seats, running over to James and Sirius and demanding to see the map.

"Hey now, no shoving! One at a time!" James cried. "Wouldn't want to hurt the map," he reasoned, and set it down on the table.

The four Marauders stared at it with reverence.

"Wow," Peter breathed. "That's _amazing_."

"We—are—so—sodding—brilliant," Remus declared, staring at the little black dots crawling everywhere over the map.

"Indeed we are, Moony," Sirius agreed, slapping him on the back. "Indeed we are."

"It'll be _so _much easier to sneak out of the castle now that we've got this," James added. "No more sneaking looks around corners with mirrors, ducking behind statues, running from Filch…"

"…bribing Peeves, blackmailing the house-elves…" Sirius continued.

"It's bloody fantastic," James concluded.

Remus felt his stomach sink. The map _was_ fantastic, but…was it the best thing for them? They'd already had so many adventures and so many close calls…however, Remus secretly felt that the number of close calls was much lower than it could have been, due to the time delay between Remus's reaching the Shrieking Shack and the rest of the Marauders reaching the Shrieking Shack. Often it took the boys an hour or more to get out of the castle and through the passage under the Whomping Willow, during which time Remus felt they would have had the most chance of running into somebody, were they roaming about already.

He did not voice these concerns, but rather leaned over the map to study the little black figures more closely, hoping the wondrousness of their work would distract him from the unpleasant thoughts drifting through his head like so many silvery clouds in the moonlight.

* * *

The first Hogsmeade weekend of the year was unusually cold and rainy, and the pubs and stores in town were packed with students trying to escape the downpour. Melody, due to a recently developed "third wheel" complex she'd gotten around Lily and James, had decided to spend the day with Arabella and Mundungus. Sure, Bella and Dung were technically a couple—but they didn't seem like a really _serious_ couple. They were too much fun to hang out with for Melody to feel like she was intruding. Not that Lily and James excluded her. It was more just the feeling that Lily and James would have just as good a time with her as they would have without her, and at the moment Melody wanted to be in the company of people who really _wanted_ her company. 

During a particularly nasty downpour, Melody, Arabella, and Dung ducked into the Hog's Head for salvation.

"'S a bit damp out today, isn't it?" Dung commented, wringing the water out of his robes. "And look where we ended up! 'S the emptiest place in Hogsmeade, I expect…lovely pub…"

Melody looked around at the dim, dingy interior and raised a single eyebrow at Dung. Arabella rolled her eyes.

"Dung, if you think I don't know you're still thinking about those watches you're dumber than I give you credit for."

"Thanks dear. Want me to get you a butterbeer?" Dung asked, completely unaffected by his girlfriend's comment. Arabella sighed.

"Fine, we'll get a table."

"Great!" Dung said, and rushed off to the bar.

Melody and Arabella chose a small table in a corner of the room—or rather, Arabella charged to one and Melody decided to follow her. Presumably Arabella chose the table because it was tucked out-of-reach of Dung's prospective customers—though that didn't stop Dung from scanning the pub as soon as he sat down.

"I thought you only sold those watches to Muggles," Melody commented, amused.

"Well, usually I do but—" Mundungus coughed into his butterbeer suddenly, catching a glimpse of Arabella's face. "What's that, Melody?"

Melody rolled her eyes. "I think you need to get an earpiece, Dung. Your hearing's going."

"Well, old age isn't easy, you know. You young sprouts have no idea what it's like to be old like me…boy when I was your age—ughffblll," Mundungus finished, as Arabella punched him in the stomach. Melody laughed and took a sip of her butterbeer.

Little thoughts were bubbling in Melody's mind. When Arabella excused herself to use the bathroom, Melody acted on them. She leaned across the table and spoke to Mundungus, rather conspiratorially.

"Dung," she hissed, "how much money you makin' off those watches?"

* * *

James felt as though he were going on a date by himself. He wanted to be in Hogsmeade with Lily, of course, but he got the feeling she would be having about the same experience without him as she was having with him. 

"Lily," he'd say, "you look like you have a lot on your mind. Want to talk about it?"

"Hm? Oh, no, that's all right. I'm fine…awful day, isn't it?" she'd say, then begin staring off into space again.

James got the feeling it wasn't going to be a very eventful date.

As they squeezed through Honeydukes, Lily holding onto James's hand rather absentmindedly, he turned to her and said, "Lil, do you really want to be here with me?"

Lily blinked and looked up at him. "What are you talking about? Of course I do."

"You just…haven't really been talking much. It's kind of…discouraging, I guess."

"Oh…oh, that. I…I'm sorry, James. I've been trying to stop spacing out, but I just have so much on my mind I…"

"Well d'you want to talk about it?"

Lily looked around Honeydukes and shook her head. "Well…right now isn't really the best time to talk…at least, not right _here_…"

"Well I didn't mean _here_, Lily. We can go somewhere else to talk."

"Oh. Well…I don't know, it might ruin the day and I wouldn't want to bring it up…and…"

"Lily…I don't mean to be rude but…you're so spaced out right now we're not really _having_ a day."

Lily's cheeks flushed. "Oh…well…I'm really…um…I really didn't mean to…I…oh, dear. I'm sorry. I'm just being stupid I guess."

"Don't be sorry. Just…do you want to go somewhere to talk or do you just want to…be alone for a bit?"

"What will you do, though? I mean I came here with you and I'd feel awful ditching you—"

"You wouldn't be ditching me. It's all right. I promise."

"Well—I—I _do _need time to think and…if you're sure you wouldn't mind then I…oh, James, I'm _sorry_!"

"Lily, it's really not that much of a problem," James said, even though he wasn't sure he meant it. "I'll just go find Remus and Peter, all right?"

"All…all right. We should do something tonight, though. We can talk then. If you want to grab something from the kitchens we can go to that room on the fourth floor behind the tapestry with all those dragons on it…."

"That's fine, Lil," James agreed, and kissed her on the forehead. "See you tonight."

"See you. And—James—I really am sorry."

James just rolled his eyes and waved good-bye, as he was already halfway to the door, and Lily stood in Honeydukes for a minute, trying to gauge how stupid she'd been telling James she needed to be alone, when she saw the person who'd been occupying her thoughts for most of the day.

"Lin!" Lily cried, but it was too late—the fourth year was already out the door of the shop, and above all the noise inside it was unlikely she'd heard Lily. Lily shoved her way through Honeydukes and out the doors into the rain. Lin wasn't hard to spot; the streets weren't very crowded, after all, and a solitary girl wasn't hard to pick out amongst the clumps of students dashing across the streets. "Lin!" Lily called again, when she'd gotten closer, and this time the dark-haired fourth year turned to see who was calling her.

No emotion registered in Lin's face or eyes as Lily approached. Lily found it rather disconcerting.

"Hullo, Lin," Lily said. "How are you?"

"Hi," Lin said, in a small voice. She neglected to answer Lily's question, and both girls stood in the rain for a moment, awkwardly, before Lily attempted to speak again.

"Well…I s'pose it's a bit silly for both of us to be standing out in the rain, huh?"

Lin just shrugged and didn't move.

"Erm…d'you want to maybe get a butterbeer or…" Lily trailed off, as Lin had begun shaking her head before Lily had a chance to finish her thought.

"All right, well maybe we could…." Lin shook her head again and Lily stood for a moment, staring, as her brain wiped itself clean of words.

"Um," she said, dumbfounded. "I just wanted to talk for a bit, Lin…if…if you…erm…guess that means no, huh?" she said, as Lin had begun shaking her head again.

"Well…I…Lin, why don't you want to talk to me?" she blurted in frustration.

"I just don't," Lin replied, without much emotion.

"Well…_why_?"

"Would you want to talk to anybody?"

"What do you mean?" Lily asked, feeling uneasy at the range of possible answers.

"You're not stupid. You know why."

"But Lin—it's just that—well—I—I know how you—"

"You know how I feel?" Lin asked, lifting her eyes to Lily's for the first time. They were normally dark brown, but today Lily could see no difference between Lin's irises and her pupils, and this made Lin look rather as though she were possessed or…dead…or…something. "No one knows how I feel."

"Oh, but Lin, I _do_, my family—"

"I don't care. I said I didn't want to talk to you. Good-bye."

"Wait! No, Lin—_wait_!"

But the girl didn't look back.

"Lin—listen—if you ever want to talk I'm here!" Lily yelled after her, at the top of her lungs, as the rain had started coming down in sheets, and words were hard to hear over the downpour.

Lily stared at Lin as the fourth year retreated into the rain, and felt, for a moment, rather as though she belonged on the ground with the mud.

* * *

Despite the fact that many desperate students were fighting each other for carriages back to Hogwarts, often cramming in five on each side to get out of the rain and back to the castle, Sirius and Mimi felt little remorse about hijacking one of these carriages and using it as a warm, comfortable hiding place to snog in for a bit. Sirius and Mimi were both rather talented kissers, if they did say so themselves, and so far the experience was rather enjoyable. Although Mimi had certain misgivings about her feelings for Sirius, she had very few misgivings about _kissing_ Sirius, and this afternoon was not encumbered with guilt about the pretenses of their relationship. 

"Sirius," Mimi said, during a brief break, "just out of curiosity…"—she kissed him on the cheek—"when did you start"—and then on the nose—"kissing girls?"—and then once on the lips.

"Erm," Sirius replied, kissing Mimi in return, "not quite sure."

"Not quite sure?" Mimi repeated, raising one eyebrow at him. "How can you be not quite sure?"

"Um," he said, considering. "Define 'kiss'."

Mimi laughed. "What do you mean, 'define kiss'?"

"Well, you could mean like this," he said, kissing her on the cheek, "or you could mean…different."

"I meant like _this_," Mimi replied, demonstrating.

"Oh, like _that_? Well then…you know, maybe if you cared to demonstrate again, that might jog some memories."

They got a bit caught up in the demonstration, and it was another several minutes before Sirius attempted to answer Mimi's question.

"Fourth year, I guess," Sirius said finally. "Lorelei Livingston."

"Ugh, you mean that little whiny—um—oh, her? That's…that's interesting."

Sirius laughed. "I didn't like her _that_ much. I—well, all right, I _kind_ of did, but at the same time it wasn't my fault. It was James's fault. Well, no, actually it was Snape's fault, but we won't get into that."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Which part didn't you hear?"

"No, I _heard_ all of it, I just…don't understand it."

"Ah. Well, that's a common side effect."

"Of what?"

"Being my girlfriend."

"What? Why?"

"I think you'll find that I'm quite often nonsensical."

"Well, yes, but when you're being nonsensical I just tune you out. That wasn't _nonsensical_, it just…requires explanation."

"Oh, an _explanation_. You want an explanation?"

"If you don't mind."

"Right! Well, you see…" Sirius paused for a moment, staring out the rain-coated windows, apparently lost in thought. "…what were we talking about again?"

Mimi groaned and buried her head in Sirius's chest. "Never _mind_."

* * *

Sirius was nowhere to be found. Neither were Remus and Peter. In fact, despite the dramatic number of people James had said hello to in the last five minutes, he hadn't found _anybody_ in Hogsmeade he felt like spending an extended period of time with. After having no luck running into people at Honeydukes, Zonko's, or the Three Broomsticks, he made his way to Zorcoran's Charmed Gifts. James normally would not have bothered looking in this store for any of his friends, but there were few options left at this point, and besides that his cloak was almost entirely soaked through. Zorcoran's was a convenient stop not only because of its location but also because of the Instant Drying Spell Mr. Zorcoran placed on the door to prevent mud and puddles inside his shop. 

James did not encounter any of his close friends inside Zorcoran's. He did, however, discover Arabella Figg in the back of the store, examining bottles of Self-Applying Shampoo and returning them to the shelf with a certain amount of unwarranted violence.

"Come now, Arabella. What did that shampoo ever do to you?" James asked, leaning against the shelf, feeling amused.

Arabella shot a glare at James and slammed a bottle of shampoo on the shelf. "It isn't the shampoo, James. It's channeling. I'm channeling my anger."

"You sound like a therapist."

"I can't help it. My mother's a therapist."

"Oh, yeah. I always forget that."

"Well…lucky you…she reminds me of it in every owl she sends. She's always trying to analyze me, too, and she _always_ has something to say about Mundungus. Of course," Arabella continued, seizing another bottle of shampoo with such force that the cap nearly popped open, "at the moment I'm not sure I'd disagree with her."

James's eyebrows shot up. "Having a bit of a row with him?"

"You could say that," Arabella replied, turning the bottle around to examine the ingredients label. "You could also say he's a selfish, stupid, amoral—sodding—_idiot_."

"Well…you _could_…but then you could say that about anybody."

Arabella shot him a look and then returned to the ingredients label.

"_What_? You _could_ say that about anybody. I didn't say that you'd be _right_, but you could_ say_ it…what're you looking at, anyway?"

"My head has specific requirements for shampoo. I'm allergic to some of the stuff they use to scent it."

"Oh. Well…I have never heard of anybody being allergic to shampoo."

"I'm _not_ allergic to shampoo!"

"But you just said—"

"Oh, never _mind_, James, I've spent enough time fighting with Mundungus and I'm not going to waste any time fighting with _you_."

"All right then. Well…I'd better be going…I'll see you at Quidditch practice Monday?"

Arabella mumbled something in response, slamming another bottle of shampoo on the shelf. James raised his eyebrows again, turned around, and walked away.

* * *

Lily showed up in the fourth floor room hidden behind the dragon tapestry several hours ahead of schedule. She laid her rain-soaked robes on the floor in front of the fireplace to dry and curled up on the couch, huddled under a heavy, soft blanket for comfort. Things were not all right inside her, and she felt she needed to sort her feelings before she saw James. 

Her conversations with Wendy and Lin had been the most depressing Lily'd had so far this year, even including the brief one she'd had with Professor Dumbledore concerning her family. Wendy's shallow behavior made her feel ill, and Lin's cold-heartedness made her feel like crying. And, more importantly, Lily didn't know how to reach out to either of them.

Her thoughts eventually overwhelmed her and tears leaked out of her eyes. Lily had cried so often recently that she no longer bothered wiping the tears away until she was sure they were finished. It seemed a waste of energy to wipe tears off her face over and over and over again. By the time her frustration had worn itself out, the whole room was a blur of shattered, distorted colors, and there was no geometric sense left in the world. That was why, when the Grey Lady floated through the wall, Lily did not immediately detect her presence, and therefore jumped and fell off the couch when the ghost spoke to her.

"Why, Lily flower! What are you doing up here crying?"

Lily, from her position on the carpet, hastily wiped her eyes and looked up at the Grey Lady. "Oh—Lady! I…I was just thinking, I guess, and…my emotions got the better of me."

"Must have been very sad thoughts. So many people seem to be having those lately," Lady said, sounding a bit downtrodden herself.

Lily climbed back onto the couch slowly, thinking. "Well…that makes sense though, doesn't it? Sad thoughts? So many things to be sad about nowadays…."

"It's been a long time since I've seen anything terrible enough to penetrate the walls of Hogwarts. This is the happiest place I've ever seen. That's why…that's why I decided to stay."

"Decided?" Lily repeated, dimly. She wasn't entirely sure what the Grey Lady meant, but expected the comment had something to do with Lady's ghostly state. Lily had never really considered before how people came to be ghosts…it had never entered her mind that there might be a _choice_ involved in the afterlife. "Do you mean…you chose to be a ghost?"

"Well…yes, I suppose. I was too afraid to see what lay beyond, so I decided I'd stay here, because here was comfortable and happy and…it was the only thing I knew." Lady paused for a moment and smiled faintly. "I've never been a big fan of the unknown."

Slow thoughts picked up in Lily's head, and began to process faster as Lady spoke. "So—d'you mean—people can _choose_ to be ghosts, if…if they're scared of what lies beyond, or—or maybe if they feel like they've got something they're leaving behind and they don't want to. Do people…do they sometimes decide to become ghosts because they want to stay in contact with people they love?" she asked, eagerly now, all her words spilling out in a desperate rush. Maybe…maybe if…oh, just maybe there was some way she could…if any of them had chosen to…if…if…maybe….

Lady considered this for a minute. "I suppose that's possible also. But…often those who were loved so much during life feel that they're prepared to continue on into the afterlife. Especially since…well, as a ghost there's only so much you can do to protect someone. In…the other life…there could be other, more powerful ways of keeping watch over your loved ones."

Lily's heart sank a bit. "Oh," she said, and sat in silence for a moment. "But—Lady…say…say someone had never met a ghost, and…they thought maybe staying as a ghost _would_ be better than…than…whatever other options there are…I mean, is that possible? Does that happen? What…what's the other life, anyway? What happens to people who aren't ghosts?"

"Well…being a ghost I wouldn't know. If you choose this form of living…as pitiful as it is…then you never get to experience what comes _after_. And…as to your other question…I can't imagine someone choosing to be a ghost without ever having _met_ a ghost. How would you even know if it's possible to _be_ a ghost if you've never met one? And…what wizard alive hasn't met a ghost anyway?"

"Well…none, I suppose, but what about Muggles? Most Muggles don't even believe in ghosts, and—"

"Oh," Lady said, rather softly.

"Oh?" Lily repeated, feeling anxious.

"I'm sorry, Lily flower…I thought you knew…I thought I might've said it already…." Lady sighed. "Muggles cannot be ghosts. Only wizards can."

Lily paused for a long moment, feeling all her hope dissolve. "…oh," she said, very quietly, and Lady drifted a bit closer to her, perhaps to try and offer comfort, but it just made Lily feel cold. She suddenly didn't want to talk to Lady anymore, and stretched out on the couch, burying her head in a pillow.

Lady remained for a moment, uncertain, and then sighed and drifted away. "I really am so sorry," she said quietly, before disappearing through the wall.

Lily turned her head to the side and stared at the fire, allowing her eyes to go in and out of focus as they pleased. Threads of thought drifted through her mind but she didn't bother picking at any of them. After a while she felt like her whole body was going in and out of focus, and her eyes began fluttering shut. She fought to keep them open, both because James was coming and because she didn't want to fall asleep, because then she might dream. And Lily's dreams were never pleasant.

James, however, did not come soon enough, and Lily soon lost the battle with her subconscious. Her non-waking mind took over, and she surrendered to darkness, sleep, and dreams.

* * *

Lily's eyes fluttered open and focused on a cheery fireplace. Someone had covered her with a blanket while she slept, and she felt pleasantly warm, both inside and out, from this gesture. She smiled and sat up slowly, stretching, and it was at this point that she noticed something funny. 

Despite her desire to stretch, it was not _her_ stretching her body. It was not quite _her_ smiling, either. And whatever she happened to be wearing, that was not hers, either. Her clothing was ungodly tight, and as she stood up, she felt the weight of layers of heavy fabric fall about her legs. Though she desired to look down, she found she could not—her eyes instead focused on other things about the room, and it was at that point that Lily realized she was _not_ in the fourth floor room behind the dragon tapestry, nor was she actually awake.

She was dreaming, and it was a very strange dream, too, as, despite the fact that she knew it was not real, it still _felt_ completely real. The room around her was beautiful, well furnished, and rightly proportioned, and was also _not_ any room she'd ever seen before. Often in dreams when her mind presented her with rooms she'd never seen before, they altered themselves…whether over the course of a few minutes or a few seconds, unfamiliar places did not stand solidly in Lily's subconscious very long.

This, however…this room was staying exactly the way it was. Lily felt fascinated and afraid at the same time, as her hands—that were _not_ her hands—picked up her skirts and her legs began propelling her across the carpet. Her hands pushed aside a hidden panel and she emerged into a stone hallway, much colder than the room she'd just left, and lit only by dim torches flickering in sconces every ten feet or so along the wall.

Lily got the sense she was traveling through a world much older than her own, especially once she'd reasoned that the clothing binding her chest so tightly was a corset. She was dying to look down and examine her dress, but she did not have control over her eyes, and whoever it was controlling them desired only to look straight ahead as they walked.

After a few more minutes, Lily got the sense that there wasn't really anybody controlling her. She began to feel more as though she was intruding in someone's body, and just happened to be a passenger in the backseat of someone's mind, along for the ride as they walked through…whatever ridiculously large stone building she was in…looking for…well, who knew what.

Eventually Lily's body stopped at a large, impressive doorway, which she knocked on. A voice inside granted her entry, and smiling, she entered the room and closed the door behind her.

Sitting behind a massive oak desk was a stunning man, a few years older than Lily, but perhaps the same age as the person Lily happened to be…inhabiting? Was that the right word? _Was_ there a right word? _Well_, Lily supposed, as the body she was in hurried over to the desk, _maybe there isn't a word for this_. The gorgeous man behind the desk dropped the ridiculously large peacock-tail quill he was holding as Lily approached and stood to wrap Lily in a hug.

_Hm_, Lily thought, _this dream isn't so bad. I'm in a beautiful mansion, I'm hugging a beautiful man…I could get used to this…._

"I'm sorry I fell asleep," she heard herself say, and wanted to jump in surprise at the sound of the voice. It was so very different from Lily's own, so much more melodic and elegant-sounding, that Lily felt highly unsettled and a bit jealous at the same time. "It was sweet of you to cover me with a blanket."

"I couldn't have you freezing to death, could I? Who then would care for my children?"

"Your children? Is that all? You have servants for your children, my dear. It pains me to know you care so little for my well-being."

The man chuckled, a deep, unbelievably sexy noise that made goose bumps erupt all over Lily's skin. Or perhaps it was just the woman's skin…obviously this woman, corset, melodic voice and all, was married to the gorgeous man—well, _hopefully_ they were married—and was still very much in love with him. The man, Lily decided, when he began kissing her, was most obviously in love with the woman as well…and if he wasn't, he was doing a_ very_ good job of pretending.

_This_, Lily thought, in the middle of the kiss, _is the oddest experience I've ever had_.

She could feel everything the woman was feeling, yet did not know any of the woman's thoughts. They shared the same body but not the same mind. They kissed the same man, yet Lily knew she did not belong to this man, whereas the woman belonged completely, body, heart, and mind, to whoever the rich, gorgeous, sexy, talented-at-kissing man was.

Lily was beginning to feel she needed names for these people. She was intruding so completely on their live that she felt uneasy not being able to identify them.

"Oh, Patrick," the woman said, sighing, when the kiss was over. _Well, that solves one problem_, Lily thought. "Everything's so wonderful. I can't believe we're going to have a baby."

"Well, darling, we _did_ have—"

"Patrick! That is not appropriate!"

Patrick laughed. "Laurelle, darling, no one is around to hear." _Finally, a name!_ Lily rejoiced.

"The baby might hear!" Laurelle protested, placing a hand on her stomach—which, Lily could now tell, was swelling slightly.

"I apologize most profusely," Patrick said, giving Laurelle another kiss.

As gorgeous as Patrick as was, and as nice as it was to kiss him, Lily was beginning to feel _very_ intrusive—and also insanely confused. _Why_ was she having this dream? Who _were_ these people? What was her subconscious _doing_ to her?

Fortunately, Lily did not have to wonder much longer, as the dream began fading. She fell into black unconsciousness for several minutes before she drifted back to the world. Her sense of touch tuned into the world first, and she felt a warm hand on her shoulder and warm lips brushing her cheek.

Lily opened her eyes to see James hovering over her, lips now inches away from her cheek, hand on her shoulder, which he'd considerately covered with a blanket.

"'Lo, James," Lily mumbled, and James jumped slightly.

"Did I wake you?" he whispered. "I didn't mean to."

"No," Lily said, shaking her head. "At least…I don't think so. It's all right, though. I don't mind."

"Are you sure? If you want to go back to sleep you can."

"No," she replied, sitting up slowly. She looked around the room and stretched, relieved to discover she was back in control of her body—and, in fact, that she was _in_ her body. "Oh, _man_," she said, as James sat down next to her. She began fiddling with her necklace absentmindedly and stared at the fire, shaking her head in disbelief at the dream she'd just had..

"What?" James asked.

"I dunno, I just…I was having the _weirdest_ dream…."

* * *

Melody returned from Hogsmeade with gold and silver watches bulging in her pockets and a slip of very important parchment clutched in her hand. On the parchment were six highly important names—names of people who traded things like Mundungus—people who could get her money—people who could get her out of debt and save her from her uncle. 

So what if it was a little illegal? After all, in the long run, what was a faulty watch compared to the lives of her family? And besides that—not _all_ of it was illegal. One of the names belonged to a merchant who sold shoes. Melody, having three hundred pairs of quite nice shoes, felt she was at least in a position to sell her footwear, if nothing else—especially if her uncle would not take them.

Guilt ate away little bits of her, but she ignored it. Never mind about illegal right now. Never mind that she was keeping things—_so_ many things—from her best friend. Never mind that she'd lied to Sirius, and never mind that every day she woke up and tried, with every trick of hair, make-up, and clothing she knew, to make him want her. Never mind any of that.

Melody had screwed up. And if her uncle was going to make her pay, she was going to do it on her own terms, damn it, and not his.

And that was all there was to it.

* * *

During the weeks preceding the Quidditch match, there was some controversy as to who would commentate the game. Eric Chang's graduation left the spot wide open for a successor, and Madam Hooch was in charge of appointing the next lucky soul. The chaos that ensued when the announcement was posted on the board in front of the Great Hall was equal to the chaos Madam Hooch had endured last February when the school was hit with the flu and she'd (rather unwisely) chosen Lily Evans to take Eric Chang's place as commentator for the Gryffindor/Slytherin game. 

This year Madam Hooch interviewed the potential commentators much more thoroughly, and turned Lily away from the interviews twice before threatening the Head Girl with a detention. Lily was bitter about this for several days, but, fortunately, didn't get much chance to complain about it, as she was buried under a mountain of homework.

All of the Seventh Years in the Auror Training Program were being bombarded with homework. This was tough on James, Sirius, and Naomi Watts especially, as they were all in heavy training for the upcoming Quidditch match. Lily couldn't imagine having Quidditch practice three nights a week in addition to the enormous pile of homework the students had to complete each night. It usually took the Head Girl three hours to finish all of it—and that was without distractions or interruptions in the form of Head Girl duties. Currently, Lily was pulling double duty, as James certainly wasn't in any condition to fulfill his Head Boy duties—so maybe she did have some idea of what it was like to have Quidditch practice after all. Though, of course, her pursuits as Head Girl were not nearly as muddy as James's pursuits at Quidditch.

The end of September and beginning of October were unusually rainy, and it was a rare day indeed when Lily didn't see muddy Quidditch players trudging through Hogwarts, looking as though they'd pay a hundred Galleons for a hot bath. Therefore, it didn't quite seem fitting when, on the third Saturday in October, the sun appeared behind the clouds and the day dawned bright and rosy.

There wasn't a speck of rain on the pitch when the Quidditch players stepped out of their locker rooms, and both teams looked a bit disconcerted with the nice weather.

An ecstatic, bubbly third year girl with bright blonde hair down to her waist took the microphone in the commentator's stand. "Good morning everyone, and welcome to our first Quidditch match of the year! The day is bright and sunny, with no forecast of rain. Our Quidditch players are taking the pitch…playing for Gryffindor today we have Fletcher, Figg, Cauldwell, Appleton, Brown, Black, and this year's Captain and Seeker, James Potter!"

A cheer erupted in the Gryffindor section, and Lily shot a dirty look at a group of fifth year girls who appeared to be swooning over James. Mimi, who was sitting next to Lily, laughed and poked her friend in the arm.

"Feeling a bit possessive?"

"No," Lily replied defensively. "I just don't like all these girls twittering over my…over James all the time."

"Oh, for heaven's _sake_, Lily, you can call him your boyfriend!"

"No I can't!" Lily protested, her cheeks turning a bit pink.

Mimi rolled her eyes in irritation. "You know, you and James really need to get over this whole 'third-year' complex you have about saying you're boyfriend and girlfriend. It's _not_ that big a deal, Lily, and I don't see _why_ you're so embarrassed to be going out with him. _Honestly_. If he was my boyfriend, I'd—"

"Mimi!"

"What?"

"Could you pause for a second?"

"All right…I'm pausing," Mimi replied, raising an eyebrow at Lily.

"I'm not embarrassed."

"Uh-huh."

"I'm _not_. It's not that, okay?"

"What is it then?"

"It's just…he hasn't actually asked me out yet, all right?"

Mimi blinked. "Are you _serious_?" she demanded.

Lily shrugged and looked out on the pitch again. "Maybe he just doesn't want to…"

"What? Be your significant other? Lily, that's stupid. Of course he does."

"Well…I guess so. It doesn't matter, anyway."

"Lily, quit being ridiculous. Of _course_ it matters. He'll ask you out. Don't worry about it. He's just being a silly boy, that's all."

"Oh…I don't think that's really it…but sure, you're probably right."

"Why? What do you think it is?"

Lily shrugged. "I can't really explain it, but…I feel like we're in a relationship. You know? Like it's and official relationship, except…we kind of skipped the whole 'making it official' part. That's all."

Mimi laughed. "You and James are such dorks!"

"I am not a dork!"

"Oh, you are too…but you're a _cute _little dork couple."

Lily rolled her eyes but smiled. "Yes, well, I _am_ pretty cute, if I say so myself," she joked, flipping her hair over her shoulder as haughtily as she could manage.

"_Wow_," Mimi said, staring at the pitch.

"What? Wow what? what happened?"

"They've been playing Quidditch for five whole minutes, and you haven't told me to shut up _once _so you could watch the game."

"Oh, shut up, Mimi!" Lily said, shoving her friend, who was now laughing.

"Oh…guess I spoke too soon!" Mimi said, still giggling.

Lily stuck her tongue out, flipped her hair haughtily one more time, and then turned her mind to Quidditch.

* * *

October flew. Gryffindor took an uneasy victory over Hufflepuff, 190-120, and the week after the match James and Sirius decided to sleep instead of studying, which resulted in a frantic weekend of studying and essay-writing to make up for their slacking. This weekend happened to coincide with the second Hogsmeade weekend of the year, and as a result James and Sirius didn't spend very much time in the village. Lily, taking pity on them, despite the fact that it was _their_ fault they were in such a dilemma in the _first_ place, went to Hogsmeade with Mimi and brought back several flasks of butterbeer, sweets from Honeydukes, and even a bag of Dungbombs from Zonko's. 

Lily tried to locate Melody to ask if she wanted to go to Hogsmeade and talk for a bit, but was unsuccessful in this venture. She spent the afternoon with Mimi instead, attempting to play chess in the Ravenclaw Common Room while Matt watched, his socks playing dramatic music after every move. She was distracted, however, with thoughts of Melody. Lily hadn't talked to Melody in quite a while—at least not about anything _serious_--and as Lily was leaving Hogwarts in a week, she wanted to get in some quality time with her best friend. More distressing than the lack of communication between Lily and Melody, however, was the fact that nobody, the entire weekend, seemed to have any idea where Melody was.

* * *

Melody walked to Hogsmeade with a bag full of merchandise and several pockets full of Galleons. Her plan, so far, was working miraculously well. Her earnings, of course, weren't nearly enough to pay off her uncle, but they _were_ quite a bit larger than she expected, and she had several appointments in Hogsmeade today, which she hoped would increase her earnings considerably. 

She stopped first at the post office, to send off some of the merchandise to faithful customers, and then proceeded to the Hog's Head for her first appointment.

Melody could tell, from the minute she stepped in the door, that today was not going to go quite as she had planned. Part of this was because her appointment seemed to be engaged in a transaction with someone else. Part of this was because, as soon as she set foot in the pub, someone grabbed her arm, rather harshly, and steered her in a direction she did not want to be steered. Mostly, however, she felt that her plans were going to awry because, when she stepped into the pub, she saw her uncle waiting for her in the back of the room, by the staircase that led to the private quarters upstairs.

One of her uncle's many servants grabbed her arm and half-dragged her to the staircase. From this point, Melody's uncle took hold of her arm, and he pulled her upstairs behind him and into a small room containing one table and two chairs. He tossed her in the general direction of a chair, which she nearly fell over, and commanded her to sit. Melody, due to lack of better options, obeyed, and let her stomach tie itself into knots as Hans paced back and forth across the room, in a rage, though Melody had no idea why.

After a few minutes of pacing, Hans stopped, turned, and strode to the table, which he leaned over so he could glare at Melody properly. Melody sat in her chair, stiffly, and looked him in the eye, unwilling to listen to him but not feeling as though she had another option.

"You—_idiot_—_GIRL_!" he yelled finally.

Melody's hands clenched the sides of her seat, but she didn't move except to blink, and elected not to speak.

"Fake watches? Used shoes? Charmed jewelry? _Just how stupid are you_?"

A lump blossomed in Melody's throat. How did he know? How had he found out? She still didn't speak, knowing now that if she did she would cry, and she couldn't bear to display such weakness in front of a figure so cold and enraged as her uncle.

"Did you _honestly_ think that it would work? Did you think you could make enough money in enough time to pay me back? _And what were you thinking getting involved in something illegal anyway_? Do you want to get thrown in _jail_? You wouldn't be much good to your family in jail, now would you? Or perhaps you'd like to end up _dead_, Melody! Does that sound like fun to you? People involved in illegal trades aren't all nice, you know. You mess up once and they have no problem _eliminating_ the person who caused _them_ a problem. DID YOU STOP AND THINK OF THAT BEFORE YOU RUSHED INTO THIS ILL-CONCEIVED, INADEQUATE, AND DOWNRIGHT IDIOTIC SCHEME? OR DID YOU LISTEN TO YOUR STUPID TEENAGE FRIEND?"

Melody swallowed and averted her eyes from her uncle's.

"Melody, I don't know what game you think you're playing at," Hans hissed into Melody's ear. "But right now you are gambling with people's lives. I don't think you want your family's fate to be determined by a set of fake watches, now _do you_?"

Melody couldn't quite peg her emotions. Part of her wanted to stand up, seize the chair, and hit her uncle over the head with it. Another part of her wanted to look at her uncle, lie about being sorry, and continue her illegal trading. But another part of her—the biggest part of her—felt like crying. This was her _father's brother_, for God's sake, and he was threatening to destroy the people who meant everything to Melody's father. And everything to Melody. That alone was enough to make her hate her uncle. The fact that he was not satisfied with threatening to destroy everyone Melody cared about most, but had to destroy Melody's life, too, not only made Melody want to destroy her uncle, but destroy herself as well.

But that day in the Hog's Head, she didn't say anything about that. She didn't say anything at all. She sat and listened to her uncle scream and yell about her stupidity, her worthlessness, her inadequacy, and her incompetence. She sat and stared at the wall until she could tune him out.

Then, and only then, was she able to think clearly enough to realize two things, neither of which she knew she'd realized until her uncle was done yelling at her, and she'd left the Hog's Head, run back to Hogwarts, and collapsed on her bed, sobbing.

First of all, _Hans needed her_. He wasn't just threatening her because he thought she was stupid—he honestly _needed_ her. She'd realized, subconsciously, that if everything in Hans's life was running smoothly, he would not be so concerned about Melody's actions, legal or illegal, nor would he care whether she got thrown in jail or not. _He must be in desperate need of money_, Melody reasoned, _and as far as he can tell, I'm the only way he can get it._

Hans's fortune was dwindling. He was running out of options and resources fast, and the only way he could think to lift himself out of this mess, and _quickly_, was to marry his niece off to the richest bastard he could find as soon as she came of age. This didn't mean that he wasn't serious about killing Melody's family—the only person he really needed was _her_. So even though Melody wasn't in any direct danger, it didn't mean she was off the hook. He still expected her to go through with his plan, and she still expected he'd hurt her family if he got the chance.

Although this was sick, twisted, and made Melody want to hurt her uncle more than ever, it finally made _sense_. And understanding what her uncle really wanted was a huge asset to Melody's plans. Of course, she didn't really have plans until she understood what her uncle wanted…but as soon as she'd come to the conclusion that he just needed her to rebuild his fortune, she came to her second realization. And as soon as she came to her second realization, she smacked herself in the head several times, and then banged her head against the wall once for good measure.

Melody was in love with Sirius. She knew it, Lily knew it, James knew it, and, somewhere in some little corner of Sirius's heart, Sirius probably knew it too. This would have had no impact on Melody's life, or her bastard uncle's plans, except for one simple, undeniable, highly wonderful fact:

Sirius Black was loaded.

The Blacks were rich. Hell, they were rich beyond rich. They were rich for fifteen generations back on Sirius's father's side. And Melody, if she played her cards right, just might be able to marry that.

Of course, currently, there were several problems with this plan. For one, Melody had told Sirius that she didn't love him. For another, Melody was no longer sure how Sirius felt about her. Most of this, of course, was caused by the third problem in the plan: Sirius was already in a relationship.

Melody stayed up most of the night, pacing, thinking, and occasionally crying with relief, and came to only one conclusion:

She was definitely, completely, hopelessly gone over Sirius Black.

And that, for what felt like the first time in her entire life, was okay.

In fact, it was more than okay.

It was perfect.

* * *

A/N: Okay, that's it! That's all, no more! Well…except for the next chapter, and…the chapter after that, and…all the chapters after THAT…but never mind! THIS chapter is done! Par-tay! And now you all get to tell me how much it sucked! Or didn't suck, whichever you feel most fitting…I don't really like this chapter, in case you couldn't tell…in fact I like it less than the LAST chapter but I got yelled at so many times for trying to criticize my own writing that I'm going to try to stop giving my opinion about the chapters…I've decided that having an opinion is YOUR job from now on...so if you'll kindly click the little 'review' box when you're done with this and let me know what you think…that would be fantastic. 

So anyway…next chapter should be better. It's already all planned out and it has a title and events and important plot points and everything. Exciting! All right, well enough of me babbling, here's what you've all really been waiting for, which is the thank-you section. I adore my reviewers to no end…so…here's to you guys. Don't be offended if I don't write you a message…often when I write things to people they've asked me questions in the reviews…so if you really want me to write you something in the thank-you section, just ask a question and I will surely answer it.

Big, booming, crushing, exploding, massive, bazooka of a THANK YOU (no, not a bomb, a thank you) goes to:

Chrissy Sparkle – I'm glad you're enjoying the fic, and I don't mean to bag on myself, but…it happens. Often in early hours of the morning, too, which is generally when I post. LOL. Oh, well…at any rate, I appreciate your review and your encouragement.

MilesFromNormal – Well I'm glad I got you sucked into the plot last time…and hopefully that you have not abandoned this story…it has been so very very long since I updated last. And I'm glad you know what a drum major is! I had a very good marching season…if you care…and my arms got a bit tired conducting, but that's okay…I realize you have no idea what I'm talking about but um…if you care to go back and find your review it will probably make more sense.

Aria327

ShadowFox991 – How can you be in band for three years and not know what a drum major is? Especially if you're in color guard…I mean isn't that marching band? Don't you have a drum major? Oh I'm so confused…but hey…flutes are cool…I play flute too, though I'm 2nd chair, not 1st…but that's okay, because the 1st chair is psycho good. Anyway you probably have no idea why I'm babbling about band stuff…thanks for your review!

Kat44

TheRiddle – In your review you asked me what James smelled like. Hum…well first of all he smells like the outdoors, mostly grass, because he's so obsessed with Quidditch. He also smells like soap because he has to spend a lot of time washing the mud off because of the Quidditch…lol…and also some really nifty aftershave, because I think James is the kind of guy that uses really good smelling aftershave. I hope that answers your question. And I love your reviews, btw, because there's always something to respond to…and that's just fun. Cheers!

Anar ar Isil – I've probably already responded to everything in your review…your reviews are brilliant, always…and I cannot say anything wonderful enough to thank you for them. But I do have to thank you for helping me fill in my plot gaps, and giving me "Quote of the Chapter" awards, because…that is definitely my favorite part of your reviews. I think you're going to have a really hard time with that this chapter though, because…I can't remember really writing any memorable quotes, and this whole chapter is kind of depressing, even Quidditch wasn't interesting, and that's sad. I almost put in Storytime With Sirius but then I punked out, because…I'm a punk. SIGH. Oh well. At least I put in random dream thingy with Lily that has no apparent reason for being in there but really it does…bwahaha…and everyone will just have to wonder about that…bwahahhahahha…ha…ok I'm done now.

lastjumpfalls

Lil Bazza

MarauderFan4ever – Oh my poor tormented characters. It's okay though, because it all works out all right in the end! Well…except when it doesn't…but never mind that. It'll all get worse before it gets any better, but…it'll get better soon enough. Then….it'll get worse again…but my point is that at some point everything will get better! So umm…that's cheerful! Yay!

music freak

anonymous – okay so maybe that's not really a name. I don't care. and no…I don't mean to leave it hanging, so…here is the next chapter!

LadyElla64 – Hans is evil, evil, evil…but oh well, that's the whole point…haha…I'm soooo out of it, I think I need some sleep.

Alyssa – Sorry the Potter's Cottage story in the last chapter bored you…but it's all important…believe it or not…at least at some point it'll be important. Maybe not in this story…SIGH I definitely don't think I'll get around to writing the sequels. Which is sad, but…maybe if I just finish this story it'll all be okay…Lily will not be pranking too much, I don't think but then right now nobody really is…so we'll see how it goes. I've got something really nifty for the end of the year…just you wait….

moony128 – yes yes! bloody authors, making everything difficult! I have way too much fun making everything difficult…but that's ok…because there's resolution! you know…eventually…at some point…in the…far distant future…which if I procrastinate long enough I'll never have to write, so…haha! in the meantime I'll just make everything as complicated as possible, and that will be great fun. bwahaha. ok I'm done now.

phredtheflyingmonkey

Rikithasta – hm. perhaps I do give myself too little credit sometimes. but I think that's better than giving myself too much credit. if you give yourself too little often it's easier for people to correct you...although really, it's best to try and be satisfied with the things you do, not too bigheaded and not too insecure, because then you can be happy with it but still open to criticism. right now everything is a work in progress though…the characters, the story, my writing style…and sometimes I have good days, sometimes I have bad days…but lately I feel like I have not at all been writing to my potential, and that is eternally frustrating. still I fully appreciate your review, and I hope you continue to enjoy the fic.

Emrisah—so hopefully you find Melody less stupid and frustrating in this chapter. I think she's a bit smarter. at least at the end she is.

CajunRogue – there is no such thing as a review that's too long. unless it's a review completely devoid of praise and flattery for me, then the reviewer should just be shot, because…it's all about me, honestly! (lol just kidding…wow, if I was really like that I think I'd kick my ass…anyway…) your review was ohsofantastic, and it made me laugh, which was awesome. so you're just going to have to review again, because what would I do without reviews that make me – k, definitely couldn't tell if that was all your e-mail address or if part of that was a username, so I just wrote it all down…thanks for the review!

RnB Diva Gurl

mystikalolo – In response to your question (which was about whether or not Sirius will die the way he does in OotP canon)…Most of OotP I'm just going to ignore. Like…Sirius's parents, for example. Screw that, I like my version better. The nice parents. That works for me. Also…if Lily and James aren't going to die, I don't see any reason why Sirius should die, so you know…screw that…lol….

Plumkin

phat duck – your review was many levels of awesome. thank you.

MaD-4-u

My-name-is-Max

Ex-Mrs./Senora Tom Felton—yay for marching band…sorry…you said something about marching band in your review…so woohoo…I'm so dead right now…but…that's ok…only 4 more pages of reviewers to go, I can do it!

karann

ffaddix

joelilmea

dancinqueen8907

yellowREN33

limbo-gal – hm…long chapters…I suppose they are long…some people like long chapters, other people don't…but really, honestly…I don't write them to be any specific length; I just write until the chapter's over. it's all kind of planned out…really…I think this chapter was a little shorter than the last one…and the next chapter will probably be shorter than that…but we'll see.

oddbean 12 –I've thought about trying to turn it into an original fic that could be published, but…I don't know, I can't think of a way to make it work really…thanks for the vote of confidence though.

peanutbutterandmarshmellowbagel

serioussirius

Joslyn sparrow

Stardust3ANNOYEDW/AUG.2nd –I can't believe I updated…psycho…you really should finish awakening one of these days you know…it's really too bad you're home with your family like all freaking break…not that your family isn't great, it just makes it hard to write and everything. Anyway, happy Christmas!

Samli – oh the necklace thing. I'll get to that…eventually…

lizziee

Erin

wildcat ohrya –lol…pretend review…there's no such thing as a pretend review…it was fine, I promise.

Mandy

Tari

softballsweeti11

Firewhiskey-101

blueangel124

funkyrocker – yes yes, this story is highly soap-opera-ish. I was actually thinking the other day how I'm not really writing a fanfic…I'm writing a soap opera…because there's like no plot or anything…sigh it's sad, really…but oh well, as long as it's still entertaining I guess I'll keep plugging away.

Mandarina Ballerina – thanks for all your lovely reviews! I really do need to go back and modify that psycho long author's note, as it's not even up-to-date anymore…I do tend to get carried away with my babbling sometimes…so…I'll alter that. But I admire your perseverance, and I'm glad you like what you've read  you are a wonderful person, and I cannot believe that you wrote that many reviews for the fic…and they were all so long and fantastic…oh how I adore you, I cannot express…lol…Hubert…Sirius Hubert Black, yes, that is his name…I think he was named for his Grandfather or something, who knows? It sounded like a good idea at the time.

About the potato thing…definitely wrote that chapter way before Two Towers came out…and then Sam had his "Po-ta-to" line and I freaked out in the middle of a crowded movie theater, and the friend I was with at the time did NOT get it…it was tragic…but yes, when Sirius says "potato" it's kind of like that. I'm so glad you laughed so much while reading it…I find it unfortunate that this chapter is not so funny… but hopefully I will be able to remedy that at some point. your reviews definitely made me laugh though, which is insanely awesome, because I get a lot of reviews, and many of them make me smile, but few of them make me laugh…and I like laughing, so keep reviewing, durn you!

lol…no I definitely don't watch Alias so I have no clue what you're talking about…also I've never seen Gilmore girls, though I do watch friends…and I don't really envision the coffee shop like central perk but I guess it kind of is...hm…really I wrote all that because I spent a summer working the coffee/juice bar at this restaurant, and I really just needed to vent some anger at the freaking coffee machine. Molly's name definitely used to be Willow….and the joke about Wendy playing Quidditch is just…well, it's stupid, but her name is "Wendy" kinda like "windy" and it's windy when you play Quidditch, and it suggests flying and…ok maybe nobody's brain works like mine…lol, oh well…. your reviews definitely should get some kind of award or something, because they are super fantastic.

I can't believe I'm writing all this stuff …you're probably reading through it wondering why I'm still babbling at you, but…that's just something you're going to have to live with! either that or you can just…you know…skip it all. shrug whatever works for you. of course you wrote all these like…in September, so it's possible you have NOOOO idea what I'm talking about, but that's my fault for taking forever to update. I could write shorter chapters but then there' be like five million chapters for this stupid story, and who wants to read a story with five million chapters? of course at the rate we're going, it'll be fifty chapters long AND I'll never finish it, so maybe the chapters should be shorter…but um…I don't know.

You are definitely one smart cookie though, you keep predicting my plot before I get to it…that's cool though…and you definitely point out a lot of things I miss, so that's nice too. I really need to stop using so many darn ellipses. Anyway I can't thank you profusely enough for your wonderful reviews. But…as I've been babbling for half a page now, I think you can take this as a hint.

cHayE710

Faded Memories

blueforest

lolipopist – sorry no paolo in this chapter…but he will reappear at some point.

CountessLerula

ebec – your review was highly flattering. I don't know what class of fanfic writers I belong in…but I appreciate the compliment. what I really hope is that one day I can channel all my creative fanfic energy into an original novel…and then I can write forever…ho hum. we'll see.

Amy

lilynjamesAAF

I luv harry, draco, and savvy!

Janus – aha! someone agrees with me. I didn't particularly like the last chapter either…so I'm glad there's someone out there who agrees…of course then you probably didn't like this chapter either, since I don't think it's that great…so I apologize…I think next chapter should be better…crosses fingers we shall see. I know that I'm having a bit too much fun with the love triangle, but…eh…that's the way it's planned, and…it is fun…and it's screwed up, just like high school! Haha…ok so maybe that's not an excuse, maybe I just like torturing my characters, but it all turns out right in the end. Well…kind of…but never mind that. Yes, I know that the Sirius-serious pun is a cliché and everything…but there are bunches of clichés in this story and I couldn't resist that one. It could have been more subtle, I agree, but…shrug sometimes I'm just a clichéd cheesy fanfic writer. It's the kind of thing I would avoid if I were trying to write something for a publisher, but the kind of think I throw in fanfic just because…it's fanfic, and I can get away with it...mostly. Do you know what I mean? I highly appreciate the criticism though. I'm glad you like the necklace subplot. There WILL be more about that because…the necklace is severely important.

ELPHIESchihuahua

Squeak4ever

wouldn't you like to know – no, that's ok, you can keep your identity…for now.

Irish Silhouette

monkeycheeks

ilovejamespotter

YAY I'm done with the thank-you section! You guys are so awesome…it takes me longer and longer every time to write this section…that's definitely a good thing. It took me like an hour and fifteen minutes to write all my thank you notes and everything…WHEW! Okay, now that you have been properly appreciated…hope you liked the chapter…leave some feedback, it is much appreciated.

Sierra Charm

Happy Winter and Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!


	16. Halloween

A/N: Hurrah! It's done! I'm sure you're all shocked and amazed. Well, my birthday is next Sunday (April 17), so we'll just pretend like this is an early birthday present from me to you. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! MAZEL TOV! (No, I'm not Jewish. Don't ask.)

Anyway…there are some things in here you ought to like. At least I hope so. There are some very, very, very important plot development scenes in here, so I hope you all appreciate that, and I hope it makes up for the lack of humor. Comedy just didn't work its way into this chapter well at all. I apologize.

However, despite that shortcoming, I am very pleased with this chapter. Maybe not the writing so much, but I had a lot of fun writing it, and I enjoy the content. These scenes are some of the longest-planned in the whole history of "Eyes," and it was relatively easy for me to write them because I spent so much time mulling them over before they came out on paper. This chapter is also the only one in the history of "Eyes" where I planned out everything that had to happen in this chapter before I wrote it and it actually all _happened_. A lot of stuff happens here. This chapter is very potent, as everything happens on the same day, and there's very little filler, so I hope it moves quickly for you.

Be advised: there is _a lot_ of dialogue in this chapter. I don't think I've ever had so many crucial conversations in one chapter. Usually when I have this many conversations in one chapter, I skip some or abbreviate them, and I'm very proud to note that I only attempted to abbreviate one of the conversations in here, but I think it works better the way I did it anyway. So three cheers for me for not wimping out on writing any of these important scenes! Though I must say, by the time I finished the last conversation I got very tired of trying to come up with inventive ways for people to say and do things.

Also, you may be amazed to know, I wrote this chapter over the course of four days. Don't you wish I could write all my chapters in four days? Well, keep dreaming. It was spring break for me, after all, and if I wrote like this all the time I'd kill myself from exhaustion.

Well, this is turning into a very long, rambling Author's Note so I think I'll leave you now and I'll see you at the end.

* * *

Chapter Sixteen

Halloween

"Lily? What are you doing?" Mimi poked her head into the Head Girl's room.

"Packing," Lily replied, tossing several things into her trunk.

"Oh, no," Mimi moaned, stepping into Lily's room. "Don't _say_ that! That means you're leaving me. You're leaving me all alone at stupid Hogwarts with no one to talk to except Socks Boy and Susiepants."

Lily grinned at Mimi's reference to their friends Matt and Susie. "Susiepants? Since when is that her nickname?"

"Since Matt started using it, I guess," Mimi sighed, flopping down on Lily's bed. "Do you _have_ to go to this Auror thing?"

"I _want_ to go."

"You're a mean person, Lily Evans, leaving me all alone like this."

A grin spread across Lily's face as she thought of something. "Don't get too mad at me. After all, if it gets boring around here you can always go talk to Melody and see what happens."

Mimi shrieked and threw a pillow at her friend. "I said I wanted someone to _talk_ to, not someone to turn me into a donkey!"

Lily laughed and tossed the pillow back. "As I recall, it was Sirius who turned people into donkeys, not Melody."

"That's not the way Sirius tells it," Mimi said in a sing-song voice.

"Oh, really? And what's _that _supposed to mean?"

"It means _your_ boyfriend's the one who turned people into donkeys, not mine."

Lily's ears burned. "He's not my boyfriend," she mumbled, leaning down to organize a stack of notebooks in her trunk.

"Oh, close _enough_!"

"Anyway," Lily continued, rising once she thought her ears had gone back to a normal color, "whoever's fault it was, they all promised to stop turning people into donkeys a long time ago."

"Yes, well. I'm not going to take the risk, that's all I'm saying."

Lily sighed. "You _really_ need to just talk to her."

Mimi made a face. "Why should I? I mean really, Lil, _she's_ the one who doesn't want to talk to me. I didn't have a problem with her until she started ignoring me."

"Well it doesn't matter, I guess. It was just a thought," Lily mumbled, backing out of the argument before she got into it.

"Anyway...I just wanted to know if you were going to breakfast," Mimi said when Lily was silent for several moments.

"After I'm done packing. You can go on ahead if you're hungry."

"All right," Mimi agreed, sliding off the bed. "Have fun packing, Lil. See you later."

"Bye," Lily said absentmindedly as her friend left. She was trying to remember if she'd packed underwear yet. If she had, it would be somewhere at the bottom of her trunk, and she didn't feel like digging through to see if it was. Instead, she went to her dresser, yanked on the appropriate handle, and then dumped the entire contents of her lingerie drawer into the trunk. Normally she was more systematic about packing, but this morning she felt impatient.

The last few weeks had been horrible. The mountain of work for the Auror Training students had been unbelievable, and the Auror Training sessions gruesome. Lily was seriously beginning to doubt whether she was cut out to be an Auror, but it was too late to back out of the training program now, and anyway it would be an experience worth having.

Her schedule today was busy as well. At eleven o'clock she was scheduled to meet with Dumbledore to talk about her plans for a career--all of the Auror Training students were supposed to at some point today. She had to finish packing before she left, and there were several people she wanted to say good-bye to, including Hagrid, who might be hard to track down due to the planning for the enormous Halloween Feast that evening. The preparation for the feast would take some time as well, as this year it was not only a feast but a Farewell Ball to all of the Auror Training students. The girls had been planning for days what dress robes they were going to wear, how they were going to do their hair and make-up, and who they were going to dance with. Lily had not taken the time to plan any of this, but she found that if she took a second to think about it, everything was planned out in her mind already.

Also, she wanted to use the library to investigate magical necklaces. Her recent searches had proved fruitless, but she'd had very little time in the past few weeks to think about her necklace, so she hoped her research today would turn up something useful.

Lily sighed and looked around her room, considering. Was she forgetting to pack anything? She'd left out things like her toothbrush and hairbrush because she'd need to use them again before she left, but as far as she could tell, everything she needed was already packed into her trunk. Shrugging, she closed the trunk, left it at the foot of her bed, and walked out of the room toward breakfast.

* * *

Melody slept in. She should have been eating breakfast or primping or maybe coming up with a plan of action, but it was Saturday, and she felt like sleeping instead. She didn't really care about breakfast or primping today. Melody hadn't bothered with her hair or make-up for several weeks. After her revelation about Sirius, she stopped worrying about it. Looking pretty all that time had stirred up many boys' affections, but not Sirius's, and since he was the only one who mattered, she dropped her silly beauty routine. 

Her mind pondered other matters now. The hours she used to spend primping, she now spent lost in deep thought. Mostly she thought of Sirius and how to win him back. Over. Win him over. She'd never had him, so she couldn't really win him back. _But is that true?_ she wondered, alone in her four-poster bed. _Did I really never have him? _

He'd professed his feelings for her at the end of the summer and she'd turned him down. Did that count as having him? For a second, just a second, Melody almost said yes to Sirius Black. And then thoughts of her uncle, her family, and her debt circled in her mind, and she couldn't say yes. Being with Sirius, at that point, seemed worse than not being with him. She hadn't wanted to anger her uncle, and it had seemed clear to her then that there was a specific person Hans wanted to marry her off to.

But Melody wasn't playing his games anymore.

She didn't care how mad he'd been after the stolen watches incident. She wasn't selling them anymore, of course, but that wasn't because her uncle demanded she stop. She'd learned things from Hans he hadn't meant to tell her. Someone--or something--had Hans running scared. He needed Melody, needed her to marry an old rich bastard and take the fortune for his benefit.

Well, never mind what Hans wanted. Melody was a person, too, and she had her own wants. Sirius, for example. She wanted Sirius more than she could express in words. Her whole body wanted him--heart, mind, conscious, subconscious... She had dreams about him almost every night, and in the dreams she tried to tell him everything and almost always failed. Sometimes her voice would dry up and she couldn't speak, just rasp at him hopelessly. Sometimes she'd confess everything and Sirius would stand up and proclaim he was hopelessly in love with Mimi and didn't care what plight Melody was in. Other times she'd get close to telling him everything, and then her mind would trick her into thinking it was all real, and she just couldn't tell him about Hans and her debt, no matter how much she loved him. She couldn't allow him to think she was using him. Because she wasn't. Was she?

Sirius was heir to a large fortune, but she'd loved him before all of that. For two years, Sirius and Melody danced around the idea of being a couple, and now Melody couldn't figure out why. Why had they been so stupid and childish? They'd have moments of kissing and then just let it lie there, not speaking for ages afterwards, and even then certainly not of the kiss. If only Sirius had decided to tell her he cared about her one day before that conversation with Hans...maybe they'd be together now.

But then again, maybe that would have made it worse. Maybe she would have told Hans she was already in love with somebody, and that he had all the fortune she needed, and then Sirius would be a target of his, too. She'd already put her family in danger. Was it fair to do the same thing to Sirius? He was no coward. If he still cared about her at all, he would fight for her. But she didn't want him to. She couldn't stand the thought of anyone else she loved dying. Though if all this Voldemort business continued on, it was likely she'd lose many, many people she loved, especially those who wanted to become Aurors.

To hell with being an Auror. At first Melody thought that was what she wanted more than anything, but after a few Auror Training Meetings, she'd realized she didn't want to be stuck behind a desk at the Ministry of Magic for most of her life, any more than she wanted to piddle with disguises or stealth or...whatever. All she cared about was dueling. If she ever came face-to-face with Voldemort, she wanted him to know exactly who she was, and she was prepared to duel him to the death. It might sound like a foolish idea now, but after Hogwarts, Melody had some idea of where she was going.

There were hundreds of international dueling tournaments held every year. She just had to practice, maybe find a coach, and get out there and make some money. Through the public dueling tournaments she was likely to find a link to her real goal--the underground dueling matches. _Those_ were the ones she cared about. Those were the sneaky, underhanded, no-rules dueling matches, ones that would be valuable for real combat against a real Dark wizard.

But today, those were useless thoughts. Today was Sirius's last day in the castle for a month, and she didn't want to let him leave without at least talking to him. Maybe she couldn't convince him to break up with Mimi and realize that she, Melody, was the girl of his dreams, but talking to him was a start. Melody wanted Sirius to have Melody on his mind when he left Hogwarts, not Mimi, though perhaps she shouldn't hope for that.

But she wanted at least to be in Sirius's thoughts right _next_ to Mimi. Melody refused to believe that Mimi was anything more than Sirius's rebound girl, though of course she hadn't told Mimi that, and of course she hadn't expected Sirius and his rebound girl to last two whole months. That was why she hadn't acted immediately upon her revelation that it might be okay to love Sirius after all. She wasn't sure what he felt about Mimi, nor, any longer, what he felt about her. Today she planned to ascertain both these things.

The only problem was she had no idea how.

* * *

Lily wanted toast. And bacon. Not eggs or potatoes or sausages, just toast and bacon. With lots of butter. And no jam. She wasn't sure _why_ she wanted toast and bacon so severely, but her stomach called for strange things when it was hungry. Sometimes she wondered, if this was what her stomach was like when she felt normal, what would her stomach crave when she was pregnant? Lily knew the day when she'd be pregnant was long off, but still...sometimes she wondered. 

She didn't encounter many students in the halls this morning, so the small, black-haired figure shuffling along the edge of the hallway stuck out considerably. "Lin," Lily murmured to herself as she recognized the girl. She wanted to talk to Lin, but should she? Lily bit her lip in consideration. Last time she'd tried, the fourth year had yelled at her and run off, and Lily'd been left feeling like a particularly nasty pile of beetle dung.

But Lin looked so _lonely_, and after all the people she'd lost this summer...Lily couldn't think of anything Lin needed more than a friend. She could just _kill_ Wendy for deserting her...though of course at the moment that expression didn't seem entirely suitable.

Well, Lily reasoned, the worst that could happen was Lin brushing her off again, so she might as well try.

She jogged a bit to catch up with Lin. "Five points from Gryffindor for walking with your head down," she joked. Lin jerked her head up, looking a bit surprised and hurt. "I was only joking," Lily said quickly.

"Quit messing around, Lily," Lin said softly, her gaze slipping back to the floor.

"Sorry," Lily murmured, feeling a bit defeated already. She searched her mind for something to say. "Er...I hope they have lots of bacon at breakfast this morning. I'm dying for some bacon."

Lin just shrugged.

"What about you? What're you craving this morning?"

Lin shrugged again.

"Oh, come on, there's gotta be something. Eggs--juice--marmalade---potatoes--"

"I'm not hungry, all right?" Lin snapped. "I'm not going to stupid breakfast."

"Oh. I see. Well, where are you going then?"

"None of your business, " Lin snapped, picking up her pace to get away from Lily.

Stubbornly, Lily increased her own pace to catch up. "Maybe it is my business," she said. "What if you're going somewhere you're not supposed to?"

"I'm _not_," Lin replied heatedly.

"But how do I _know_ that?" Lily said, trying to be as irritating as possible. Maybe if she got Lin angry enough, the girl would speak in complete sentences.

"I'm going to the library, all right?" Lin finally exploded. "And don't you follow me there, either."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Lily replied as they rounded a corner together.

"The Great Hall's _that_ way," Lin said, pointing behind her.

"Yep," Lily said vaguely.

"So aren't you going to go get breakfast?"

"I'm not so hungry anymore," Lily lied. "I kind of lost my appetite for bacon."

"Well where are you going now?"

"I don't see how that's your business."

Lin let out a little noise of frustration and came to a halt, stomping her foot where she stopped. Lily stopped and turned to her, feeling immensely pleased with herself.

"You're just following me now!" Lin cried.

"I'm not doing anything of the sort."

"Oh--you--yes you _are_, and you know it!"

Lily shrugged noncommittally, and Lin let out another noise of frustration.

"Why are you bothering me?" she demanded.

"_Bothering_ you? Well that's rather harsh. I was just trying to make conversation."

"Well--well, you can stop trying now, because I don't want to talk."

"But you _are_ talking."

Lin opened her mouth to reply, then shut it again. She glared at the Head Girl for a moment before turning on her heel and stalking down the hallway. Lily, feeling like she was making immense progress, decided to follow Lin.

Lin, who heard her coming, stopped again and whirled around to face Lily. "Go _away_," she said flatly.

"No," Lily replied stubbornly. "I am _not_ going to go away. Not until you talk to me."

"As you pointed out, I _have_ been talking to you. And now I'm _done_ talking to you, so you can go away."

"Well, we're not talking about anything _important_, and I want to talk to you about something important."

"I'm not interested!" Lin shrieked.

"Yes you are!" Lily shouted back, reflecting on how much bigger Lin looked when she wasn't shuffling against a wall with her head down. Lin wasn't so very much shorter than Lily, actually, and so very much older-looking than her thirteen-year-old self that it made Lily sad. Lin looked like she'd grown up, emotionally and physically, overnight, and the process had stretched out her bones and ligaments too far, and attached some rather painful-looking bags underneath her eyes.

"How would you know, Lily Evans? You're just a nosy old busybody, and you don't know anything about me!"

Lily blinked and gaped at Lin. Her mouth moved quite of its own accord, searching the silent, empty hallway for something to say. The fourth year just glared.

"You can close your mouth," Lin said coldly. "Now, I'm going to the library, and you're going to get some stupid bacon, and you're not going to bother me anymore."

The Head Girl watched, feeling a bit dumbfounded, as Lin turned away. "If you ever need to talk," Lily called down the hallway, finding her voice at last, "come find me. I know you need a friend, Lin!"

Lin paused for a second and glanced over her shoulder at Lily. "You don't know anything about me," she whispered before walking away.

Lily didn't feel much like bacon anymore.

* * *

Melody grabbed some sausages from the Gryffindor table and rolled them in a napkin before leaving the Great Hall. She didn't feel much like watching Mimi and Sirius flirt their way through breakfast for the third time this week. Neither Lily nor Remus had shown up, and James was in one of his "brooding" moods, so Melody, with no one to talk to, decided to go up to Marauder Headquarters and eat in solitude. 

"Wombat," she told the entrance to MHQ, and a panel slid open, admitting her to the room. A fire already crackled happily in the grate, and there was a smell coming from the large red armchair that reeked suspiciously of…

"Marmalade on toast?" Melody asked. Remus poked his head out from behind the armchair and smiled.

"You have a pretty good nose for a mere human being," he said, lifting up his toast so she could see.

Melody smiled. "Escaping the masses?"

"Or something like that, anyway," Remus agreed.

"Mind if I join you?"

"I don't know. Are you going to start making out with Mimi?"

Melody laughed, plopping down on the couch next to Remus's chair. "Not likely," she replied. "So I gather I'm not alone in my distaste for Sirius and Mimi's breakfast routine?"

Remus made a face. "I don't know why they come out in public at all."

"Yes, well," Melody said, sobering somewhat, "what _would_ Mimi be without her little Sirius trophy to parade around in front of other people?"

"That's not fair," Remus said, sounding a bit defensive.

"Oh, really?" Melody snorted. "And how would you interpret the situation?"

"It's Sirius who's taking advantage of Mimi, really," Remus reasoned. "After all—" He stopped for a moment and glanced at Melody, then shook his head. "I don't know. I suppose you're right."

"Oh, _am_ I? That's very interesting, Remus. Why the sudden change of mind?"

"Well…you know…sometimes your mind just needs a few seconds to work things out logically…"

"Remus Artemis Octavius Lupin, that is a load of horse shit," Melody replied, her eyes twinkling.

"Er…well…you know…perhaps."

Melody laughed. "So what _were_ you going to say? I won't get mad, I promise."

"It's nothing important. Just some random speculation, that's all," Remus said, not meeting his friend's eyes.

"About…?" Melody prompted.

"You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"No. Not at all."

Remus sighed. "Damn." He looked at the ceiling and whispered a couple things to himself.

"If you're praying to God for a distraction right now, it's not going to work," Melody informed him. "You're going to have to tell me sooner or later."

"Well, later rather than sooner, I always say!" Remus replied cheerily, finishing off the last of his toast. He glanced at his watch. "My, my, look how time flies! Why, it's almost time for class!"

Melody glanced at her own watch, then did a double take at Remus, who was attempting to get up from his chair and sneak away. She grabbed his Gryffindor tie and yanked him back into the chair. "Ow," Remus whined.

"It's _Saturday_," Melody said, glaring, "and I can't _believe_ you almost got me." Remus smiled roguishly.

"All those years around the Marauders and you're still gullible, Cauldwell. How sad."

"Yes, well. It's still not going to save you."

"Save me? From what?"

"From a horrifying, disastrous fate if you don't tell me what you were going to tell me about Sirius and Mimi."

Remus cleared his throat. "Right. About that. You see, Melody—there's this thing called an opinion."

"Mmm-hmm," Melody said, prompting him.

"Right. And these things—these opinions—bear no actual reflection to the truth of a situation."

"Uh-huh."

"Yes. So. Opinions, it may be stated, are the mere thoughts and speculations of one person, from one person's point of view, at a specific moment in time."

"And?"

"And…they bear no actual reflection to the truth?"

"You already said that."

"Oh. Sorry. Of course. So, really, what I'm trying to say is—"

"This is just your opinion and I'm not supposed to interpret it as the truth, or otherwise act on it, spread it to other people, or harm anyone in anyway—including yourself—as a result of the things that are about to come out of your mouth."

Remus sighed. "You're so bloody _brilliant_, Melody! That's fantastic!"

"Yes. I know. Just spit it out, will you?"

"All right. You see, Melody—I think that Sirius and Mimi…well, I think what Sirius did in relation to Mimi…I…hey, wait a minute!"

Melody, who was sitting up very straight and staring intently at Remus, poised to receive whatever information he was prepared to dish out, groaned in exasperation and flopped backward onto the couch. "I hate you right now, Remus Lupin. I hate you."

"Well, you never actually _agreed_ not to interpret what I said as the truth, and you didn't _agree_ not to spread it to other people or harm other people or…whatever else…you just listed it all and never promised not to do any of it!"

Melody sat up and glared at him. "You are a smart little bloke, aren't you?"

"Well, I try."

Melody sighed. "I suppose you're going to make me promise now, aren't you."

"Yes. I am."

"All right. I promise."

"You promise to do what?"

"All that stuff you just said."

"What stuff I just said?"

"You know, Remus, you're making this far harder than it needs to be."

"That's because I don't want to tell you my opinion."

"Why ever not, Moony dear?"

"Because you're going to twist it and use it against me later, that's why not!"

Melody sighed again. "You've been hanging out with me for far too long, Moony. You know me too well."

"Well as long as you're not denying it."

"I may be conniving but I'm not a liar."

"And isn't that comforting," Remus muttered.

"Look, are you going to tell me or not?"

"Ooh, I have an option? Oh, goody!"

"REMUS!"

"Oh, I don't have an option. Well then. I suppose I'd best spit it out then, eh? Before you turn me into a giraffe or something."

"Don't be ridiculous, Moony. You'd be perfectly useless as a giraffe. Perhaps an owl…."

"That'd be an interesting one to try and explain to Dumbledore, wouldn't it? 'Sorry, Professor, but your werewolf seems to have gone missing…yes, I know it's the full moon…no, I don't know what happened to him…of course I'm sure he's not off terrorizing the village children, professor, why ever would you think of that?'"

"All right, maybe that's not the best solution in the world. Is it really the full moon? No, don't answer that. I should know by now."

Remus shrugged. "It's different when you're not a werewolf. I can feel it coming. You actually have to keep track of the lunar charts and everything."

"Ah, yes, us poor, backward wizards. Charts and everything. I just can't stand the inferiority!"

"Yes, but at least you _admit_ the inferiority. Most wizards can't even do that."

"I guess I'm just special then, aren't I?" Melody beamed, glad to hear Remus speaking of his condition with some amount of lightheartedness. Lately he'd been talking about it with more distaste than usual. Melody couldn't imagine the kind of burden his condition placed on him…he was fairly well-adjusted to it by now, but, really, how well-adjusted could anyone actually _be_ to turning into a bloodthirsty monster once a month, with no control over your mind or actions? Although she supposed with James and Sirius and Peter going out with him every month, and him not having bit anyone in his seven years at Hogwarts, he had more control than most werewolves. But still. It must be terrifying. "You're getting off the subject," she reminded Remus.

"Damn it. And you were getting so distracted and everything."

"Yes, well, enough stalling. You might as well just tell me and get it over with."

Remus sighed. "All right. Mel, you're probably not going to like this too much…but…I think…and I really do think…Sirius may have just asked Mimi to be his girlfriend because….well, because…"

At that moment the door to MHQ slid open, and Remus and Melody both turned to see who was there.

Remus, feeling as though he'd been spared from a very ugly fate, stared at the ceiling, spread his arms wide, and yelled upward, "PRAISE ALLAH!"

The person standing in the doorway jerked and stared at Remus as though he'd gone insane. Melody, however, did not react to Remus. She was still staring at the figure in the doorway.

"'ll—'llo, Sirius," she rasped, her voice having gone mysteriously dry.

Sirius cleared his throat. "Hello, Melody."

Remus leaped out of his chair, looking highly pleased. "Well!" he beamed. "I daresay you two can find something to talk about on your own. Melody, don't you have a question you want to ask Sirius?" he asked, scooting toward the door. Sirius took a step backward, attempting escape, but Remus shoved him in Melody's direction and dashed out of the room before Melody could stop him.

"Hey, Remus!" Melody yelled, but the panel slid closed and the werewolf was long gone. "Jerk," she muttered, glaring at the panel.

Sirius looked rather as though he'd like to escape himself, but something Remus had said made him intensely curious. He looked at Melody until her gaze returned to his.

Melody blinked. It was weird, looking at Sirius. She hadn't actually looked him in the eyes in weeks. Doing so made her stomach feel a bit funny. Queasy and nervous and unsettled, but kind of in a good way. It bothered Melody very much that she was still so attracted to Sirius, that his presence affected her so highly, and he seemed so unaffected by her.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Sirius shifted uncomfortably.

"So," Sirius said, breaking the awkward silence. "Did—did you have something you wanted to ask me?"

* * *

"Fool!" Lucifer Malfoy yelled. "Clumsy, ridiculous fool! What were you thinking?" 

Hans Cauldwell gulped. Generally, Hans Cauldwell was a very intimidating man. He rarely took orders from anybody, and anyone who dared yell at him was immediately silenced.

Recently, however, his fortunes had taken a different turn. He'd cowered before more rich, influential wizards in the last six months than he had in his entire life—and it was getting to be a pretty long life.

"As I've told you before, the loss of the shipment was not my fault. I—"

"I've heard your excuses before. Can you do _nothing_ for yourself? Must you _always_ send one of your servants to take care of things? I'd've thought by now you would have realized how pathetic your servants really are."

"Good help is hard to come by these days, you know," Hans said weakly.

"Another pathetic excuse. I'd call you incompetent but that would be inaccurate, even for you. You're just indebted. And you're worried, and you're getting clumsy."

"Yes—I know—I just—"

"No, no, no. No more of your ridiculous blubbering. I'm tired of hearing it," Lucifer snapped, sinking into a glorious green armchair. "What of your niece? Still selling those hideous watches, is she?"

"No—no. Of course not. She's still intimidated by me. I think I've scared that bit of nonsense out of her," Hans replied, glad to have something positive to report.

"At least you still intimidate _someone_. That's slightly comforting. Is she going along with our plan, then?"

"She's going to resist a bit, I'm afraid. But I've got her pretty well pinned. She won't do anything to endanger her family."

"Will she be loyal to the cause?"

Hans hesitated. "She's friends with the Minister of Magic's son," he ventured. "She seems to share the Minister's ideals. Her conversion may take some doing."

Lucifer did not seem very impressed with this information. "Potter's just a propagandist, and a pathetic one at that. Political brainwashing is easier to reverse than political idealism."

"So—so you think the plan's going as scheduled?" Hans asked, feeling infuriatingly nervous and subservient.

Lucifer gave Hans an appraising look, then smirked, as though he enjoyed seeing Hans squirm. "For now," he said dismissively, turning his attention away from Hans. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "I believe Voldemort may have his legion of young warriors yet."

Hans sighed inwardly. Lucifer had always had a bit of flair for the dramatic, and it had gotten worse since he'd become Voldemort's right hand man. Hans was no great supporter of the cause, and Lucifer knew it. He was just a businessman, and right now, a struggling one, and Lucifer, with his millions and his crackpot ideals, was taking advantage of that.

Hans didn't much care about the war or the cause or Voldemort's legion of young warriors.

He just wanted his money back.

And fast.

* * *

Lily needed somewhere to think. Conversations with Lin always made her head spin, but this one had been particularly long and draining, and she needed to go somewhere and process. Normally she'd go to one of the Head Girl rooms—there were certainly plenty to choose from—but today even that didn't seem remote enough. 

She dashed back to the dormitory to grab her heavy cloak, and then made her way to the shed full of racing brooms out by the Quidditch pitch. It was chilly—Halloween was always chilly—but the trees were in full bursting color and Lily felt she could handle the cold as long as the fall was still beautiful.

Lily was still a shaky flier, but now at least she could handle a broomstick with some amount of grace and dignity. She smiled as she thought of last year's obsession with Quidditch, and her friends' insistence that she'd be a great Seeker. She had good eyes, that was all—she'd never be a natural flier. At least she had enough skill to make it to the rooftop.

The view from the roof was beautiful as always. The sky was shockingly clear, especially so compared to the weeks of mud and rain they'd been having. The sun shone brightly over the sharp, cold landscape, and Lily could just begin to see her breath crystallizing in the morning air. But her cloak was warm and the breeze was light, and as soon as she had her broom secured on the roof, Lily relaxed and leaned back, soaking in the autumn.

The breeze trickled through her ears and swirled into her head, sorting out her thoughts. There was the Auror Training Program…that wasn't until tomorrow, she didn't want to think about that. It shifted to the back of her head. There was her interview with Dumbledore…she shouldn't forget about that…it tucked itself into the forefront of her mind. There was breakfast. Well, never mind breakfast. Lily would eat at lunchtime. The thought dissolved. Then there was Sirius and Mimi. Melody and Mimi. Just Melody. Just Sirius. Back, back, back, back. James. Oh no, not James, anyone but James, Lily was supposed to be thinking about _Lin_, not James—with much resistance, James went back.

Then there was Lin. She hung around Lily's mind darkly, skulking in the corners, irrefutably there but unwilling to come out. The breeze dissolved the skulking Lin, sorting her into two piles. Third-year Lin. Fourth-year Lin. Before and After. It had only taken one summer. One headline in the _Daily Prophet_. One action. By one man. Well, perhaps not just by one man. Many men. No, not just men—wizards. And not just wizards—Death Eaters. Too many distinctions to make. Too many lines drawn. And too many Muggles who died, leaving just one girl behind.

War. No one wanted to say it. But that's what it was. Lily already knew which side she was on. By her birthright, she didn't have a choice. She liked to think that, even if she hadn't been a Muggle-born, her side would still be the same. Muggles were still _people_. They couldn't _help_ not being magical. Why persecute them for that? Why? Why? Lily didn't understand. And the Muggle-borns, too…Lily herself was a target.

There was no sense in it, none at all, and far too many people were suffering because of it.

Lily opened her eyes to find the world blurry. The breeze drifted back out of her ears and her thoughts fell apart, into a big, messy puddle on top of her mind. She blinked and the tears made her eyelashes stick together. She wiped them away with the sleeve of her cloak and opened her eyes again to see James.

"James?" Lily asked, jolting a bit.

James landed on the rooftop and secured his own broom, sitting down carefully next to Lily. "I was wondering where you were," he said, looking out over the lake. "I guess you had the same idea I did."

Lily smiled. "I guess so."

"Thinking about…Auror Training?"

"Trying not to."

James nodded. "Me, too."

"Worried about it?" Lily asked, studying him carefully. She wasn't worried, particularly, but it still made her a _little_ nervous to think she'd be leaving Hogwarts for a whole month. Mostly she felt sad she'd be leaving James for a whole month. Well—no—that wasn't entirely right. It wasn't just him, it was…everyone, really…but still. She supposed she'd miss James in particular.

James nodded again, to Lily's surprise. "Really? I would've thought you'd be excited about it," she said.

"Well, I am…but I'm worried, too."

"About what?"

James shrugged dismissively, but he was tapping his fingers nervously. Lily caught his hand in hers and he turned to look at her. "Well," he said. "I guess…it's my dad, you know? No, not my dad exactly, but…" he paused for a moment, thinking. "I really want to do this. Be an Auror and everything." Lily nodded. "I've been thinking about this since I was a little kid. And my dad—he always wanted to be an Auror, too. But he didn't get in. He didn't pass all the tests, and whatnot."

Lily's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

James smiled. "Yeah. I mean, you'd think he would've…being the Minister now and all…but he said he didn't do very well on disguises and cloaking, so…he pursued politics. He says now this is a better job for him, anyway. He didn't have the patience to be an Auror."

"You're kind of impatient yourself, kiddo," Lily said, ruffling James's hair a bit. He stuck his tongue out at her and gathered her other hand up in his. "So this is a really big deal for you, huh?" she asked, cocking her head. James always made such a big joke out of things…even this…she never thought he might actually be serious about this as a career.

"It's what I talked to McGonagall about during Career Advice. But she—she wasn't really surprised. She knows my dad and everything. And my dad—well, he really wants this for me. And I do too, you know? I mean, it wasn't the first thing I ever wanted to be when I was a little kid—but it was the second."

"What was the first?"

James grinned. "Professional Quidditch player, of course."

Lily laughed. "Of course. I should've guessed."

"Well, what little kid doesn't dream that?"

"_I_ didn't dream that," Lily informed him.

"That's true. What did you want to be then, Lily-bean?"

"A princess!" Lily cried dramatically.

James laughed. "Still working on that one, huh?"

"Yep. But just you watch. One day I'll be a magical princess with a pink poofy dress and a tall pointed hat and everything."

James laughed again. "I'm not sure I'd like you in a pink poofy dress."

"Well, in this perfect world I'd be blonde, of course. My hair doesn't exactly go well with pink."

"Oh. I didn't even think about that."

"That's probably a good thing, James," Lily reasoned. "But anyway…I think you'll be a great Auror."

"You really think so?"

Lily nodded. "If you want to do it that bad…you have to be great at it."

"I hope so," James replied, looking out on the lake again.

"Well, I know so," Lily insisted. She leaned over and kissed James on the cheek. "You'll be great at anything you do."

James got that adorable, goofy grin on his face—the kind he only got when Lily kissed him unexpectedly. "Thanks, Lily-bean."

"Oh, anytime, Jamesie-poo."

"Let's not start that again."

"Start what, Jamesie-poo?"

"_That_. Calling me Jamesie-poo."

Lily let go of James's hands and wrapped both her arms around James's right arm. "Why ever not, my fuzzy cuddly-wuddly Jamesie-poo bear?" she pouted. James groaned and turned his face away from hers, trying to hide his smile. "Oh, I don't think so, Jamesie-poo," she informed him, freeing her hands to tilt his face back toward hers. "I know you enjoy being called Jamesie-poo."

"I do not."

"Liar."

"If anyone ever caught you calling me that, I'd be dead."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing we're on the roof, then, isn't it?"

James looked around, considering. "Yeah. I guess we are pretty…alone up here, aren't we?"

"Pretty much," Lily agreed, resting her head on James's shoulder. He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. "Very subtle, James."

"I don't have to be subtle. It's you."

"Oh, _really_?" Lily said, sitting up straight and pulling away from James, looking him directly in the eyes. "And what's _that_ supposed to mean?"

James was a bit surprised. "It's nothing bad, Lil! It's a compliment."

"A compliment? How so?"

"Well—okay, maybe not a compliment exactly, but…"

"But what?"

"Oh, come _on_, Lily. You know what I mean. I'm comfortable with you. You're comfortable with me. You know you liked it."

"Well…I think that's beside the point."

"That _is_ the point."

Lily considered. "Well…I suppose so. But James, if that is the point, then why…why aren't I your girlfriend?"

James blinked, surprised. "Lil…you _are_ my girlfriend."

"No I'm not!" Lily cried, equally surprised.

"Since _when_?"

"Since you never asked me to be your girlfriend!"

"Yes I did!"

"Oh, really? When?" Lily demanded.

"When I…it was…" James stopped for a moment, thinking. "Er…I guess I sort of skipped that part, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I really think you did," Lily agreed, nodding emphatically.

"Oh. Well then. Erm…how 'bout it, Lil?"

"How 'bout what? Being your girlfriend?"

"Yeah."

"Well, as long as you're going to put it _romantically_…"

"Oh, come on, Lily!"

"Come on, nothing!" Lily pouted, crossing her arms. "You didn't even remember you didn't ask me to be your girlfriend!"

"It's just…I feel like you _are_ my girlfriend. Asking you out's just a…technicality."

"Well it's kind of an important technicality, don't you think?"

"Er…I suppose?"

"You _suppose_? Oh, that's even better! What're you going to do when you get married, James? Just skip the ring and the ceremony and start calling some poor unsuspecting girl your wife?"

"Oh, come on Lily! Look—I'm sorry, all right?"

Lily didn't say anything, but her arms fell to her sides. James took this as an invitation. He tilted Lily's head toward his and kissed her.

_It would_, Lily reasoned, _be so much easier to stay angry with James if he weren't such a good kisser_. She sighed and pulled away. "Well…I suppose."

"You suppose…you'll be my girlfriend?"

"Mm," Lily nodded, kissing him again.

"That wasn't very specific," James said. "You're not going to jump all over me later or anything, are you?"

Lily considered. "No. I s'pose not," she agreed, and her stomach began doing happy little acrobatic tricks as James smiled at her.

"Well, I guess I've got a girlfriend then," he said, resting his forehead against Lily's.

"I guess you have," Lily agreed. "Let's just not announce it to the world then, shall we? I wouldn't have to admit I was wrong."

"Wrong about what?"

"Not liking you."

"I dunno, I think it'd be kind of nice to see you admit you were wrong about something."

"It's not going to happen, James."

"You may have to pay me for my silence."

"You're not getting any of my money."

"I don't want your money," James informed her, kissing her again.

"Oh. That. Yes, well…I think maybe I can handle that."

* * *

"Question?" Melody echoed, swallowing. Sirius nodded, taking a few more steps into MHQ. "Oh—right. Um…no, I don't really have a question for you," she admitted lamely. 

"Are you…sure?" Sirius asked, looking, if Melody wasn't quite mistaken, a bit hopeful.

She hesitated. Should she ask him something? "Yeah," she said finally. "It was nothing."

"Remus seemed pretty sure about it," Sirius ventured, taking a couple more steps into the room.

"Well…Remus is a weasel-y little rat, isn't he?"

"Is he?" Sirius asked, his eyebrows shooting up. "Since when?"

"Since…oh, since never mind."

Sirius hovered by the end of the couch. Melody bit her lip and stared at the fire. The silence became very long and awkward, and Sirius shifted uncomfortably.

"Well," he said, fiddling with the bag in his hand, "I guess…I guess if you have nothing to ask me, I should go."

Melody fiddled violently with the edge of her sleeves. She listened to Sirius's footsteps as he walked away. The panel to MHQ slid open.

"Sirius!" she yelled, turning around and leaning over the back of the couch.

Sirius, who was still standing in the doorway, jumped a bit and turned back around. "What?"

Melody stared at him, feeling dumb. There was a question she wanted to ask him—several, actually—but now didn't seem the appropriate time. She thought about inviting him to come sit down, and opened her mouth to do so, but one of her questions fell out instead.

"Sirius, why aren't we friends anymore?"

He stood in the doorway and blinked at her. The panel began to close and ran into him, and he jerked and stepped into the room. Melody wished he'd come sit down by her, but he just stood there, staring at her for a bit, as though he couldn't quite figure her out, or couldn't quite come up with a good answer for the question, or wasn't sure he wanted to stay and talk to her at all, or some combination of the above.

"You can come sit down, you know," Melody said finally, silently wishing that was what had come out of her mouth in the first place.

Sirius moved, finally, and sat down in the armchair Remus had been occupying. He dropped his bag on the floor next to him and stared at the fire for a while.

Melody began fiddling with her robes even more violently than before. It was a stupid question. She was stupid for even asking it. She knew the answer—well, she thought she knew the answer—and she expected Sirius didn't appreciate her asking. But…but still. If he really was over her, why should it matter what had happened between them at the end of last summer? Couldn't he have a girlfriend and girl friends as well? Not that she'd been the most open, friendly soul since the start of term…but…if Sirius cared about her at all, why would he just keep ignoring her like he had been?

"Why do you think, Melody?" Sirius said finally, and Melody's head jerked a bit as she lifted it to look at him.

She was currently unaccustomed to hearing Sirius's voice direct something towards her, and she'd become specifically unaccustomed to hearing him speak her name. She liked the way he said it. It was just as good as when Paolo said it. But no, she shouldn't be thinking about Paolo. That was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place. Part of the mess, anyway.

"I don't know," she replied softly, shifting her gaze to her robes again. "It's partly my fault, I suppose."

Sirius snorted. "You think?"

Melody lifted her head to glare at him. "Well, it wasn't _all_ me. I only turned you down, that's all. It's not like you haven't been turned down by girls before."

Sirius stared at her. Melody would have given a million Galleons and her entire shoe collection to know what was going on in Sirius's mind at that exact moment. He looked at her for a long time, and Melody shifted uncomfortably, her eyes slipping away from his.

"Maybe James was wrong about you," he said, frowning. Melody's eyes snapped back to his.

"James? What has James got to do with anything?"

"Nothing," Sirius replied quickly, rising to leave.

"Don't you say 'nothing' to me, Sirius Black," Melody snapped. "What did James say to you?"

"Don't worry about it," Sirius said, shouldering his bag. "It's just…really stupid, that's all."

"Well if it's about me I think I have a right to know."

"Maybe you have got a right to know," Sirius agreed. "But I'm not going to tell you."

"Don't walk away from me!" Melody shrieked, leaping over the couch as Sirius approached MHQ's exit. "You're going to tell me what James said to you!" she insisted, grabbing Sirius's arm and turning him around. Sirius glared at her. He was a good five inches taller than her. It was a very imposing glare. "Fine," Melody said. "Even if you're not going to tell me, I don't want you to leave like this."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because I'm sick of not being friends with you, that's why not!" Melody blurted out. Sirius's glare disappeared, and he blinked at her again. Melody was very proud at herself for not blurting out any of her other feelings regarding Sirius.

"Well," Sirius said, clearing his throat. "I suppose…I could stay and…talk a bit. If…if it's that important to you."

Melody nodded and looked up at him for a moment, then did something that surprised both her and Sirius. She circled both of her arms around Sirius's chest and hugged him, burying her face into his shoulder. After a brief moment of shock, Sirius wrapped his arms around Melody and let his head drop into her hair.

"I missed you," she whispered, so softly she thought he couldn't hear her.

She was very surprised when Sirius said, "I missed you, too."

* * *

_James_, Lily thought, _I think I may be in love with you. Or at least in love with your mouth._

That was really a very strange thing to be in love with, Lily reasoned. It didn't sound odd to say you loved someone's kisses. But it sounded rather odd to say you loved their mouth. It was true, though. She did love James's mouth. Only when he was using it to kiss her, though. She didn't particularly love it when he was shoveling food into it. And she supposed if he were using it to kiss someone else—well, she wouldn't be too fond of that, either. Of course, since she was now officially his girlfriend, she didn't expect to find him kissing anyone else anytime soon.

He was currently kissing her neck. Lily enjoyed this. She got wonderful tingles when he kissed her neck. The tingles were a good thought-eraser. She didn't have to worry about anything when James was kissing her neck. She didn't have to think about Lin or Auror Training or her meeting with Dumbledore or the Halloween Ball or—

Holy Mother of Merlin. Her meeting with Dumbledore. Lily shoved James away and looked at her watch. _10:57_ , it read.

"Holy _crap_," Lily said. "How long have we been _up_ here?"

James checked his own watch. He shook his head, then shook his watch, then checked to make sure it was still ticking, then checked his watch again. "Um…an hour, at least, I'd say."

"I'm surprised we're not both deathly ill," Lily said, wondering why she was thinking about her health and well-being when she knew perfectly well her cloak had several spells on it to protect against cold and illness. She stood up and detached her broom.

"Where do you have to go in such a hurry?" James demanded, standing as well.

"My meeting with Dumbledore's in three minutes," Lily informed him, glancing at her watch again. "Shit—make that two minutes."

James kissed her. "I'm sure it will be fine. Dumbledore won't care if you're a few minutes late."

"I'll care."

James was not concerned. He kissed her again. "It'll be fine."

Lily sighed, shoving her wand back in her pocket. "I suppose. I just hate being late."

"Don't worry," James said, kissing her on the forehead this time. "I'll see you at lunch?" he asked.

Lily nodded, standing on her tiptoes to reach James's lips for another kiss. He was happy to cooperate. "See you."

"See you," James said, watching his girlfriend fly away. She really was a terrible flier.

Oh, well. She was a good kisser. He supposed that made up for it.

* * *

Mimi Ramirez sighed and stared at her Transfiguration book. The spell didn't make any more sense now than it had half an hour ago when she'd started working on the essay for it, and Sirius, who was supposed to be helping her, was running late. She checked her watch again. A little after eleven. Twenty minutes late. Her boyfriend, she decided, was an absolute worthless _bum_. 

The library was empty except for the Gobstones Club meeting going on in the back. It was a Saturday, after all, and most students were busy thinking about the Halloween Ball that evening. Some fourth-year had been skulking around here earlier, but she'd left awhile ago, and Mimi was feeling very alone.

Therefore she was very glad to see Remus Lupin walk through the library doors. Smiling, she motioned for him to join her.

"Morning, Remus," she said happily as he sat down across the table from her.

"Morning," he replied. "What're you up to? Studying hard?"

Mimi made a face. "Trying to, anyway, but I'm afraid I don't get it."

Remus studied Mimi's book upside-down for a moment. "Ah. Transfiguration. Not your strong suit, I take it?"

She shook her head. "No, not at all. I mean, I'm not horrible at it—but it doesn't come naturally, you know?"

Remus nodded understandingly. "I know. I get that way with Potions."

"Everyone gets that way with Potions," Mimi noted.

"Except Lily," they said in unison, after a brief pause. Mimi laughed.

"So…d'you need any help with this?" Remus ventured.

Mimi nodded. "Sirius was supposed to come help me, but…he seems to have disappeared. I can't imagine where he'd run off to. You haven't seen him since breakfast, have you?"

A very odd look passed over Remus's face before he shook his head. "Nope. Not sure where Sirius is at the moment."

Mimi sighed. "Oh, well. Scoot over here and explain this to me, then," she said, indicating the chair next to her. Remus obliged and looked over her shoulder at the Transfiguration book.

"I just finished this essay last night," he said. "What've you got so far?"

Mimi showed him her piece of parchment. It had her name written in the upper right-hand corner. Remus laughed. "It's going that well, huh? All right. Well…"

Remus launched into an explanation. It was a very good explanation, Mimi was sure, but she only caught about half of it. The other half she spent trying not to stare at Remus. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been alone with him, or the last time she'd sat this close to him. It was the full moon tonight. She wanted to ask him how she was feeling, if he was going to be gone for a couple of days or if he'd be in class on Monday. She supposed tomorrow might be a better day to ask, but since she strongly suspected she'd never ask at all, it didn't really matter.

Mimi just wished she weren't so fixated on him. This was a bad sign. She was dating someone else, yet the moment she was with Remus all she could think about was him. She felt very much like Ado Annie from _Oklahoma_.

_Oh well_, she reasoned, _it's no crime if I just sit here and _look_ at him…_

* * *

"S—sorry I'm late, p--professor," Lily wheezed as she entered the Headmaster's office. 

"It's all right, Miss Evans," Dumbledore said, smiling, indicating she should take a seat. "I was just catching up a bit on my correspondence. I find it's the first thing that gets pushed aside when I'm busy."

Lily couldn't think of a clever response to that, so she just sat in the chair across from the Headmaster's.

"So, Miss Evans," Dumbledore began. "My records indicate you've been taking enough of the right classes to enter the Auror Program after you leave Hogwarts. Your marks in Potions are particularly excellent." Lily beamed. "Is this the line of work you wish to pursue?

Lily considered. "It isn't really what I had in mind," she admitted. "But then…I never really had anything strongly in mind anyway."

Dumbledore nodded. "At your age that's only natural. What have you been considering?"

"Well…I really like Potions. I was thinking of maybe becoming an Apothecary...but I'm not really sure I'm cut out to be a businesswoman." She'd discussed this career option with Flitwick in Fifth Year. In order to be an apothecary, you had to become an apprentice to a working apothecary. Apprenticeship didn't pay very well—if it paid at all—and you had to find another kind of work during your training. Once you finished your apprenticeship you could open your own business, but the problem there was finding an open shop space in an area without much competition.

"What else?" Dumbledore asked.

Lily spurted a string of ideas, committing to each one less than the idea before. The truth was she had no idea what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, and she was quite sure that Dumbledore had picked that up by now.

"Well, I can see that you're not passionately committed to becoming an Auror. Or anything else, really—at least for right now," Dumbledore concluded, his eyes twinkling. "However, might I suggest…teaching?" he asked, opening one of the drawers in his desk to search for something.

"Teaching?" Lily echoed. She'd never considered teaching before.

"There are quite a few good training schools in the United Kingdom for prospective wizarding teachers. Most are one- to two-year programs, and they usually have quite a good job placement service. A degree is not required for teaching in most wizarding institutions, but it's a good experience to have, especially if you're feeling uncertain about a career choice. It will give you a little extra time to decide," the Headmaster reasoned, laying out several applications before her.

"Oh," Lily said, looking them over. "I'd never thought of that before." The teachers at Hogwarts always seemed so permanent—she couldn't imagine the school ever needing new ones. She supposed, though, there were openings occasionally—not just in Hogwarts, in all schools—unless, of course, the staff all became ghosts and continued teaching like Professor Binns.

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling behind his half-rim glasses. "I think you'd make an excellent Potions mistress."

Lily smiled. "Thank you, professor."

"Now then," he said. "Do you have any questions for me, about careers or Auror Training?"

Lily fiddled with her necklace and thought a moment. Most of her question about careers had been answered in Fifth Year Career Advice, and she was fairly certain Moody had already briefed them all on everything they needed to know about Auror Training. Something tickled in the back of her head, though—wasn't there something she'd been meaning to ask Dumbledore? She slid her pendant back and forth across its chain, considering. There must be _something_ she—oh. Lily stopped, feeling very stupid, and stared down at her necklace.

"Professor," she began, "would you mind if I asked you something not related to careers or Auror Training?"

"Not at all."

"Professor, have you ever heard anything about—magical necklaces?"

"That's a very broad question, Miss Evans. I have heard some things about some magical necklaces. What is it that you'd like to know?"

"Oh. Right. Well…I…my necklace, in particular," she said, indicating the pendant around her neck. "This summer…a man—a wizard—inquired about my necklace. He said it was very valuable, but I don't know what he meant. Professor—it's just an ordinary necklace. At least…as far as I can see."

Dumbledore frowned. "Would you mind taking it off? I'd like to have a look at it."

"Sure," Lily replied, fumbling around for the clasp. She pulled the chain around her neck, searching for it, but the clasp appeared to be hiding from her. She frowned and spun the chain around again, but still couldn't find the clasp. Shouldn't it have caught on the pendant by now? It certainly wasn't small enough to fit through the eyehole connected to the pendant. "There doesn't seem to be a…clasp," she told the professor, feeling very confused.

"Does it fit over your head?" he inquired.

"Er…oh. Perhaps." Lily didn't remember putting it on over her head, but perhaps she had. Hadn't James put it on for her the first time anyway? And she couldn't really remember taking it off…. She tried to slip the chain over her head, but it was too small.

Lily was beginning to feel rather alarmed. "Professor, it…it won't come off."

Dumbledore looked very puzzled indeed. "How did you get it on, then?"

"I—I don't remember. I think there was a clasp, but…it's been so long since I've taken it off, I can't be sure."

"Has the necklace ever tried to strangle you?"

"Strangle me?" Lily repeated, her hand flying to her throat. "No! Why?"

"Some enchanted necklaces are cursed to strangle their wearer. But those curses usually work over the course of several hours. How long have you had this necklace?"

"Since last Christmas."

Dumbledore frowned, mulling it over for a few minutes. "I'm afraid my knowledge of enchanted necklaces is rather limited, Miss Evans. However—I do not believe your necklace is cursed. I believe it has been charmed not to leave your neck, though I do not know why and cannot tell you how to remove it. Were it not charmed in this way, I could keep it and perhaps find some other spells that have been attached to it. My best guess is that some protective charms have been placed on it, and whoever the necklace maker was intended it as a symbol of protection for the wearer."

Lily sighed, feeling rather defeated. She'd hoped Dumbledore would have a brilliant explanation for her. However, the new and slightly alarming realization that she couldn't remove her necklace might lead her down another path of research that would, hopefully, be more fruitful than the last.

"I wouldn't worry about it right now, Miss Evans. I suggest, however, that when you get back from the Auror Training Program, you write to some wizarding jewelers and casually inquire about magical necklaces such as your own. If you truly hold something valuable, you may not want to reveal to them that you actually own such a trinket, so word your inquiries carefully. Also—the next time you're in Hogsmeade, I suggest asking Mr. Zorcoran about it. Though I don't know how much he knows about necklaces, his knowledge of magical objects exceeds mine."

Lily nodded. "Thanks, professor. Thanks very much."

Dumbledore smiled. "I don't know how much help I've been, but you're welcome nevertheless." He glanced at his twelve-handed watch. "Well, I believe it's almost time for lunch. You must be getting hungry."

Lily glanced at her own watch, surprised. "Yes. I suppose it is."

"I'll let you get on with your lunch time, then. Have a nice day, Miss Evans."

"Thank you, Professor," Lily said, rising. "You have a nice day as well."

She left Dumbledore's office fully preoccupied with thoughts of her necklace. It wasn't until Melody ran into her at the top of the second floor stairs that she realized there were other students in the hallway, chattering noisily and heading to lunch.

"Lily!" Melody cried, latching on to her best friend's arm. "How is your day going?"

"All right," Lily said, slightly annoyed at being shaken from her thoughts.

"Is it? That's wonderful!"

Lily raised her eyebrows. "You're in an awfully good mood."

"I know! It's a fantastic day, isn't it?"

"It's a bit chilly," Lily informed her.

Melody rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean the _weather_, silly!"

"Oh. What did you mean, then?"

"It's just _great_. Guess who I talked to this morning?"

"Um," Lily said, racking her brain for ideas. "I don't know. Who?"

"No, come on, _guess_!"

"I hate guessing games," Lily whined.

"Pleeeeeease?" Melody asked, giving Lily puppy dog eyes. Lily sighed.

"Fine…um…Filch."

"Ew! Why would _that_ make me happy?" Melody demanded, releasing Lily's arm.

"I don't know! Maybe he gave you back all the Dungbombs he's stolen from you over the years?"

"Ooh. That'd be nice. But no. Guess again."

"Um…Peeves?"

"No! Come _on_, Lily."

"I _told_ you I was bad at this!" Lily reminded her as they neared the entrance to the Great Hall.

"Think _students_," Melody hinted.

Lily sighed. "All right…Remus."

"Nope!" Melody said, then thought for a moment. "Well…okay, _yes_, but that's not who I was thinking of."

"Sirius?" Lily ventured, thinking she was more off-target here than she'd been with Filch.

"Bingo!" Melody cried, grabbing Lily's arm again and skipping into the Great Hall with her. Lily blinked and stared at her friend.

"_Really_?" she asked. "_Seriously_?"

"Yep!" Melody said, grinning. "And _you're _eating lunch with us today," she informed Lily, dragging her friend to the Gryffindor table.

"Do I have a choice?" Lily asked, sitting down next to Melody, who'd plopped down across from Arabella and Mundungus.

"Nope, not really."

"Afternoon, Lily," Arabella said pleasantly. "Nice of you to join us."

"I suppose," Lily replied, rubbing her arm where Melody'd latched onto it.

"Ah, Lily-bean, there you are!" James said, sitting down on Lily's left.

"My name isn't Lily-bean," she reminded him, grabbing a ham sandwich from the middle of the table.

"Of course not," James replied, kissing her on the cheek. Lily, feeling a bit embarrassed, glanced around to see if anyone had noticed, but nobody seemed concerned. It wasn't that she didn't want people to know she was officially James's girlfriend…she just didn't want them to make a big _fuss_ about it.

A few minutes later, Lily was very surprised to see Mimi and Remus walk into the Great Hall together, and sit down next to Arabella and Mundungus. Even more surprising was when Sirius walked in with Peter a minute after that and sat down on Melody's right. Lily, James, Bella, and Dung stopped eating for a moment, staring oddly over at Melody, Mimi, Remus, and Sirius, but no one commented on it, and after a few seconds everyone turned their attention back to their food.

"Did you see what I just saw?" James whispered into Lily's ear. Lily nodded. "Did hell freeze over when I wasn't paying attention?" he continued.

Lily snorted into her pumpkin juice. Melody turned to look at her in surprise. "You all right there, Lil?"

Lily nodded, trying to keep the juice from spurting out her nose. Melody shrugged and turned back to Sirius, who she was now being oddly buddy-buddy with.

"Sorry," James whispered, muffling his laughter at her.

"Sure you are," Lily hissed back.

Arabella leaned across the table and motioned to James and Lily. "Did I miss something?" she asked, flicking her eyes over at Melody and Sirius.

"Apparently Melody and Sirius had a talk this morning," Lily said. "That's all I know."

Arabella's eyes got a bit wider. She glanced over at them again. "Well…that's good then, isn't it?"

"Just as long as Mimi and Melody don't start fighting, it is," Lily agreed. They all glanced over at Mimi, who was very preoccupied in a conversation with Remus and didn't seem to notice the three teenagers whispering conspiratorially behind her back. Arabella shrugged.

"Better them fighting than Melody and Sirius. They aren't in the same House."

"That's true," Lily agreed, and the teenagers sat back down, trying to look as though they hadn't been talking about people who were sitting less than a foot away.

Luckily, none of the parties mentioned seemed to notice.

* * *

Mimi was slightly annoyed. Not that she didn't love talking to Remus, of course. She just wasn't sure how fond she was of Sirius sitting across the table from her flirting with Melody. Well…maybe not flirting, exactly…maybe they were just talking…but with Melody Cauldwell, it was hard to tell. 

She was already annoyed at Sirius for forgetting to meet her in the library. Now he had to show up at lunch talking to _Melody_?

If she didn't have Remus to talk to, she didn't know what she'd do. Sirius sure was lucky he had such great friends, or he'd be in a hell of a lot of trouble.

Mimi glanced across the table just as Sirius threw a bit of bread crust at Melody, who laughed and threw back a grape. Was that flirting, or just adolescent food fighting? It looked suspiciously like flirting to her.

Infuriated, Mimi turned her whole attention to Remus and decided to begin shamelessly flirting with _him_. It wasn't hard, after all, to pretend she was attracted to Remus—because, even though she felt guilty admitting it, she didn't have to pretend at all.

However, if Sirius was going to sit across the table from her flirting with Melody, she could do whatever she damn well pleased with Remus, and if Sirius was going to get angry at her for it…well, that was his problem.

* * *

This was all happening rather quickly. After their very long conversation in MHQ, Sirius and Melody were talking and laughing—and should he even _think_ flirting?—and eating lunch together as though nothing had ever happened between them. It was nice, in a way, but it was also kind of weird. Especially so because Sirius's girlfriend was sitting right across the table from them. 

Mimi, however, seemed quite absorbed in her conversation with Remus, so Sirius saw no harm in carrying on a conversation with Melody. It would be impossible to get Melody and Mimi to converse with each other…it was a good thing Remus was there to cover Sirius's back.

After all, it was only a little innocent conversation, and—hey! Did Mimi just laugh and lean over and brush some of Remus's hair out of his eyes? What was Remus doing with hair that long anyway? Wasn't Sirius supposed to have the long hair that fell in his eyes? Why was Mimi even pretending to flirt with Remus? She couldn't _really _be interested in him…could she?

Well that was pretty rude of her, considering she had a _boyfriend_ and all…considering he was sitting right across the _table_ from her, and…

Ignoring her and kind of half-flirting with Melody instead.

Oh.

_Damn_.

Sirius felt like a very horrible boyfriend. He felt like a horrible boyfriend _most_ of the time, since he was still attracted to Melody, but…right now he felt particularly horrible.

Except…except…Mimi did not have to keep _flirting_ with Remus like that! Was she just trying to make Sirius jealous? Because…because…if she was, it was pretty damn well working!

Wait.

That didn't make sense.

Why would Sirius be jealous of Remus for talking to Mimi? True, Mimi was Sirius's girlfriend, but she was only so because Sirius was the meanest boy on the face of the earth and he was just using her to get to Melody. And apparently he was getting to Melody, judging by the way they were talking right now. But…but…

He was also jealous of Remus.

Now this _really_ didn't make sense.

"Mimi!" Sirius barked, and both Melody and Mimi jumped.

"Yes, Sirius?" Mimi asked, raising one eyebrow at him from across the table.

"I think we need to have a talk," he said.

"Oh, do we? About what?" she asked.

The rest of the table seemed to press in around them. Sirius glanced around for a moment and then cleared his throat. "I think we need to talk about something—alone."

The other students sighed in disappointment and sat back. Sirius stood, and Mimi shrugged and stood to follow him. Melody and Remus both watched them go with a bit more disappointment in their eyes than everyone else.

* * *

Lin had been thinking. 

No one understood how she felt, that was for sure. No one really understood that she'd kind of…stopped feeling, either.

Since Wendy had deserted her, Lin hadn't really had anyone to talk to. She supposed she should be more upset about her best friend turning her back just when Lin needed her the most…it should have been just too much to bear….

But after last summer, Lin wasn't surprised. She'd stopped expecting good things in her life after seeing the headline in the _Daily Prophet_ last spring.

Never mind that. She didn't like to think about that. Unfortunately, Lin found that she spent much of her time alone with her thoughts. She'd started paying attention in class just to escape them. Her marks in Potions were better than they'd ever been, and she'd even started working with Anthony Hall as her partner. She'd liked Anthony for most of last year. It should have made her happier to work with him.

Her perspective was different now.

Maybe Lily was right. Maybe she did need someone to talk to. Of course, maybe Lily was wrong, too, but Lin did feel awfully lonely most of the time.

There was a great big hole in her that no one could ever fill. Lin would never be quite right again.

But maybe…just maybe if someone could…even remotely…understand…she'd hurt just a little bit less.

Lily probably wasn't the magic solution for all of Lin's problems. But she'd tried so much harder than anybody else…maybe it was worth it to just give it a shot.

* * *

"What d'you think you're doing?" Sirius demanded once he and Mimi had found a deserted classroom to talk in. 

"What d'you mean, what am _I_ doing?"

"That's what I mean! What're you doing talking to Remus?"

"That's exactly what I was doing, Sirius. _Talking_."

Sirius began pacing. "Well, yes, I can see that you were talking, but what were you doing with the…the other stuff? The giggling and the pushing the hair back and the—the—_flirting_!"

Mimi perched herself on a desk and smirked at him. "Why, Sirius Black, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were jealous."

"Well maybe that's because I am jealous!" Sirius informed her, stopping his pacing.

Mimi arched an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really? That's interesting. And here I was under the impression you'd forgotten all about me."

"For—forgotten?" Sirius sputtered. "What d'you mean, forgotten?"

"Well, you didn't show up to help me with Transfiguration homework," Mimi informed him, and Sirius got a look of terrible recognition on his face that she rather enjoyed. "And then you show up at lunch and start talking to Melody, who, if I remember correctly, you were not even on speaking terms with at breakfast. So tell me, Sirius, what am I supposed to think?"

"Look, Mimi, I'm _really_ sorry about the Transfiguration thing—I—I was on my way there, but I just sort of got…sidetracked."

"Sidetracked? By Melody, no doubt?"

Sirius considered lying. He looked at Mimi, and the glare on her face made him forget about lying. "Well…all right, it _was_ Melody, but—"

"I knew it!" Mimi cried, throwing her hands up in the air. "God, Sirius, why do you even pretend to like me? Everyone can see the way you look at her!"

"The—the way I—_look_ at her?" he sputtered.

"Yes! With the goo-goo eyes, and the jaw dropping and whatever else…God, I don't even know why I agreed to be your girlfriend in the first place."

Sirius recovered, feeling a bit angry. "Well if you didn't want to be my girlfriend, you didn't have to say _yes_."

"Well, I didn't know you'd still be giving Melody those _looks_ after you asked me out!"

"Oh, the looks, is that what it's all about?"

"Yes, it really is. You know, it's pretty terrible to see your boyfriend throw those kind of _looks_ at another girl even after you've been going out with him for two months," Mimi snapped, glaring rather viciously at Sirius. Normally he would have felt like a slimy, stinky worm, but today he was too fired up.

"Oh, really?" he demanded, placing one hand on either side of the desk Mimi was perched on.

"Yes, really," Mimi replied, jutting her chin out defiantly.

"Are these the same kind of _looks_ you give Remus when you think I'm not looking?"

Uncertainty flashed in Mimi's eyes, and she dropped her defiant stance. "I—well—I—_you_—I mean—" she stuttered for several moments, then cut herself off and thought for several moments, pouting. "_No_," she said finally. "They are not."

Laughing, Sirius stepped away from the desk. "Sure they're not. And I'm a blue-spotted hyena."

"Well—well—maybe you _are_!" Mimi sputtered, thought it was quite evident to Sirius at this point that she knew he knew she was lying.

"What are we anyway, Mimi?" Sirius asked, shaking his head.

Mimi looked at him for a moment. "I don't know," she replied. "What are we, Sirius?"

He looked back at her. "I don't know what we are," he said. "We're the couple that looks at other people as though we wish we weren't a couple."

"So what are you saying? You think we should break up?" Mimi asked, feeling slightly relieved and slightly not that the end of their relationship was approaching. She liked Sirius, of course, but she liked Remus, too, and…it was getting far too confusing trying to like two boys at once.

"No," Sirius said, and Mimi blinked in surprise.

"No?" she repeated. "What d'you mean, 'no'?"

Sirius began packing again. "What I mean is…you're attracted to Remus, obviously."

"Right," Mimi said, hesitantly.

"And I…well, I…"

"You have a thing for Melody," Mimi prompted him.

"Yes. Right," Sirius said, clearing his throat. "But…"

"But?"

Sirius stopped pacing and walked over to Mimi's desk again, putting one hand on either edge. Mimi's heart did a little irregular beat as his face got closer to hers.

"You know what's funny?" Sirius asked.

Mimi shook her head. "No. What's funny?"

"This," Sirius replied before leaning in and kissing her. It wasn't passionate, or hard, or fast and desperate the way some of their snog sessions had been. It was just a very long, slow, soft, nice kiss, and it made the butterflies in Mimi's stomach flutter rather intensely.

"Oh," she whispered when he pulled away. "That's…that's unusual."

"No shit," Sirius agreed, stepping away and running a hand through his hair.

"Is it…is it even possible to be genuinely attracted to two people at once?" Mimi asked, feeling very lost.

"Apparently it is," Sirius replied, looking just as confused.

"So…so what d'you think we should do?"

Sirius leaned against another desk and stared at the ground, considering. "Well," he ventured, "I think…I think maybe we ought to give this another try."

Mimi looked at him. "You…you think so?"

Sirius nodded and looked back at her. "I mean…there's obviously something here."

"Yeah," Mimi agreed slowly. "But what about…?"

"I think," he said, "that we'll just have to agree to get over them."

"You don't…you don't think maybe we should break up for a bit to sort all this out?"

"Well…we could, but…we've been carrying on all right for two months, haven't we? I mean, at least from my perspective…." Sirius trailed off and then walked a couple steps across the room, grabbing Mimi's hands and holding them rather protectively in his own. "Melody already turned me down once. I don't think I want to give her the chance to do it again. And if there's really something here, I don't want to lose it."

Mimi looked at him for several long moments, thinking. "You really think this could work?"

"Yeah, I really think it could," Sirius said, sounding more surprised than confident.

The surprise was what made Mimi think it really could work. If he'd sounded confident, she might think he'd been thinking this out for a while, trying to get her to stay with him for one ulterior purpose or another. But this…he just seemed to be making up as he went, and she was willing to trust that.

"Well then," Mimi said, having made up her mind. "I guess we're going to stick with it."

A grin spread across Sirius's face. "Yeah?"

Mimi smiled. "Yeah," she agreed. Sirius leaned in and kissed her.

"Really bad timing though, isn't it?" he said, lifting her off the desk and setting her down again.

"With you going away tomorrow and everything? Yes, I suppose it is."

Sirius kissed her again. "Sorry about that. But at least you won't have to spend the whole month brooding over a breakup."

"This is much better," Mimi agreed, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him.

Well. She hadn't quite imagined their conversation going _this_ way, but…hey, this wasn't such a bad solution, either.

* * *

As usual, Lily's necklace research was coming along abysmally. The library books were less than helpful, and with the new knowledge that she couldn't remove her necklace she was even more confused about where to start. Plus, other thoughts kept popping into her head. James. Auror Training. Being a Potions mistress. Lin. Going to Hogsmeade and asking Zorcoran about her necklace. She would that today were a Hogsmeade day, just so she could stop being curious about it. She expected, however, that the next time she went into Hogsmeade to have a lesson with Windkey she'd be able to stay a few extra minutes and have a chat with Mr. Zorcoran. 

Too bad that day was well over a month off. Lily sighed and closed the large volume on curses she'd been scanning through. With all the thoughts swirling around in her head, she doubted she'd find anything useful today, even if she was holding the appropriate volume in her hands. The focus just wasn't there.

Lily's focus was shattered further by the sight of Lin walking into the library. _Oh, Lin_, she thought. _I wish you'd talk to me. _Lily sighed and attempted to return to her work. She didn't want the fourth year getting mad at her again for trying to talk to her.

Lily was very surprised when, the next time she looked up, she saw Lin hovering by the other end of the table. "Lin!"

"Hullo, Lily," Lin said, softly but clearly, meeting Lily's gaze.

"Hullo," Lily replied, equally softly.

"I was thinking…if…if you're not busy…maybe you'd like to…" Lin trailed off for a moment, considering. "Talk," she said finally. "Maybe you'd like to talk."

Lily stood, abandoning all her books. "I'd love to talk," she said. "Let's go somewhere a bit more…comfortable…than this," she suggested. Lin nodded mutely and followed Lily out of the library.

_Praise the Lord,_ Lily thought. _And Lord…please help me find the right things to say to her._

* * *

Lin sobbed. She had her face buried in one of the pillows on the couch in Lily's favorite private room, and sobbed almost as hard as she had the day she saw the headline on the _Daily Prophet_. Lily cried, too, summoning a box of Kleenex and a trash can from the other side of the room so she could blow her nose. Perhaps they looked like a couple of blubbering idiots, but really, behind her tears, Lily felt that what they were doing was very therapeutic. 

Lin had talked. She was angry and bitter and lost and her heart was completely broken. Lily, having only lost three beloved ones, could feel only a shadow of the pain Lin must have, at losing everyone she loved so dearly in such an abrupt, unfeeling manner. Her parents, sisters, brothers, only remaining aunt and uncle and all her cousins had perished. Gone, too, were the old grandmothers and grandfathers and other children in the village to whom Lin was completely unrelated, but who had treated her as though she was part of their family anyway, because that was just the kind of community Duncrop was. Leaving town for Hogwarts, apparently, had not been an easy decision for her. Everyone she loved best in the world was there, and she'd never been certain that leaving home was the right choice.

And now she was alive, and they were all gone…and to think if Lin had chosen to stay, she'd never have had to go through this pain.

Lily reminded her, as gently as she could, that if Lin had stayed in Duncrop she'd be dead as well, but to the grieving girl this did not seem much comfort. "At—at least then I'd be _with_ them," she'd sobbed.

Lily was not so very pleased to find that she understood this reasoning. She couldn't think what to say to make Lin feel happy she was still alive, but thankfully the girl didn't seem to need to hear anything more. She seemed content just to sob, for now, just to have someone to talk to and listen to her.

Lily could not help thinking how ironic it was that three people from her own household had managed to escape the attack of the Death Eaters, and no one from the small village of Duncrop, save Lin, had survived.

Even worse, however, was the fact that Lin blamed it on herself.

"They all knew!" she cried. "The whole village knew! They all knew I was a w—w—witch, and th-the D-d-death Eaters came be-because they're n—n—not sup—pp--pposed to kn—know, and it's all m-m-my fault!"

Lin had collapsed again onto the pillow and Lily had stared at her, dumbfounded. Similar thoughts had run through her mind when her family had been attacked. What could she say?

"Oh, Lin," Lily said. "It's not your fault. The Death Eaters would've come anyway. They're just…evil."

"That's not very comforting," Lin hiccupped.

"It's better than you beating yourself up for it the rest of your life."

Lin fell silent. She hiccupped again, and sniffed. Lily offered her the box of tissues. Lin blew her nose violently.

"I just…I want them back, you know?"

"I do know," Lily said.

"All summer…I just kept thinking…what if…what if one of them survived? Maybe one of the other kids hid in a cellar or…maybe Grandma Sandy was taking a trip to the neighboring village and they didn't get her, but…" Lin shook her head. "I spent the whole summer in a Muggle orphanage with kids I'd never seen before in my life, and they hated me. I cried all the time and I never wanted to play anything, and most of them couldn't even _remember_ their parents so they d—d—don't know what it's _like_—"

Lily could think of nothing to do but hug her.

"I don't want to go _back_," Lin sobbed. "I just want to stay at Hogwarts _forever_. It's the only place in the wh—whole world that makes me feel _safe_."

Lin pulled away and wiped her eyes, hiccupping again. "And I'm telling you all this and you're leaving tomorrow and then I'll be all alone again for a month." She sniffled loudly before blowing her nose.

An idea sprung into Lily's head. "Dry your eyes, Lin. There's someone I want you to meet."

"Meet someone? Now?" Lin asked, looking at Lily as though she were crazy. Lily nodded, standing.

"I'm leaving tomorrow. Now is the only time we have."

Lin sniffed and complied, though she looked rather doubtful that she'd like this idea.

Lily made Lin go get her cloak and they met at the front doors. "Ready?" Lily asked. Lin shrugged noncommittally, and Lily led her outside.

Halfway there, Lin stopped and stared ahead of her. "We're going _there_?" she demanded.

Lily looked at the gamekeeper's hut and then back at Lin and nodded.

"He's kind of—scary, isn't he?"

"Hagrid? Oh, no. He's one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. Come on," Lily urged, holding out her hand. Lin took it dubiously and followed Lily to the front porch of Hagrid's hut. Lily knocked on the door and was immediately met with the sound of deafening barks.

"Don't mind Fang," Lily said over the noise. "He's just a big, innocent puppy."

"Back, Fang! _Back!_" they could hear from the other side of the door.

"Big…innocent…puppy," Lin gulped. "Right."

The door swung open to reveal Rubeus Hagrid holding his boarhand back in one hand and a tea kettle in the other.

"Ah, Lily! Good ter see yah! I was just makin' some tea. Come in, sit down," he invited, gesturing with the tea kettle. Keeping her distance from the steaming tea kettle, Lily obliged, and Lin followed her cautiously.

"Who's yer friend there, Lily?" Hagrid asked, letting Fang go and busying himself with the tea. Fang happily bounded over to where Lily and Lin were sitting on the couch and began slobbering all over Lily's lap.

"This is Lin," Lily replied. "She's a Gryffindor. Fourth year."

"Nice ter meet yeh, Lin. I'm Rubeus Hagrid. Yeh can jes' call me Hagrid, though. Would you both like a cup of tea?"

The girls nodded. "Er—nice to meet you, Hagrid," Lin said. Hagrid beamed at her, setting three cups of tea down on the table in front of them.

"Fudge?" He offered, returning to the kitchen.

"No, thanks," Lily said politely, but Lin perked at the mention of fudge.

"You have fudge?"

Hagrid chuckled. "Yep. I've been doin' some cookin'—experimentin' with different sorts of things—this is my latest batch o' treacle fudge. Help yerself," he offered, setting it down on the table.

Lily tried to indicate that eating this fudge was a bad idea, but Lin was oblivious.

Hagrid was curious about Lin, and once Lin unstuck her tea from the fudge, the two struck up a lively conversation. They discovered they both had a love for animals—and Lin, having got over her initial shock, was getting on fabulously with Fang. Lily smiled, relieved she'd brought the girl to the right place.

Tea was so enjoyable Lily lost track of time, and when she glanced at her watch and realized she only had an hour before the Halloween Feast started, she let out a little noise of terror and leaped to her feet.

"What's the matter, Lily? Forget somethin'?"

"Well…only the Halloween Ball. I have to go get ready."

"Is it tha' late already?" Hagrid asked, astonished. "I'd better make sure they didn't ruin my giant pumpkins," he said, standing and clearing up the tea.

"'Bye, Hagrid!" Lily called, halfway out the door. "See you later!"

"Nice meeting you," Lin said, following Lily.

"Come back anytime!" boomed Hagrid, calling out through the half-open door of his hut.

"Lily," Lin said, stopping her just as they reached the front doors of the castle. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, Lin," Lily said, hugging her. They smiled at each other for a moment, then Lily snapped back into action. "I have to go get ready! I'll see you at the feast!"

"Bye, Lily!" Lin called as the Head Girl dashed away.

* * *

One hour. Melody had done everything she could think to do to make herself beautiful for this ball, and there was still one whole _hour _left before it started. 

The other girls in her dormitory were still rushing around in a frenzy trying to get ready, but Melody was lounging on her bed, flipping through an old copy of _Witch Weekly_, trying not to mess up her hair or her dress or her make-up too badly. Her foot was twitching of its own accord, and Melody consciously made it stop, smoothing out the wrinkles it had caused in her dress. Dress robes. Gown. Whatever it was. Melody didn't really care; no matter what you called it, it was beautiful.

The gown was white, with little gold ivy leaves stitched into it, so delicate you could barely tell they were ivy leaves, only that the gown was white and gold. The golden flecks in Melody's brown eyes stood out beautifully with the gold in the dress.

The gown had no sleeves except thin, detachable ones Melody put on because she thought it looked better that way—the sleeves were too thin to really be useful. The bodice was fitted and the gown came in at the waist, then pooled out again into a long, beautiful skirt. Not too poofy, but good to twirl in all the same. The skirt fell right down to her beautiful white heels, strappy and elegant with matching gold ivy imprints on them.

Her hair was curled again—long, luxurious, spiraly-curls that pooled gently on her shoulders. Her hair was pulled back a little on both sides by pretty white hair clips with diamonds in them. She wore little dangly earrings to match.

Make-up was simple. Light rosy colors over her eyes and on her cheeks, a little bit of gloss on her already-rosy lips, and…she was ready to go win Sirius back.

* * *

Lily was late for the feast. Thankfully, it didn't matter. 

The students sat at their own House tables and ate first—with Dumbledore advising them to go light on the food so they'd be able to dance—and then all the students stood and the Headmaster made the House tables disappear. They were replaced instead by many smaller tables on one end of the Great Hall, and the rest of the room was left open for dancing. Music began to pour from some undetectable source and students poured onto the dance floor to have fun.

"You look beautiful," James said when he saw her. She wore the dress robes she'd worn for the New Year's Party last year, and she hadn't done anything with her hair, but James looked at her like she was the greatest thing since sliced bread anyway. "Come on, let's dance."

* * *

Melody was not late for the feast. She spent half an hour in agony, sitting many seats away from Sirius Black, wondering if he'd noticed her at all. 

At least he wasn't sitting next to Mimi this time, she reasoned. That was better than nothing.

When the dancing started, she got her chance. Melody made sure she was the first person Sirius saw after the House tables disappeared.

"Wow," Sirius said. "Melody, you look amazing."

"Do you want to dance?" she offered. Sirius nodded and accepted.

They danced through most of one song before Mimi cut in and Melody was shuttled off to dance with some random Hufflepuff Sixth Year she'd never met before. His breath smelled like garlic and he kept calling her "Melanie" and she excused herself as quickly as she could.

She found a table where Peter was sitting alone and sat down next to him, glad to be sitting with someone who at least knew her name was Melody. Peter wasn't her favorite person in the world, but she could tolerate him now, and even had a small amount of pity for the way James and Sirius seemed to overshadow him.

"Not having fun dancing?" Peter asked, looking rather uncomfortable in his dress robes.

"No, I guess not," Melody replied.

"I hate dancing," Peter said, shaking his head. "I don't get how people _do_ it."

"Well, it's not that hard," Melody assured him. "Don't tell me you don't know how to dance, Peter."

Peter sighed and laid his cheek on his hand. "I don't know how to do anything else. Why should dancing be different?"

Melody laughed. "Well, Peter—that's silly. Everyone can dance."

"I can't," he said miserably.

Melody looked at him for a second, and then did something that surprised herself. (She was surprising herself a lot these days.) "Peter, do you want me to teach you how to dance?"

Peter looked at her, surprised. "Oh, ha ha, very funny."

"I'm not joking," she assured him. "Do you want to?"

Peter didn't know whether or not to believe her. "You…really mean it? You'll teach me to dance?"

Melody nodded, extending a hand to him. "Come on. Everyone should be able to dance."

"Well—er—all right," Peter agreed, looking rather shocked. He took her hand and Melody led him to the dance floor.

* * *

Dancing with Peter was quite an experience. He really didn't know what he was doing, and he kept stepping on Melody's feet, but she found that if she showed him actual dance steps, as opposed to just trying to get him to move with the music, he did all right. This wasn't, of course, Melody's ultimate goal for the night, but it was something reasonably fun to do while she was waiting. 

Plus, thanks to Melody's initiative, she wasn't the only girl who asked Peter to dance that night. Once people saw him up and dancing, they decided maybe he wouldn't be so bad to partner with after all. If he'd just stayed at that table sulking, Melody suspected, he'd never have danced with anybody.

After teaching Peter to dance, Melody switched partners frequently, until she somehow ended up with Remus.

"I could've killed you this morning, you know," she told him.

Remus laughed. "Oh, really, now? Well, aren't you glad I made you talk to him?"

Melody sighed, reluctant to admit her defeat. "I suppose I owe you a bit of thanks," she admitted.

"I guess I'll say you're welcome, even if you did call me a weasel-y little rat," he teased.

"Did Sirius tell you that?" Melody demanded. "I'm going to teach that boy a lesson! And speak of the devil…"

Mimi and Sirius were dancing relatively close to them, so Melody dragged Remus in their direction and made them swap partners.

Melody casually led Sirius away from Mimi and Remus. If she'd really cared about what he told Remus, she would have berated him for it. As it were, she really only wanted an excuse to be alone with him.

"Sirius," she asked after they'd been dancing for a couple minutes, "can we go somewhere and talk?"

Sirius looked surprised but shrugged. "Sure," he said, and they stopped dancing. Melody took his hand and led him out of the Great Hall, fairly certain no one had noticed them slipping away. There were several couples snogging outside the Great Hall, but Melody ignored them. She led Sirius down the hallway a bit and into a deserted classroom.

"What'd you want to talk to me about that was so important?" Sirius asked as soon as Melody had closed the door behind them.

Melody examined her fingernails a minute and then looked up at him. She'd rehearsed this in her head many times that afternoon, but all the words she'd thought of suddenly seemed worthless. "Sirius," she began, uncertain where this was going. Then she said the only thing that seemed worth saying. "I love you."

Sirius just stared at her for a minute. "Oh, Jesus _Christ_!" he yelled, smacking himself on the forehead.

* * *

Peter had never had so much fun in all his life. Well—all right—maybe going out on adventures with the Marauders was more fun. But he'd certainly never had this much fun with _girls_ in all his life. And he'd never talked to so many girls in such a short expanse of time, either. In fact, he'd talked to so many girls tonight he couldn't even remember all of their names. 

Was that a good thing, or a bad thing?

He supposed since he was having so much fun it was a good thing.

Well. He'd never expected he'd want to thank Melody Cauldwell for anything, but teaching him to dance was certainly the nicest thing she'd ever done for him.

If only he could find her, he would thank her, but he hadn't seen her in quite a while.

"Peter!"

Peter turned around, thinking it might be Melody, but no. It was Mimi. Peter wasn't too fond of Mimi. Then again, he wasn't too fond of Melody either, but he might've been glad to see her for once.

"You haven't seen Sirius, have you, Peter? I seem to have lost him."

Peter shook his head. "Nope. Not for a while."

Mimi sighed in irritation. "Well, if you see him, will you please tell him I'm looking for him?"

Peter nodded. "Sure," he replied. "Oh—have you seen Melody?"

Mimi rolled her eyes. "Like I keep track of that girl." But she thought for a minute anyway. "No, I haven't seen her. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen her since the last time I saw Sirius, so I bet wherever they are they're together."

Peter shrugged, and Mimi stalked off, still clearly irritated.

Mimi ran into James and Lily, who were sitting at a table with a couple of pitchers of pumpkin juice, relaxing. "You haven't seen Sirius anywhere, have you?" she asked hopefully.

James and Lily both shook their heads. "I haven't seen him for a while," Lily replied. "I think I saw him stepping into the hall a while ago. He should be back soon, though, since they're going to say a farewell-thingy to the Auror Training students in a minute."

Just then the music cut out and Professor Dumbledore asked all the Auror Training Students to come up to the Head table.

Mimi rolled her eyes. "Oh, _great_," she said. "You guys go on up there, I'll go find Sirius," she said, and disappeared into the crowd.

* * *

Sirius was silent. Melody stared at him. "Aren't…aren't you going to say anything?" 

"Say anything?" Sirius asked, lifting his head out of his hand. "What do you want me to say, Melody? 'That's great'? 'Oh, really'? 'Hey, I loved you too'? _What_?"

"Loved?" Melody quavered.

Sirius didn't know if he could handle this. He'd pledged himself to one girl and promised to give up his obsession with Melody just this afternoon. Now, here, standing in front of him, looking too damn beautiful for her own damn good, was the girl he'd been fantasizing about for years, offering herself to him. Well, not _offering_ herself, not _that_ way, but still—confessing her feelings and baring her soul and blah blah blah…she was doing all that, wasn't she?

Sirius could have slapped her for it.

"You waited until _now_ to tell me this?" he demanded, recovering from his initial shock.

"Well…um…yes," Melody replied, shifting nervously from one foot to the other.

"You couldn't have told me this two months ago when I _asked_ you if you loved me? You had to wait until _now_?" he said, beginning to feel a bit angry.

"Um...well…" Melody stammered. She'd _tried _to think this through, she really had, but it was all just…coming out wrong.

"You mean to tell me," Sirius continued, advancing on her, "that two months ago you could have told me you loved me, but you waited until _now_, the day before I'm leaving for Auror Training, the day my girlfriend and I decide we're really going to make a serious commitment to our relationship, you pick _today_ to tell me you love me?"

"I—well—" Melody attempted as Sirius backed her against a wall.

"D'you think maybe, just _maybe_, YOU COULD'VE PICKED A BETTER TIME?" he thundered.

Melody, her back flat against the wall, looked up at him and blinked very quickly, trying not to cry. "So you don't love me?" she asked, her voice unsteady.

"Do I—Jesus Christ," Sirius said again, smacking his hand into the wall next to Melody's head. She stared at it and then at him, thinking maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all. "Melody," he said, more softly, leaning his other hand against the wall as he turned to face her, "if you had said any of this to me—even—even _one day_ ago, I…I would've…"

Melody brushed her fingers across his lips and he stopped speaking. Sirius stood motionless as her hand traveled up his cheek, and was surprisingly non-resistant when she pulled his head down next to hers. "I'm sorry," she whispered, her mouth right next to Sirius's. Then she closed the gap between her lips and his, and Sirius wasn't motionless anymore.

He knew it was wrong to be kissing Melody, especially with all the things he'd said to Mimi this afternoon…but…_damn it_, life just wasn't fair, and he couldn't just let the girl he loved walk away again without at least kissing her once.

Melody was not troubled by any such thoughts. Even if she'd had such thoughts, she wouldn't have cared. It was _Sirius_, and he was _kissing _her, and…things felt _right_ again. No more uncle. No more stupid parties. No more talk of money and shoes and dress robes and stupid petty gossip. Just Sirius. Just his lips and his tongue and his hands on her back and in her hair and the little butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. This was right. This was all she wanted. Just him. Just Sirius.

When was the last time she'd just let herself _go_? When was the last time she'd let all her troubles float away and just let herself _be _with someone?

She ran her hands through his hair, down his back, up his chest, and then he pulled her so close all she could do was wrap her arms around his neck, which was pleasant as well.

Melody sighed happily, thinking she could stay in this room with Sirius for the rest of the Halloween Ball and she really wouldn't care. The Ball wasn't important, anyway. Sirius was important, and he was leaving tomorrow, and she'd rather have memories of kissing than dancing.

But then the door opened, and Melody's fantasies shattered.

A suppressed shriek came from the doorway, and Melody and Sirius jerked apart. Melody turned around slowly, knowing who she'd see.

Mimi stood there, her hands clapped over her mouth, her eyes wide with anger and horror and all manner of things that made Melody glad she was not Sirius.

"Mimi, I can explain," Sirius said, and Mimi lowered her hands from her mouth, shaking her head.

"Explain? _Explain_? Do you think I need you to _explain_ anything to me?"

"Just—just listen for a moment," Sirius begged.

"'Give it another try,' you said. 'There's obviously something there,' you said. '_Give up on Melody_,' you said!" Mimi yelled. "You feed me this horseshit and I _buy_ it and then I catch you making out with _Melody_ in a deserted classroom the _same day_ and you want me to _listen for a moment_?" she screeched. "SIRIUS BLACK, WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?"

Uh-oh. Maybe Melody should take some responsibility for this. "Mimi, I—" she began, rather meekly.

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING FROM YOU?" Mimi bellowed. Melody, who was not normally intimidated by Mimi, shrank as far back into the wall as she could.

"Please—Mimi—" Sirius tried again.

"No!" she shrieked. "I don't want to hear ANYTHING from you! You—you—evil—horrible—misleading—disgusting—awful—_liar_! I _believed_ you! I _trusted_ you! I actually thought you were _attracted_ to me, and all this time you've been making out with her behind my back! SIRIUS BLACK, YOU MAKE ME _SICK_!" Mimi yelled, choking on a sob before turning and running out of the room.

Sirius and Melody stared at each other.

"Sirius," Melody managed finally, her voice shaky. "I…am…_so_…sorry."

Sirius turned away from her. "I don't want to hear anything, Melody. Just—just leave me alone," he said, rubbing his eyes and walking out of the room.

Melody slowly sank to the floor, bracing herself against the wall for support. Tears brimmed in her golden-brown eyes. Her hands clutched the carpet as soon as they hit it, and she looked around helplessly, trying not to cry.

That had not gone at _all_ the way she'd planned.

* * *

A/N: Muahaha. I feel so evil right now. 

Wasn't that chapter fun?

All right, well, regardless of whether you all want to kill me or not for screwing with people's relationships again, here is a very important author's note that I hope most of you will have read at one point or another, since it was posted on my profile for a very long time (and if you've already read it, feel free to disregard it and skip to the end of this A/N):

_"Eyes..." is a prequel to A Lily Story, which is an AU fic, in which Lily and James don't die. Therefore, there are many many many many many MANY differences from canon HP in BOTH of these fics. For instance, Sirius's parents in this fic have been characterized as nice, respectable wizards, who have little problem conversing with Muggles, as is evidenced by their interaction with Lily's parents in Chapter Eight. (At least I'm pretty sure it's Chapter Eight.) THEREFORE, Sirius's storyline is IN NO WAY going to follow with Book 5 Canon. Sirius's parents are not going to disown him, he is not going to live with the Potters._

_The bulk of this story was written Pre-OotP. AS SUCH, much of the original plot and characterization does not match at all with canon. However, since this story is a prequel to an AU fic ANYWAY, this doesn't bother me very much._

_Also, I had a review about plot development that I'm going to have to agree with...and apologize for...because I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to fix it...anyway, in one part of the story, the Auror Training thing is mentioned as a yearly tradition...then a chapter or two later it is introduced as a brand-new thing. Only two or three people have ever commented on this inconsistency. I apologize for it...and I may yet fix it._

_A friendly reviewer also stated that in one part of the story, Melody, Mimi, and Lily discover that Remus is a werewolf and now they're discovering it all over again...that is also true, and I don't know why I never noticed it before. So I'm going to have to back and fix THAT as well, because that is a HUGE error and I don't know why I ever wrote that section...it was probably three in the morning and I was probably losing my mind._

_I don't know why these things happen. I have a little notepad where I write down all the plot points for each chapter...and even though quite often the plot points get shoved over to the next chapter or two chapters get squished into one, they're still written down...so obviously I am just silly...sigh_

_But I'm glad my readers are smarter than me, and point these things out, because, obviously, I am harebrained and can't keep track of my own story._

_I think sometime in the near future I will comb through the story and attempt to remove the inconsistencies in the plot...also fix some little typos and change the formatting to be more taking away my little asterisks..GRRR is all I have to say to that. Anyway..._

_God forbid I should ever try to write a real novel._

_Okay, anyway, that said, I have some changes to make...at some point in the future...everyone have a lovely day. Tata!_

I think I covered everything else in the first A/N, so I'll move on to the most important part of the chapter: thanking my reviewers.

A big, clumsy, galumphing, terrifying, stomping, hungry, angry, beanstalk-descending, fee-fi-fo-fum THANK YOU (no, not a giant, but a thank you ) goes to:

**dobbyisapenguinindisguise**

**Bininny-** aha! I have updated! Are you happy now?

**bluerain627**

**Magical Poof**- Yay! you read my profile. That's exciting. Most people don't.

**ack**- well, your name is rather nondescriptive, but your review was rather nifty. I'm glad you enjoy my long chapters, and for a review that was only two sentences long, it was very good.

**kate and jack**

**sweet-baby-angel182**

**Faded Memories**

**bubblegumgirl**

**Tamsididi**

**Crescent Moon-**hm. that is an interesting question. how long DO my review thank-yous take? they take…forever…and a day. really, I would guess at least an hour. usually more, because by the time I get to the thank-you section I'm so overjoyed that I've finished the chapter that I start like…IM-ing people and turning on music and distracting myself in many ways. but that's OK. it's still enjoyable. –belated addition: ok, make that more like 2…2 ½ hours…it takes a REALLY long time for me to write these thank-yous out.

**seventhe-** Oui, it is just on hold, it is always on hold. If it were permanently canceled I would probably announce so on my profile or something. I am glad I have you so hooked! But…I am sad that I take forever to update.

**ELPHIESchihuahua-** hee hee. You use fic quotes for away messages? That's awesome.

**cilverblood**

**Chrissy Sparkle**- haha, catfight between Melody and Mimi. Ohh just wait until the NEXT chapter, I have fun stuff planned for them…

**Lexy Luvs Potter**

**Nightbolts101**

**Angel Street—**that was the most threatening review I've got in a while…lol…

**Mandarina Ballerina**- your reviews are so loverly and long! Hm…if you're an awful person for waiting around forever to read the last chapter, then I'm an awful person for waiting around forever to update. so we're even. nice story about your sister almost flying off a volcano, by the way. it was sufficiently random. however, i'm severely jealous that you've been to sicily. the farthest I've been out of the country is Canada, and lemme tell ya, Toronto cannot be as interesting as sicily. I very much enjoyed your whole response to Lily's anxieties about graduation and whatnot. I definitely stole most of the ideas for her anxieties from…myself…since, as graduation is approaching, I'm having these kinds of doubts myself. Also lots of random spurts of nostalgia. hm. anyway. Feel free to borrow some of that reasoning…I very much doubt Lily's fears are uncommon. I mean, I'm going off to college and I'm feeling very uncertain about everything anyway. Plus I don't know where I want to go to college…that's a bit tricky…. I'm afraid I may have to start quoting your reviews. There are just some things I need to reference.

"haha, i love this line  
-- James sat by the fireplace for a few minutes feeling stupid before trudging up to bed.  
you go ahead and feel stupid, james. you're hot while you do it. lol"

That made me laugh. I very much enjoyed that. And this:

"oh man. melody needs to figure some shiz out. because she's going through a mid-life crisizzle at seventizzle. fo sho, man. fo sho."

I think I laughed for a minute straight when I read that. So you just keep on reviewing and doin' what you're doin' because it's freaking hilarious. I should just stop posting my chapters…instead I should send them to you and then you can review them, and I'll just post the review to the chapter. (hahaha…just kidding!)

you mentioned you love jude law. I also love jude law. I was very depressed when I saw Cold Mountain. he wasn't supposed to die at the end! (Hm…I hope you haven't seen cold mountain. –claps hand over mouth--) I'm sure you'd have beautiful children with jude law. who wouldn't have beautiful children with jude law? sigh. you know who else is beautiful? Brad Pitt. Also…Johnny Depp. sigh. beautiful people. And I don't know if you ever watch college football…but the Notre Dame QB…that would be Brady Quinn…number 10…he is so freakin' attractive it's just not fair. sigh. –melts into a puddle.—I'm sorry. I'm a bit guy-obsessed right now. can you tell? oy. I need a boy.

yes, I'm pretty sure Emma Thompson is prof. Trelawney in the movies, but I've never seen 'love, actually' so I didn't quite catch that reference.

ack! you mentioned corsets. sorry…my senior research paper was on corsets. I don't want to think about corsets anymore. lol. hm. but I should probably move on to another thank you now, or the other reviewers will get jealous…--sierra waltzes off whistling trying to pretend like this thank you isn't the longest one ever and the other reviewers won't notice her babbling endlessly to this one person—hum de dummm…

**tony z**—lol, that was a pretty good bribe, I think.

**Stardust3 ANNOYED W/AUG.2nd**—you know, Sd, trying to hold down the "shift" button and type the last half of your username just doesn't work so well. there are lots of random uncapitalized things in there. sigh. I know what you mean about feeling out of touch going to We used to long on like EVERY DAY. We LIVED on this website. …how in the world did we ever manage THAT? sigh. oh well. those were different times. we were thirteen. we had MUCH more time to burn. anyway…I so forgot you were caught up on this story! hurrah! I think this is fantastic. you'll come back from Europe and here will be this new chapter of "Eyes…" waiting for you! I hope that makes you happy. lol… "Emily the human photo copy storage center." I'm sure she remembers what's going on in Awakening. You should ask her, because really there just isn't that much left to it, and I definitely think you should finish before you go off to college and then you won't have to worry about it anymore. (Unless for some obscure reason you decide to start writing Zirconia…you'd have to be on some serious pong to mess with that crap though.) Sigh. It's so nice and spring-y feeling here. Summer's coming. I can tell. We all need to get jobs with coinciding schedules so we have time to hang out at the POOL! oh in a perfect world how nice that would be…oh well. lol. I loved your quotes in the last review.

did I honestly put something in the last chapter about the minister and deep sea tuna fishing? because I don't remember this. that's kind of funny, though. I didn't have any of those funny random details in this chapter. blech on tuna. and of COURSE lily's being melodramatic! she's a teenage girl! there is sooooooooo much teenage drama in this chapter. bwahaha. I'm sure you thought all the characters were very stupid. I love it.

yeah, you know what sucks, is that I kind of like mimi and Sirius together too. in case you couldn't tell from certain developments in this chapter…sadly, however, I managed to screw that up too. damn me!

I bet your review was more amusing than the last chapter. that's kind of sad. this story is supposed to be humorous but…you know…it's just heading away from that direction. it'll get funnier…I promise…once we get into springtime in the story (snort like that's ever going to happen) and james pulls his final prank…oooh won't that be fun. muahaha. sorry. ah well…I'll stop babbling now before this thank-you gets as long as your review.

**Arista Ramabra**

**Alana-Lou**—I am humbled and flattered by the story of your three-day addiction to my fic. I hope you have not been deterred by the monstrous wait between updates and that you continue to read.

**phat duck-**I am surprised you enjoyed the last chapter so much. Most people did not, including myself (that's kind of sad, isn't it? considering I wrote it and all…). however, I hope that means you enjoyed this chapter as well.

**LadyLuck13**—you left so many reviews! HOORAY FOR YOU! I thoroughly appreciated that. Your reviews were so…passionate…it was loverly.

**Yukiru 4evaL+J M+C S+S E+Trox**

**starfall**—thank you for saying I give the story life! that is a fantastic compliment. I try. I really do. and I'm glad you think the editing is good, because I can get a bit sloppy sometimes but…I do try….

**Aribella 777**—sigh. I do indeed wish Sierra Charm were my real name. it'd be fun to use as a pen name if I ever actually get published. but…I probably won't because then people would have access to my e-mail address and that could just get scary. anyway…I'm glad you enjoy Sirius. his character's been acting a bit older and less random in the last couple chapters, but…sigh…that happens. don't worry, we'll see more Random!Sirius yet. btw you definitely misspelled "potato" a couple times in your review. (I apologize. I am slightly obsessive-compulsive about spelling.)

**Kat44**

**Violets-in-Spring**

**Alyssa—**you asked about Lily's dream. though the dream was not mentioned in this chapter, it is important and will be mentioned in subsequent chapters. I'm glad you, at least, enjoy my love triangles and 'torturing' all my characters. muahaha. Also…Lin and Wendy's relationship (and the falling out of their friendship) will be explored more fully in later chapters. I have some big decisions to make concerning Lin and Wendy and their friendship…sigh…

**Rose-Mariann-Johnston**—no! don't die! see, I updated after all. yay for updates!

**Sahara Visions**

**mello80**

**Amy**

**funkyrocker**

**Janus-**Thank you for writing well-thought-out reviews. They're enjoyable to read…and oh-so-flattering. lol. Yay for leaving subplots hanging open! Look…I did it again! Muahaha…soooo many subplots…so little time.

**3mZ**

**limbo-gal**

**lizziee**

**cho-kaoru88**

**Story Book—**You have a very nifty pen name. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as you enjoyed the last. And I'm very happy to hear you find my fic "highschool-esque." That's definitely like the whole point of the story. And being in high school myself, I hope I have a pretty good grasp on the whole experience.

**Tania**—you are an awesome reviewer. I definitely paid attention to your criticisms and have altered some things in the story as a result. I posted stuff on my profile about it, and in my A/N this time. So, ironically, I do indeed plan my chapters out. The problem is with the earlier chapters—before I started planning things out—I just forgot lots of little details and so there are many inconsistencies within the fic, which I plan to alter in the future. Hm. And I liked your point about Lily and the Siren's Voice. However, just because I take the time to describe something like that in detail doesn't mean it's necessarily going to happen…honestly I just felt like I needed to write something remotely involving Windkey. Poor Windkey. He has a really cool character name and his subplot just isn't getting developed like I'd hoped. Oh, well. I suppose this is what happens when you publish fics serially and don't double-check all your backstory references before you post.

**lastjumpfalls-** An astonishing number of people were begging for James to ask Lily to be his girlfriend. If you must know, I originally planned to never have James ask Lily out. However, upon further consideration, I realized it was just going to have to happen sooner or later. Sadly. sigh So you got your wish. hurrah! Hm…well, Sirius might have been disowned by his parents, if I'd written this pre-OotP, but since I didn't, Sirius's parents are decent people and he's going to inherit a fortune after all. Never mind that though…that's not really important to the plot…haha. And of COURSE Paolo is going to reappear! Are you kidding? I 3 Paolo! I realize this is not very comforting to you, but never fear…Paolo has a purpose besides wooing Melody. I promise. I just love writing him…

**moony128-** Yes. You're very smart. Shutup. (Sorry. I was having a Princess Bride moment. Don't take it offensively.) I'm saddened that you have forgotten all about Lily's loverly necklace. That's all right though. Yes, it is the necklace the guy in the club pulled her over about. I'm sure that by now the necklace thing is driving you crazy...that's ok, it's supposed to drive you crazy. And if you aren't going crazy, then I'm just not doing my job right, and I'll have to work on that.

**oddbean12**—Yes, the Arabella Figg you're thinking of is a Squib. She's also much too old to be in the same year as Lily and James. But don't worry, all that will be explained in time.

**Irish Silhouette**

**Cajun Rogue**

**mystikalolo-**hurrah! there was more Remus in this chapter. I do so adore Remus. I had a LOT of fun writing him.

**Lil Bazza**

**Aria327**—I love the phrase 'hot damn!' I don't know why. the fact that I love any phrase with the word 'damn' in it is really a poor reflection on me.

**ffaddix-**you can continue to be apprehensive about everything. In case you couldn't tell, I love messing with people's love lives. also, I enjoy being cryptic.

**Tempeste-**I don't know if you've gotten this far yet, but if you have, you probably figured out that the fic starts in fifth year and continues to sixth and seventh years.

**Anar ar Isil**—aha! here you are! this response to your review is going to be shorter than usual because I am evil and self-serving and want to finish this and post and get to dairy queen before it closes. (you can see how noble my motives are.) anyway…your review was fantastic as always, and I never cease to enjoy your "Quote of the Chapters." There are usually some that I hope you will pick up…such as you did for the last chapter…but I must say for this chapter I can't really think of any that deserve a "Quote of the Chapter" award. Well…perhaps there's one. But really I don't know that there are any memorable quotes. That's incredibly tragic considering how much effing DIALOGUE there was in this chapter. tear. so sad. I'm glad you've decided Melody is not a Mary Sue. I've tried very hard not to make her so. And I hope that after this chapter your impression of her as a non-Mary Sue is solidified. She does screw things up quite a bit, despite the fact that she is still unfairly beautiful. Everyone has their own little theory about what goes wrong between Melody and Sirius…and…I'm just going to let everyone think what they want to think. Because I have sooooo many dastardly things planned for them, that I'm going to hate to do, but that are probably going to happen anyway, because they've been in place as plot devices so long I don't know what I'd do without them. Sigh…whatever happened to Storytime With Sirius? I really need to get around to writing that one of these days…unfortunately that involves coming up with pranks, and (don't hit me, but it's true) I'm TERRIBLE at coming up with pranks. It takes me FOR-EV-ER. and I'm so glad I haven't had to do it for this story in a very long time. sigh. I'm such a lazy bum. And now I guess you know why I haven't e-mailed you back yet even though it is my spring break. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and think my time was put to good use.

**ShadowFox991**

**LadyElla64**—I'm glad to have your vote of confidence on the last chapter. And I hope that this one was all right as well. And that some day I'll be able to have my own realistic opinions about my chapters instead of depending on my reviewers to make up my mind for me.

WHEW! It's all done! That only took me…forever and a day….

Anyway, I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed the chapter and that you're going to write me a loverly review so I can thank you next time!

As always, if I've forgotten you please let me know and I will add you in next time.

Tata!

Sierra Charm


	17. Melodramatic Blubberbrains

A/N: Hot dog, I'm just in time for HBP!

I had many, many issues while writing this chapter. I worked for almost two weeks straight to get this baby up, and I hope all my work's paid off. This chapter is crucial—there's a lot of character development, and several important plot points are introduced. It was also very hard to write, as in about every other scene people are either fighting with each other or crying—sometimes both. I had a lot of fun with it, though, especially the beginning, and I hope you'll have fun reading it.

Before I let you read this chapter, I would just like to announce that this is officially the longest chapter of "Eyes…" _ever_—a full fifty pages in Word, and more than that including Author's Notes and the hideously long thank-you section. (See an important note at the end of the chapter concerning the thank-you section.)

DEDICATION: This is the first chapter ever that I have sent to a beta-reader. She helped me through all the rough bits and gave me some excellent advice on the first few pages when I was convinced that everything I'd written was pointless and the chapter wasn't going anywhere. I've spent the last two hours on Messenger tweaking this with her, instead of going to bed like a responsible child who has to work in the morning. This chapter is dedicated to her. She doesn't actually have a pen name right now (she's trying to think of one), but she'll be listed under her old pen name in the thank-you section: Anar ar Isil. Thanks SO MUCH. I owe you. _Majorly._

That said, I hope you thoroughly enjoy this chapter, as I think it's one of my better ones. (I apologize in advance for the extremely fluffy L/J scene; it might actually be too fluffy, but I figured since they weren't going to see each other for a month…what the heck. Everyone else has some sort of angst in this chapter; Lily and James need to be there to be all…happy and stuff. Also I apologize for the random scenes that don't seem to have a point. They will later, I promise. And even if they don't, I'll pretend like they do.)

Cheers and happy reading!

* * *

Chapter Seventeen  
Melodramatic Blubberbrains

Lily outsmarted her dreams. Instead of submitting herself to daily nightmares, she'd begun making a potion that induced dreamless sleep. It tasted awful, but waking up and tasting the potion was better than waking up and choking on tears.

The night of the Halloween Ball, however, she was so tired when she reached her rooms that she fell into bed without taking the potion, and dreams flooded her sleep.

* * *

Lily walked briskly down a narrow hallway, holding her skirts up in her hand to ease her passage. But no—Lily didn't walk. _Lily_ didn't do anything. 

She was having the dream again. The Not-Dream, where she sat helplessly in another woman's body and looked out through her eyes, without even a clue what the other woman was thinking. What was her name? Laurelle? That sounded right. Lily was stuck again in Laurelle's body.

Where was she going? She felt rushed—panicked, even—and Lily desperately wished she could hear Laurelle's thoughts. _Am I still pregnant_? Lily wondered. _No, not me…her…is she still pregnant_? She reached a narrow winding staircase and began to run upward. Judging from the speed of Laurelle's movements, she no longer had a baby swelling in her stomach. _Unless, of course, _Lily reasoned, _this is before she became pregnant. Or…long after. And who's to say we're in the same mansion we were before? Maybe she's not even married yet…oh, that's sad…that man was very handsome._

Lily noticed at this point that she was carrying a rolled-up scroll in her right hand. The reason for this became apparent as soon as she reached the top of the staircase and opened the door to discover an Owlery. It was much smaller than the one at Hogwarts, but large for a personal collection; ten or so owls perched in the rafters. Lily hurried to a brown barn owl and tied the scroll to its leg, glancing anxiously over her shoulder before sending the owl on its way. "Take this to Patrick," she instructed, and then hurried across the Owlery to a door opposite the one she'd entered through.

Patrick! That was Laurelle's husband…wasn't it? _So is she married then? Or…what?_ Lily wondered, as Laurelle hurried down a narrow staircase and through an even narrower passage. And why all the rush? Why the worry and the secrecy and…

"Ow!" Laurelle shrieked, running into someone as she re-entered the main hallway.

"There you are!" said the woman she'd run into. "What are you doing all the way up here? Not sending an owl, I hope."

"Of course not, dear sister," Laurelle lied. "I just wanted to be alone for a while, and you know the views from the North Tower are spectacular—"

"Laurelle, how can you be thinking about spectacular views at a time like this? Captain Pearce has been waiting for nearly half an hour!" Laurelle's sister was shorter and, Lily guessed, younger than Laurelle, with long brown curls and a dusting of freckles across her nose.

Laurelle's heart thumped alarmingly in her rib cage. "Captain Pearce? He's not supposed to be here until tomorrow!"

Laurelle, in shock, allowed her sister to drag her down the long corridor.

"Yes, well, apparently the High Courts have little consideration for our plans. The Captain said he made excellent time coming from London and didn't want to delay his visit. Apparently there are other places in the area he wishes to inspect, without prior warning."

"Why couldn't he have done that _today_ instead of coming to pester us?" Laurelle demanded.

"He probably expected to find us all standing over a boiling cauldron in the kitchen whispering evil incantations and making a potion to smite him."

Laurelle snorted. "Please. Like I'd waste time and effort on potion-making to curse a Captain of the Guard. Hexes are much more efficient."

Laurelle's sister smiled at her as they began descending a long, winding staircase. "Your hexes are quite lovely."

"What can I say? It's a gift," she joked.

Her sister's face darkened a bit. "In times like these all magic's little more than a curse," she said bitterly.

"Oh, Charlotte," Laurelle said, stopping her sister as they reached the bottom of the staircase. "It will be all right. You'll see."

Charlotte shook her head and looked away. "You don't know that."

"When…when Patrick comes back, he will make everything all right again. I know it."

Charlotte looked back at Laurelle, sadness evident in her eyes. "Of course," she whispered, taking her sister's hand. "Come on. We don't want to keep the guard waiting."

Lily wondered at the sadness. Where was Patrick, that Laurelle had to send letters to him in secret and Charlotte looked so sad when Laurelle spoke of him?

"Wait," Laurelle said as they passed a mirror. "I want to make sure I look all right."

It was the first time Lily had seen Laurelle's face. She was lovely, with dark blonde hair pinned up in the back of her head and a fair, smooth complexion. Her eyes were a muddled sort of golden-brown, bright and intelligent and just a little sad. Lily suspected the sadness had something to do with Patrick. For all the references to Charlotte as her sister, however, Lily could find little similarity in their appearances. Actually, if memory served Lily right, Charlotte looked a bit more like Patrick than she did like Laurelle—so perhaps Charlotte was Patrick's sister, and Laurelle's sister-in-_law_, which would explain the girls' familiarity.

Lily was so intent on studying Laurelle's face that she almost missed the most important detail of all. As Laurelle turned away from the mirror, Lily saw a glint coming off the necklace around Laurelle's neck.

If Lily were in control of her own body, she would have fallen over in shock—or at least jerked back to the mirror to study her reflection further. Laurelle's necklace was a simple gold chain with a simple gold pendant dangling off it, in the shape of the letter "L"—the exact piece of jewelry that hung around Lily's own neck.

* * *

Remus found her. She didn't want to be found, and resisted his attempts to comfort her. Melody was in no mood for comfort. She didn't care about the ball, she didn't care about her dress, she didn't care about lying crumpled up on the floor of a deserted classroom, bawling, just so long as no one disturbed her. 

"Melody," Remus said, attempting to touch her. She slapped his hand away and buried her face in her arms. She tried choking herself apart with sobs, but it didn't work. Her rib cage held, and instead of bursting apart she fell into a fit of coughing. Remus grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her up. Melody let out a strangled, annoyed sort of noise, but it didn't have much effect, as she was still coughing.

She sucked in a long, labored breath as soon as she could breathe, and just as quickly pushed it out again with a pitiful sob.

"Melody," Remus said again, a bit more sympathetically, searching through his pockets for some kind of useful cloth. He didn't own a handkerchief, so he didn't really know why he was searching, but he wasn't about to offer his sleeve to her. Normally he wouldn't have cared, but these dress robes didn't belong to him—he'd borrowed them from Sirius—so he didn't want to ruin them. Also, maybe Sirius owned a handkerchief. Or something. _Anything_. Melody was still blubbering and Remus was being useless, so he began searching more frankly, and eventually turned up several napkins he'd for some reason grabbed at the Ball.

"Here," he said, extending the napkins.

Melody took them and blew her nose, and within a minute the napkins were gone, crumpled into useless balls and discarded on the floor. Tears still leaked out of her eyes, and within another minute she was sniffing again. She glanced at Remus and shook her head. "Just go away, Moony. There's nothing you can d-do." She hiccupped.

"Maybe not, but I'd at least like to know what's going on."

Melody glared at him weakly. "D-do I look like I w-want to talk?"

"Sure you do! Why, you look so smashing I'd say you were preparing for an interview with the _Daily Prophet_!"

"Shutup, Moony," Melody grumbled, resting her head on her knees and hiding behind a curtain of hair. Remus could see the corners of her mouth twitching upward just slightly. "I look horrible," she insisted.

"Nah," Remus said after a moment, reaching over to push Melody's hair behind her ear.

"Don't try to make me laugh, Moony," she requested, turning her face toward him. "I really don't want to laugh right now."

"And why is that?"

Melody shook her head miserably. "I just—I just screwed everything up s-so h-h-_horribly_!" she cried, sobbing again.

_Nice job_, Remus told himself. He sighed resignedly. "Come on, Melody," he coaxed, trying not to sound too heartless. "You need to get up." He tugged at her arm, and Melody yanked it away.

"N—n—_no_! Go _away_!"

Remus sighed. "You _have_ to get up. It's past curfew."

"Wh—what?" She hiccupped again.

"The ball's over. Come on."

"Oh, _sod_ curfew! I'm n-not going." Melody curled up on the floor again. "Just leave me alone! There's n—nothing you can d—do anyway."

"I beg to differ," Remus said, yanking her up off the floor rather unceremoniously.

"OW!" Melody shrieked, more surprised than hurt.

"Shh! Stop carrying on. We have to get you out of here."

"_No_!" she shrieked again, backing away. "I am _not_ going back to Gryffindor Tower, and you can't make me!"

"Well, who said anything about going _there_?" Remus demanded.

Melody hiccupped and stared at him, confused. "B—but you just said it's p-past curfew, and…"

"You thought I was going to be a goody-two-shoes and make you go to bed like you're supposed to?"

"Well…yeah."

"People always forget that I'm a Marauder, too," Remus said, looking at the ceiling. "It's just pathetic. I sneak out of the castle, I cause all kinds of trouble, explode Dungbombs everywhere, set mice loose in the Great Hall while the owls are coming in during breakfast, and still, it's never enough…everyone always thinks James and Sirius, James and Sirius, all the time, and I never get any credit. It's pathetic."

"Wait…the mice…that was…that was _you_?"

Remus looked at the ceiling again. "See what I mean? I try and I try, and it's just never good enough! Always living in the shadow of someone greater…"

"I thought that was _James_."

Remus looked at her. "Well, it _was_ James, but it was my _idea_."

Melody shook her head at him. "Melodramatic blubberbrain, that's what you are."

Remus smiled. "Better than a hysterical crying prima donna."

"Watch it, Moony," Melody said, sniffing and attempting to wipe some of the tears off her face.

"Come on," he said, taking her by the arm. "Before Mrs. Norris comes by and rats us out."

"You know Peter hates that expression," Melody said, without thinking, as she allowed Remus to lead her from the classroom. Why had _that_ popped into her head, of all things? She decided that it was better than crying over Sirius, though—at least for the moment--so she went with it. "He says it's derogatory to rats."

"Well, rats are derogatory creatures."

"That's not a very nice thing to say about Wormtail, you know."

Remus shrugged. "Just because I like Wormtail doesn't mean I have to like rats."

"I hear rats are the next big thing, you know."

"Really?"

"Yep. Everyone at Hogwarts next year's going to have a rat. 'S a good thing you're leaving, Moony, or you'd be very unpopular."

"Yeah," Remus agreed, unconcerned. "Poor Peter, though. He has to leave just as he's about to come into fashion. What a pity."

"Well, he wouldn't do much good at Hogwarts as a rat, now would he?"

"No, I expect not. It'd be a great way to meet girls, though."

"As a _rat_?"

"Well…you know…he's far too shy to meet them as a _human_."

Melody nearly laughed. "I suppose."

"Would you like to tickle it, or should I?" Remus asked, pointing to the pear. They'd reached the giant painting of fruit leading to the kitchens.

"You go ahead. I'm not in the mood."

Remus extended his finger and tickled the pear until a handle appeared, and they entered the kitchens together. Several house-elves scurried over as they entered, and Remus requested tea for both of them. Once they were seated and Melody had composed herself, Remus looked at her until she met his gaze.

"So what did you do?"

Melody stared at him for a moment, offended. "Oh, so right away it's all _my_ fault, right? Like _Sirius _didn't do anything, and—"

"Hey, now! Wait a minute! _You_ were the one who said you messed things up, remember? S-so h-h-h-h-hhhh-OOORibbly!" Remus re-enacted, pretending to sob.

Melody glared at him. "That's not funny, Moony. I'm miserable and all you're doing is mocking me."

"I'm sorry, Melody. It's just…well, don't you think you're being just a _bit _dramatic?"

Melody blinked and stared at him. She'd just ruined her friendship with Mimi and destroyed any and all possibilities of a relationship with the boy she'd been falling in love with for three years, and this was all Remus had to say about it? That she was being _dramatic_?

Melody felt like she'd just taken a knife and carved a piece of her own heart out, then thrown it to a nest of starving baby dragons, who'd deep-fried it before ripping it to shreds and making it disappear behind sharp, unforgiving fangs. If she weren't so busy hating herself for ruining her own life—in between hating Remus for being so _un-_understanding—she would have congratulated herself on her astounding imagery. All right, maybe it wasn't exactly _astounding_, but for the state of mind she was in it was still pretty remarkable.

Normally, Remus was very understanding and kind and…not a complete insensitive jerk when it came to other people's feelings. As if Melody hadn't been feeling bad enough already, sobbing on the floor of a classroom, Remus had to drag her to her feet and to the kitchens for _this_?

"Fuck you, Moony," she said finally, uttering the worst word she could think of. "You don't have a goddamn clue what you're talking about."

Remus took this insult in with a nod, and took a drink of his tea before responding. "Let me take a wild guess. You confessed your feelings to Sirius, and he rejected you?"

Well…maybe Remus kind of had a clue what he was talking about.

"It's not that simple, Moony," she snapped, taking a sip of her own tea, slamming the cup back to the saucer with a sharp clatter.

"Ah. You confessed your feelings to Sirius, and then he _didn't_ reject you, and then Mimi found out?"

All right, Remus was pretty good at guessing, but he wasn't exactly spot-on, and he was still downplaying the whole affair with more insensitivity than Melody would have liked. "Remus, I really don't think you understand what—"

"I bet Mimi walked in on you."

Melody faltered. He was getting better at this whole 'guessing' thing. "Look, Moony, I—"

"She did, didn't she? I bet you were kissing him or something, weren't you?"

Melody stared Remus, and then glanced at his drink. Did he put some kind of special mind-reading potion in that tea when she wasn't paying attention?

"Well…I…Moony, you know I—" She cut herself off for a moment, fuming at Remus's newfound accuracy.

"I mean, I never meant for Mimi to…" she continued, searching for words.

"He"—but no, that didn't sound right—"no, _I_…I just…."

Emotion seized Melody's throat and tightened it. Tears popped into her eyes, hot and fresh and blurry. The events ran through her mind again, so fiercely that she didn't notice Remus requesting a pile of napkins from the house-elves. The napkins were there, though, when the emotions ebbed and her nose was red and stuffy again.

Remus waited patiently for her to clear her eyes and her nose and take a few sips of tea. Melody grabbed a new napkin and dabbed at her eyes again and then held on to the napkin for no reason other than her need to fiddle with something.

After a moment she spoke again, softly, but clearly and with more composure.

"It wasn't just what happened, Moony. It was the way I let Mimi down. How I avoided and ignored her, and then stabbed her in the back the first chance I got. And the way I've treated Sirius. I…I should've done something sooner, and this wasn't fair, this wasn't right. I just…needed to say something before he had to go. I didn't mean to say what I ended up saying…it's just what came out…and…then I couldn't run away from it anymore. And…."

Melody felt a bit foolish, confessing the next bit to Remus. He was a boy, after all, and she didn't share with the Marauders what she did with Lily…but still, she might not see Lily before she left, and Remus would still be here, and it was Remus she'd need to talk to. "…I don't know. I just needed to kiss him again."

Her heart thumped extra-hard with the memory. Sirius's lips were warm and soft and smooth, and slid so easily against hers, and his tongue…well, maybe she shouldn't be thinking about that right now, not in front of Remus anyway. Not that it was indecent or anything…but it wasn't as though Remus needed to know about Sirius's tongue, either. "Anyway…" she continued.

Remus, who was not usually exposed to this kind of girl-talk, shifted in his chair and drank some more tea, wishing briefly that he'd opted for butterbeer or pumpkin juice instead. For some reason the cup and saucer before him were making him feel a bit too…well, feminine…even though they weren't particularly girly in appearance, and no different than the ones his mum had served him tea in at home…in fact, the ones at home had little pink flowers on them, and he'd never thought twice about his manliness while drinking out of one. That struck him as odd, but he probably should have been listening to Melody instead of thinking about teacups, so he tried to stop focusing on pink flowers and manliness. He reached across the table and put his hand on hers, and her speech halted.

"You can't change what happened, Melody."

"I know," she replied, avoiding his gaze. "But that doesn't make me feel any better about it."

* * *

Lily woke early and said a very long good-bye to James, hidden in a small alcove off one of the fourth-floor passageways. It was a particular favorite of theirs, as it was furnished with a cozy, padded bench, and not once had anyone disturbed them there. Plus it was easy to slip in and out of without anyone noticing, and provided an excellent place for them to duck into when they wanted to…chat…between classes. 

They were doing the same sort of chatting this morning. Their mouths were doing a lot of work, anyway.

Lily wanted to _say_ good-bye to him eventually, of course, but that sort of thing could be done outside the Great Hall, or just before they split up to go their separate ways for training, and Lily did not want to spoil their time alone with words.

James had his arms wrapped around her tightly, and his hands were not tangling themselves up in her hair as usual. In response Lily found her hands cradling James's face rather than exploring his chest or slipping themselves around his neck.

This said more to Lily than any amount of words. James was adorably protective at times…but this was different. Now, she thought, he wasn't so much protective as he was sorry to see her go. Not forever, of course, but four weeks was a long time, and among other things, Lily could tell he would miss their…chats.

Lily was not immune to sadness at the thought of separation, either. She _loved_ kissing James. And being kissed by him. It occupied a good portion of her free time, and thoughts of it plagued her mind even when her time was not free. Kissing was not _all_ they did, of course, but it was the most enjoyable of their activities, and Lily felt slightly distressed when she thought of not being able to engage in this activity for a month. She figured now would be a good time to stock up on kisses. She used her hands and mouth to guide him to the kind of kisses she enjoyed most—long, slow, involved ones that made her heart thump extra-slow, like it was missing beats, and then thump extra-fast to make up for the ones it missed.

James finished one of these kisses and pulled away slowly, his lips in no hurry to leave hers, but leaving nonetheless. Lily's lips were red and puffy, in the best way, by the time they'd finished, and she refused to open her eyes, unwilling to pull herself away from the sensations. James's lips found hers several more times, briefly, before he tightened his arms about her, pulling her to his chest.

Lily relaxed against him easily, dropping her hands from his face and slipping them about his torso. She took deep, slow breaths until her heart returned to its normal speed, spiking every so often when James kissed the top of her head, or stroked her hair, or made soft, slow circles on her back with his thumb.

Lily wondered sometimes if maybe this was what it was like to be in love, but she always second-guessed herself. She didn't trust teenagers and their relationships…didn't trust the idea of love…mostly, though, she didn't trust herself to handle losing anyone she loved again. If she didn't love anyone, then she couldn't lose them.

These thoughts weren't helping. Lily buried her face into James's chest and tried to push her thoughts away. James rested his head on top of hers.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," Lily replied, muffled.

"You sure?"

"Mm," Lily replied, noncommittally, but she tightened her arms around James. He kissed the top of her head.

"Lil?" he said, pulling away and tugging gently at her chin, trying to peer into her face. Lily was reluctant to loosen her hold. She slipped her arms from his waist to his neck, wedging herself against him. James sighed and pulled her into his lap. "That better?" he asked, and Lily nodded, burying her face in the crook of his neck. "Lily, I want to look at you," James informed her, sounding a bit exasperated. Lily let out a small, unhelpful grunt and didn't move. James toyed with the ends of her hair. "I'm not going to see you for a month."

"Mmhm," Lily agreed, turning her head to the side and kissing the curve of his neck. She smiled as she felt the whisper of goose bumps spreading across his skin, and kissed his neck again, a little bit higher. Her kisses trailed up his neck and along his jaw, then hopped over his mouth to his nose. "Okay," she whispered. "You can look at me now."

James closed his eyes and kissed her. Lily smiled to herself and kissed him back. "Not interested in looking anymore?" she teased, pulling away. James glared at her. Lily sighed. "Some people are _so_ touchy," she commented to no one, tracing her finger along James's cheek.

"I was going to say something," James informed her.

"Really now? And what were you going to say?"

"Something having to do with good-bye. But it was stupid."

"It was?"

"Yep. Not worth saying."

"And why is that, James?" Lily asked, cocking her head.

"Because this is so much more effective," he said, and kissed her again.

"Ooh," Lily said, pulling away momentarily. "That was a good line, James."

James grinned. "I know."

Lily laughed. "Well as long as you're modest about it…"

"You're not dating me because I'm modest."

"No?"

"No. You're dating me because…"

"Because you look so smashing in a pair of trousers?" Lily suggested.

James grinned again. "Well, there is that."

"What else is there?" Lily joked.

"My astounding Quidditch abilities?"

Lily considered. "Nah. If I wanted that in a relationship, I would've gone to Sirius."

James's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, _really_?" he demanded, and then he began tickling her.

Lily shrieked with laughter. "All right, all right! I was just kidding!"

"You better be kidding," James said, just a little bit sulkily.

"Aw," Lily said, wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing their faces very close together. "I _was_ just kidding, James."

"I know," James said, sounding less sulky.

"And I am going to miss you," she informed him.

"I know," he said again.

"I guess we already talked about that."

"Uh-huh," James agreed, leaning over to kiss her again.

Lily responded easily, her lips familiar against James's, and well worn into practice this morning after almost an hour of good-byes.

A small beep came from behind James's head, and Lily realized it was her wristwatch going off. She groaned and pulled away from James. "No," she moaned, looking at the time. "It _can't_ be seven already."

James, utterly deflated, plopped his head on Lily's shoulder and refused to move for several minutes.

"We have to go, James."

"No we don't," James insisted. "You don't have to run off and send a stupid owl. You could stay here with me a bit longer."

"_James_," Lily said again, more insistently. The owl was for her cousin in America, with whom she'd been keeping up correspondence ever since the funeral. She didn't know if she'd have a chance at mailing it during Auror Training, so she thought it was best to send the letter off this morning. It was all rather complicated, really, as Molly was a Muggle.

Lily had to send the letter to her mum, who then had to put stamps on it and mail it to Molly, and when Molly sent a letter back she couldn't actually send it to the Potter's house because they didn't have a mailbox, so she sent it to a Muggle Post Office a good half-hour drive from Potter's Cottage. Lily didn't usually get Molly's letters for a week or two after they arrived in England, and sometimes James actually got Lily's letters from Molly, accompanying a letter from _his_ mum, since Lily and James's parents were all occupying the same house. Which was all very weird, really, if Lily stopped to think about it—so usually she tried _not_ to think about it.

Eventually James acquiesced. "All right, all right." he said, reluctantly. "I know." He was silent for a few moments as Lily ran her hands through his hair. "I really will miss you, Lily-bean," he managed finally, lifting his head.

Lily smiled and kissed him softly, and then she slid off his lap and stood. "And I'll miss you."

James stood, wrapping his arms around her one more time. "It won't be so long," he reasoned. "We'll have a lot to keep ourselves occupied."

"It's going to stink, though," Lily added, matter-of-factly, "since I won't be able to kiss you for a month."

James laughed. "As long as you're willing to admit it," he said, and kissed her one more time, and then they parted.

* * *

Mimi didn't get to say good-bye to Lily. She'd meant to, she really had, but she wasn't quite up for it. She didn't even wake up until well past noon, her eyes crusted shut with dry tears, her body exhausted from dancing and screaming and crying, her brain still soggy with emotional sewage. 

Because that's what it was. That's what Sirius had dumped on her. Emotional sewage.

Convenient for him, too, wasn't it? The bastard. Cheat on your girlfriend one night and then leave her to rot while you prance about doing bloody Auror Training for a month. Sounded like a _great_ plan to Mimi. It must've sounded _wonderful _to Sirius when _he_ thought it up.

Of course, Mimi wasn't sure how much of it had been Sirius's idea or how much of it Melody's, or how long it had been going on, or how many other people knew about it. And worst of all, one of the few people she really wanted to talk about it with had left on a train at eight o'clock this morning. She suspected some of the other girls in her dormitory would find out about it sooner or later, but Mimi had been the first one to bed last night and had kept her crying quiet until she was sure everyone else had fallen asleep. Then she'd tiptoed out of bed and to the common room, where, despite her best efforts, she'd sobbed until she was sure the whole House could hear her—but no one came. Not Susie or Matt and certainly not Lily, who was among the last to reach the dormitories and surely so soundly asleep not even Peeves could have woken her. So Mimi cried alone, and she expected she'd spend the next four weeks alone, depressed and brooding and full of emotional sewage.

She would have been _very_ hurt to find out about Remus's several-hour-long chat with Melody in the kitchens, but the only people who knew about _that_ were the house-elves, and they weren't going to tell anybody—except perhaps Dumbledore.

Until morning Mimi didn't think of talking to Remus. She'd spend most of the night cursing Sirius and Melody and then all of Gryffindor in general, forgetting that there was still Remus to confide her trauma to. He might not care…or he might be on Melody's side…but then, no. He was Remus, and much too sensible to take sides. Or perhaps too spineless. Certainly too spineless to ask Mimi for a date.

Mimi teetered back and forth like this, between adoring Remus and hating him, until her stomach grumbled angrily in protest. But Mimi didn't feel like getting up for food, because she didn't want to chance seeing Melody. Instead she rolled over and burrowed into her covers, forcing herself into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

Lily was on the Hogwarts Express. It felt very _wrong_ to be on the Hogwarts Express, what with most of the cars missing and no other students besides the three other Auror Training candidates aboard. There was only one car attached to the engine car, and they were rattling along the tracks a bit faster than usual, but not dangerously so. Each of the Training candidates had snagged a compartment of their own, and Fletcher Hawkes occupied a fifth, but the rest were eerily empty. Lily had done a cursory inspection of the car just after they left Hogsmeade station, partly to determine where everyone was sitting and partly out of habit, and it was odd to see several of the compartments completely empty—especially as they were using the Prefect compartments, which were slightly roomier and cushier than the normal ones. 

Lily had slept a bit coming out of Hogsmeade, but now it was past noon and she was both hungry and wide awake. She stared out the window for a few minutes, wondering if they were going to have lunch, before deciding that it was very boring sitting in a train car alone, and she decided to visit with Sirius, who, if he wasn't asleep, would be better company than her trunk.

As soon as she slid open her compartment door and stepped into the hallway, she ran into Fletcher Hawkes, who was distributing sandwiches and pumpkin juice.

"Thank you," Lily said, feeling a bit clumsy as she accepted her meal.

"Save one of the sandwiches for later," Fletcher advised. "We've got a long way til London yet."

"All right."

Fletcher turned to walk away and then stopped, turning back to Lily. "Oh—and your blonde friend, in that compartment," he added, indicating Sally Parkinson's compartment, "I put a Silencing Charm on her. She was snoring so loud I couldn't concentrate. Make sure you take it off when she wakes up, and don't bother me about it, because I'll be busy."

"All—all right, sir," Lily replied, stifling a laugh as he walked away.

"Don't call me 'sir,'" Fletcher called over his shoulder. "'Fletcher' or 'Hawkes' will work just fine." He disappeared into his compartment before Lily could reply.

Laughing, she stumbled into Sirius's compartment and plopped down on the seat across from him. "Did you hear that?" she asked, and went on before Sirius could reply. "Fletcher Hawkes put a Silencing Charm on Sally because she was snoring so loud!" Lily collapsed in a fit of giggles before recovering and realizing that Sirius was just staring out the window, his face stony and his food untouched. Lily blinked and stared at him for a moment, her laughter gone.

"Sirius?" she ventured. "You okay?"

* * *

Sirius turned his head and looked at her blankly. He shrugged and turned back to the window. 

"You feeling all right? You haven't touched your food. You _do_ know there's food, right?"

Sirius glanced over at his sandwiches and shrugged again before returning his gaze to the window.

"Oh, come on, Sirius. Whatever it is, it can't be _that_ bad. You don't have the stomach flu or anything, do you?"

Sirius shook his head.

"For the love of _Pete_, Sirius, stop being dramatic. Eat something and tell me what's going on."

Sirius considered her for a moment, and then shrugged and picked up a sandwich. Even if he _was_ the worst boyfriend ever to walk the face of the earth and depressed beyond all reason, it was no reason to starve to death. He took a generous bite of ham and cheese and followed it with a nice swig of pumpkin juice. He didn't expect to actually feel better because of this, but he did, almost instantly. _Huh_, Sirius thought. _No wonder girls eat a lot when they're depressed._

"Ffo?" Lily asked, working her mouth around the peanut butter in her own sandwich. "Whassa matter?" she managed, rather thickly.

Sirius took another bite of sandwich and thought for a moment how to best explain it. Considering he was talking to Lily, who understood the situation probably better than he did, it wouldn't be too difficult to sum up.

"Well, if we're going to go with the 'straight-facts-no-bullshit' version…I hate Melody. Oh, and I hate myself, too. I should be thrown out of the window of this train…and then shot," he added thoughtfully.

"I thought you were going for the 'no bullshit' version."

"All right, maybe that was a little elaborate. I don't really _want_ to be thrown out of the window of this train. But…I _deserve_ to be."

"Sirius, are you on your period?"

"_What_?"

"You sound like a hormonal teenage girl. Snap out of it."

Sirius ran through some things in his head. "You know, I've been called a lot of bad names, Lily, but I don't think I've ever been called a hormonal teenage girl before."

"That's probably a good sign," Lily reasoned. "So, as Sirius, and not as a hormonal teenage girl, would you mind telling me what's going on?"

Sirius considered this, and stalled by biting off a particularly large chunk of his sandwich, nearly biting off one of his own fingers in the process. This whole 'eating' thing was much more dangerous than people made it out to be.

Lily waited expectantly.

"All right," Sirius said finally. "But I'm probably going to sound like a hormonal teenage girl no matter what, because this whole thing was brought on by two hormonal teenage girls."

"And yourself of course," Lily prompted. "Since you deserve to be thrown out of the train window. And then shot," she added quickly, before Sirius could.

"Right," Sirius agreed, pausing to think things over before continuing. "I told Mimi I was going to stop mooning over Melody, and that she should stop mooning over Remus, and that we should take an honest stab at our relationship instead of just…pretending at it. And then at the ball Melody asked me if I wanted to go talk somewhere, so we went to a deserted classroom, and she told me that she loved me, and then she kissed me and Mimi walked in on us. And…I think that's all. Mimi was real mad though. I bet you can imagine."

Lily's eyes were very wide. "All…right," she said, pausing for a moment to process this information. "Well, the bit with you and Mimi taking an honest stab at your relationship I didn't really see coming, but the rest of it I kind of did."

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "What, did Melody _plan_ this or something?"

"No," Lily said, shaking her head. "Melody may be a stupid hormonal teenager, but she's not _mean_. She'd never have put herself in this situation on purpose."

"Well then how did you know it was coming?"

"Because I knew how Melody felt about you," Lily reminded him, taking a drink of her pumpkin juice. "And so do _you_, if I recall. James _told_ you Melody was lying to you. Why you ever decided to go out with Mimi in the first place is beyond me."

"Well see, that's part of the reason I deserve to be thrown out of this train window and shot," he said, and told Lily about he and James's failed plan to make Melody jealous.

Lily groaned. "Sirius…are you _serious_?"

Sirius shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"All right, first of all, when we get back to Hogwarts remind me that I want to wring James's neck for thinking of such an _idiotic_ plan. Second—Sirius, are you completely_ daft_?" Lily yelled, throwing her unwrapped sandwich at him. He cringed for a moment before realizing she was throwing food at him, and then, because he'd finished his own sandwich, he unwrapped Lily's and bit into it happily. "Sirius!" she shrieked. "That sandwich is supposed to be for _later_."

"Oh well, too late now," Sirius reasoned, taking another bite. Lily glared at him and snatched his other sandwich away before he could eat that, too.

"_Second_," Lily repeated, glaring, "why, of all the girls at Hogwarts, did you have to pick _Mimi_?"

Sirius chewed and thought about this for a moment. "Well," he said finally, "she was the only other girl I really _knew_. I mean—yeah, I _know_ Kim and Lorelei and Arabella…and Susie and Noelle and Christine and Izzy…and Emily and Holly and Sarah…and Pauline and Lia and Arista and Cassie and—"

"All right, I get the picture," Lily interrupted. "You know lots of girls. So why not pick one of _them_?"

"Well…I mean, they're great and all, but I dated a lot of them in Fourth Year, and that just wasn't fun, and besides if I started dating one of them this year it'd look really suspicious, don't you think? Without any kind of…I don't know…preliminary…whatever?"

Lily raised one eyebrow. "Yeah, because you and Mimi wasn't just _totally_ out of the blue."

"At least I could carry on a conversation with her," Sirius pointed out. "It was better than asking out some random Hufflepuff."

Lily thought about this until it almost made sense. "All right, but…_why_, Sirius? What made you think that this was _ever_ going to work?"

"Well…it _did_, didn't it?" Sirius pointed out. "Melody told me she loved me and then she kissed me. I mean…that was good."

"Except for the part where you were cheating on your girlfriend who you _actually happened to like_."

"Yeah, that part didn't work out so well," Sirius agreed.

"Of course, I also don't get why Mimi decided she wanted to go out with you."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh…I don't know, Sirius."

"I mean…aren't I devilishly handsome and witty and charming and utterly smashing on the Quidditch pitch and smart and refined and—"

"Shut up, Sirius."

"Sorry. It's just that when I get going on my attributes it's awfully hard to stop."

"Well at least you're not being a hormonal teenage girl anymore."

"Hey, that _is_ cheerful, isn't it? I'm in the mood for a snack! D'you want some Cauldron Cakes?"

"You have Cauldron Cakes?"

"Sure!" Sirius said, and began digging through his trunk.

"Where did you get Cauldron Cakes?"

"From Hogs—Hogwarts," Sirius said quickly. "Before we left."

Lily raised her eyebrow doubtfully but accepted a Cauldron Cake. "Raid the kitchens or something?" she asked.

"Or something," Sirius agreed, grinning.

* * *

Sirius really was devilishly handsome, Lily noted, biting into her cake. Too bad she was dating James, or she might somehow have been able to get in on the Sirius-romance-drama. She took another bite of cake and thought about this some more before realizing how ridiculous it was, and snorted in laughter. Sirius gave her a very odd look. 

"Um…feeling all right there, Miss Piggy?"

"Oh, stuff it, Sirius," Lily said, still buried in her thoughts. She'd backtracked a bit by now and was kind of stuck on the spot where she casually mentioned she was dating James. Her lips curled up happily.

"_Now_ what are you thinking about?" Sirius demanded. "You can't just sit there and think about things when you're in the company of someone else, Lily-bean. It's very rude."

"Haven't we discussed, many times, how I feel about the name 'Lily-bean'?"

"I never hear you protest when _James_ calls you Lily-bean."

"Well, that's a bit different, isn't it, since James is my…"

"Your what, Lily-bean?"

Lily glared at him for a moment before finishing. "…my boyfriend."

"Your boyfriend? No kidding?" Sirius said, slightly surprised.

"Yep," Lily replied, trying not to feel embarrassed.

"You finally made it official?"

"Um…yeah."

"And you're willing to admit this?"

"Uh-huh."

"To the general public, even?"

"All right, Sirius."

"You're not going to deny it anymore?"

"Sirius."

"You're not going to slap him across the face when he tries to smooch you?"

"_Sirius…_"

"What about—"

"SIRIUS!"

"Yes, Lily-bean."

"That's enough. And stop calling me that."

"Whatever you say, Lily-bean."

* * *

Remus could not believe this. He figured once James, Sirius, and Lily were safely out of Hogwarts, all their melodramatic teenage issues would disappear with them, and he'd finally have some peace and quiet. Instead, he was sitting on the couch in MHQ watching Mimi bawl her eyes out. Somehow, this scene was startlingly familiar…. 

This time Remus was well prepared with tissues. At least, he _thought_ he was well-prepared with tissues. A whole box for one crying girl certainly _seemed_ like a sufficient amount…but Mimi was going through the tissues at an alarming rate. Only ten minutes had passed and already she'd filled two rubbish bins and emptied at least half of the box.

"I'm s—sorry," Mimi managed at one point. "You d—don't need to b—b—be here for all thi—i—is."

Remus patted her back awkwardly. "That may be true, but you don't need to be alone for all this either."

Mimi's crying halted for a moment and she looked at him. "You're so n—n—n—_nice_!" she blubbered, losing her composure.

_Oh crap_, Remus thought. _Here we go again. Why do they always burst into tears when I think I've found something nice and innocent to say?_

Mimi wailed for a few minutes longer and then composed herself again. Well, maybe _composed_ wasn't exactly the right word, Remus noted, as Mimi picked up the box of tissues and hurled it across the room angrily.

"I'm such an _idiot_!" she fumed, her eyes still damp with tears. "Wasting all this time over stupid S—S—Sirius!" She took a few heaving breaths and then shook her head angrily, swiping at her tears roughly with the sleeves of her robe. "You think I'm being an idiot, don't you?" she asked, turning her gaze on Remus.

Remus blinked and thought furiously for something non-incriminating to say. Was "no" the right answer? Would she accuse him of lying? What about "maybe"? Was that safe? Or would she be offended that maybe he did think she was being an idiot? And "yes" was definitely out of the question…wasn't it? Unless of course…

"I think you're being a normal teenage girl," he said suddenly, wondering which part of his brain _that_ answer had sprung from.

"I guess," Mimi replied, bringing her knees to her chest and resting her chin on them. "It just wouldn't be so bad if…" she glanced at Remus. "Never mind. You don't want to hear about it."

_You're right_, Remus agreed. _Especially since I heard the whole thing from Melody last night…about five times…. Would it help if I told you how horrible Melody feels about the whole thing?_ He looked at Mimi for a minute, considering. _No. Probably not._

He failed to notice the expression on Mimi's face. She stared at him with wide eyes, looking slightly hurt that he hadn't immediately protested against her suggestion that he didn't want to hear her problems, and then she blinked and slid her gaze away from his.

"I…I don't mean to impose," she said again, tremulously. "I should…probably be going now anyway."

_Thank goodness_, Remus thought, but little warning bells were going off in the back of his head. "No," he said finally, his Emergency Idiot Prevention system kicking in. "You should stay. There's obviously a lot on your mind."

Mimi looked grateful and sank back into the couch. She started speaking, and Remus zoned out a bit. Occasionally he caught snippets of her monologue, but mostly it sounded like Melody's speeches last night, except Mimi seemed to be more of a victim than a…victimizer? Was that the right word?

Remus was beginning to think that maybe girls were more trouble than they were worth. Sure, he liked Mimi and all, but he wasn't quite sure he could even _handle_ Mimi. What was wrong with everybody, anyway? It was just Hogwarts. They were just teenage relationships. It wasn't as though any of them were going to go off and get _married_ or anything…. Remus was quite sure that within a month, Mimi would fully recover and be going out with some fabulous new boyfriend, and Sirius and Melody would patch up whatever problems _they_ were having, and the whole world would continue as though none of this ever happened. Did Remus even want to bother with one of these relationships?

He thought about this for a moment, and then realized he was being stupid. Even if relationships were pointless, they looked like fun. Sometimes. Not right now, obviously. But if he was going to date someone, maybe he should pick someone besides Mimi. Someone who looked…less emotionally volatile. Of course…generally he didn't consider Mimi _or_ Melody emotionally volatile, so maybe any relationship could do this to any girl, no matter who they were. _That_ thought was kind of disturbing.

Should he be listening to Mimi? He zoned back in for a second to see what she was talking about.

"You're a really good listener, you know," Mimi said quietly, staring at the fire. "Unlike Sirius 'Smooch-Me' Black," she added darkly. That set her off again.

Nope. Not important. Remus zoned out again. Mimi was really fairly attractive. And who said he had to bother with telling her about all this 'werewolf' business, anyway? And he wouldn't want to smooch her _all_ the time if she were his girlfriend. Normally he did enjoy talking to her. Just…not right now. Right now was obviously a bad time to start some kind of relationship with her. He wondered why he'd been so obtuse about relationships before. The 'getting together' part couldn't be _that_ complicated. Not if the 'breaking up' part was so elaborate, anyway. It didn't seem fair for _both_ of those to be complicated.

What was Mimi talking about now? She seemed kind of angry.

"…not fair to _use_ me just to get Melody to _like_ him, I mean what kind of pigheaded male attitude is _that_, and…never mind if I kind of thought I might be able to do the same thing to get—" Mimi looked up at Remus for a split second before falling into a fit of coughing. "Never mind," she said quickly. "It's not important."

Remus raised his eyebrows at her but didn't say anything.

"You know…it's been nice talking to you, Remus. But…I should probably be going now."

Really? That was it? _Well, that wasn't so hard!_ Remus thought cheerfully. Thankfully, his Idiot Prevention system again took hold before he could say anything stupid. "Are you sure?"

Mimi looked at him and smiled weakly. "Yeah. But thanks for listening."

"No problem," Remus replied, and wondered whether or not he was lying.

"I'll—I'll see you around," Mimi said, and made her way to the door.

"Bye," Remus called as she left. He fell over on the couch in relief when she was gone.

Was this what Lily had to deal with _all the time_? How did girls _do_ it? It hadn't even been a whole day since Lily left for Auror Training and already Remus was tired of girl talk.

The door to MHQ opened and Remus closed his eyes, sending a silent prayer to whatever god might be listening that it wasn't Melody walking through the door. He sat up and peeked over the back of the couch, then collapsed again in relief. It was Peter.

"Hey, Remus!" Peter said, sitting in the chair next to the fire. "How are you?"

"Eh," Remus replied. "I've been better."

"It's not…that time of the month, is it?" Peter asked nervously, shifting in his chair, wondering how he was supposed to handle this alone.

"Just ended," Remus said, looking at him oddly. "Don't you remember last week, Peter?"

"Oh…yeah," Peter replied, looking sheepish. "Sorry. It just…seems like a long time ago. With Padfoot and Prongs leaving and all. And the ball last night."

Remus couldn't argue with that.

"So," Peter continued when Remus didn't reply, "what are we going to do with them gone?"

It had not occurred to Remus that they were going to do anything while James and Sirius were gone, nor that Peter would expect him to come up with something inventive. Despite his professions to Melody last night about how brilliant he was at coming up with pranks, he really didn't feel up to pulling any right now.

"Behave?" Remus suggested, and Peter looked at him blankly. Remus sighed. "Tell you what, Wormtail. How about you think up some pranks and run them by me and we'll see if we can pull any of them off without James and Sirius here."

Peter perked visibly at this idea. Rarely was he asked to think of anything; he just helped carry things out. "All right," he agreed. "And…when I'm done with that, would you mind giving me a hand with this Transfiguration essay?"

"The one about human Transfiguration?"

"Yeah."

"Peter, you're an Animagus."

"I know. That's the problem," Peter said. "I've written it three times already, and every time I accidentally referred to myself as an Animagus at least once."

Remus laughed. "Work on the prank list first," he suggested. "I'm going to go get some food."

"Grab a bite for me, would you?" Peter asked, apparently unwilling to move from his brainstorming spot.

"All right," Remus agreed before leaving. He doubted Peter had paid attention to the language he just used.

Remus, on the other hand, made a point to never mention that he was going to take a bite out of anything.

* * *

James plopped down by the fire, utterly spent. Moody was not a lenient instructor, and James had spent most of the day running around collecting things, inspecting things, or 'lying low' and waiting for…things. There was a lot more 'lying low' than James had anticipated. Moody, however, felt that this was a highly important part of Auror Training, and made all of the students find secluded spots to hide in and wait around until Moody found them. Kind of like hide-and-seek, but with a purpose. Moody was _very_ good at seeking, as it turned out. The first few times James hid anywhere, Moody found him within a matter of minutes, pointing out all the things wrong with his hiding spot that James had never considered before. 

The third time James hid, he thought he'd had himself covered. He was well within the depths of a thick, only somewhat prickly bush that provided excellent cover from all directions, which he could hear and kind of see from, with almost three hundred and sixty degrees of visibility (if he tried to view the whole three-sixty, he'd eventually bump into the bush and make it move). He had enough space to crouch so that he didn't feel overly confined and wiggle about constantly. Overall, James was very proud of his bush selection.

Moody found him almost instantly.

"Too obvious," he growled, hauling James out by the neck of his shirt and depositing him on the ground.

"But—that was the perfect hiding bush!" James sputtered, pulling some leaves out of his hair.

"I know," Moody replied, "but you have to learn to hide in places that _aren't_ already perfect, and _make_ them perfect."

James really didn't get it, but he tried anyway. He tried trees, he tried boulders, he tried small unobtrusive caves, but there was something wrong with each of them.

"No place to run if you're caught…too easy to sneak up on…good for hiding, but too hard to leave without being noticed."

James had to resist the very strong urge to turn into a stag and run around for a while, and let Moody try and figure out where he'd gone, but he thought maybe Moody was smart enough to figure out that James was an Animagus, and he didn't want to take that chance.

Thankfully the day was over now, and James was very glad to be by the fire, just…sitting.

"How'd you do?" Frank Longbottom asked, plopping down next to James, looking equally exhausted and very dirt-stained.

"Not so good," James replied. "You?"

"Really bad. He found me every time. Really fast, too."

"Yeah," James agreed, "me too."

"Yeah?" Frank asked, perking a bit. "Well, at least I'm not alone."

They heard shouts coming from woods to the West, where the sun was beginning to set, and James and Frank glanced at each other before shaking their heads.

"Adam and Vivian?" Frank ventured.

"Yep," James agreed.

A few minutes later, a blonde, angry Ravenclaw boy and a furious, red-headed Slytherin girl stomped into the campsite, accompanied by a very annoyed Alastor Moody. "Sit down and _shut up_!" Moody advised, disappearing into his tent.

Vivian and Adam glared at each other for a minute before Vivian turned away from him with a haughty flip of her hair, crossing her arms and glowering unnecessarily at the pine trees. Adam stared darkly at the fire.

James, unperturbed, shrugged and tossed another log on the fire.

"I take it you two didn't have much luck either," Frank said, rather cheerily.

"Shut up," Vivian snapped. "No one asked _you_ to talk."

"Yeah, but no one told me to shut up, either," he pointed out, smiling. Vivian stared at him icily until he fidgeted uncomfortably. She smirked and turned her attention back to the pine trees, bored with her game. Frank tossed another log on the fire with slightly more force than necessary, and sparks flew in Vivian's direction. She shrieked, waving at the embers with her hand, and Moody reappeared.

"I thought I told you to shut up," he growled, and Vivian was immediately silent. "You have a lot to work on," he informed them, sitting. He tossed bags of food at each of them, along with new, shiny flasks filled with water. "Keep those flasks with you at all times. Never let someone else fill your flask for you. You never know what they might try to slip in."

He didn't speak after that, and neither did the students, feeling tired and hungry and slightly ill-at-ease. They ate in silence. When they'd finished, Moody spoke again.

"Tomorrow we've got something new to work on," he informed them. "Then we'll get back to Cloaking and Disguises."

He left, and the students sat around for a few more minutes, staring at the fire. "Well, I'm tired," James said finally. "I'm going to bed."

The other students grumbled their agreement, and headed for the tent. Vivian realized, suddenly, that she'd have to share her sleeping space with three boys, and screeched in annoyance. This was a bad move on her part. Moody, who was just about to fall asleep, heard her, and stomped outside to put a Silencing Charm on her before glaring at them all and retreating to his tent. The boys all thought this was tremendously funny, especially as Moody had confiscated all their wands the second they finished using the Portkey to travel to…wherever they were (in the mountains somewhere), so Vivian couldn't take the spell off.

Vivian, silently raging, managed to keep the boys outside long enough to change and push her cot into a remote corner of the tent. When she finally allowed the boys to enter, Adam chose the cot farthest from Vivian, and James and Frank took the remaining two, trying to ignore Adam's and Vivian's dramatics.

_If they're going to be like this the whole time_, James thought before drifting off to sleep, _it's going to be a very long four weeks_.

* * *

Linda Sharp felt lonely. Normally she didn't; normally she wasn't aware enough of her surroundings to even register loneliness. She just shuffled around, consumed with her thoughts, feeling hollow and shell-like and not really caring if anybody noticed her. 

Maybe that was why she wasn't very concerned about Wendy deserting her to hang out with a group of girls who, until this year, both Wendy and Lin had detested fully. She only cared during moments like these, when she felt aware of everything, as well as…somewhat normal. As normal as she ever was, anyway.

In moments like these it was much harder to concentrate on Potions homework.

In her dull, shell-like, mechanical state, she just did things without thinking about them, and her homework always got done, even if she didn't quite remember doing it and couldn't always come up with the right answers on the tests. This was a relatively new phenomenon, actually. Since the beginning of the year, her hollowness and loneliness had prompted her to throw herself into her studies, and her marks had actually been quite good.

Lately, however…there'd been something more going on when she got that hollow, shell-like feeling. Something she didn't like to think about when she was feeling relatively normal.

Lin turned her attentions back to her studies.

She stared at her Potions book, completely baffled. Had she _made_ a Sleeping Draught recently? Was she supposed to know about its aftereffects? Who cared if there was Mandrake Root in it anyway, and why was that a paradox? What _was_ a paradox? Did Professor Thorne word his essay questions this way on _purpose_? Lin groaned and let her head fall on the table, her hair narrowly missing an open inkwell.

She'd only been sitting this way a few seconds before _it_ started to seep in. _It_ was the feeling she got when she was turning shell-like.

_No_, Lin moaned inwardly, _not again. Not now_.

She didn't know how much longer she could handle _it_ before she went mad. Because _it_ wasn't just an extension of her hollow-hearted feelings. _It _wasn't just depression.

_It_ was a waking nightmare.

She got images in her head, images so alien to her she couldn't fathom where they came from. Images of dark nights, dark men, and Dark Marks. Nights plagued with dying screams and hysterical sobs, and bodies…bodies everywhere. Sometimes she saw Duncrop. People she knew and loved, whose deaths she had not been there to witness, who had died while she lay sleeping hundreds of miles away, innocent and unaware…she saw them die. Many times. But always the same shrieks, always the same hysterics, the same men in the same black cloaks with the same spell, and always, always,_ always_, the same horrible Dark Mark hanging in the sky, a ghastly shimmering scar oozing death against the starlight.

Lin didn't know why these images bombarded her, so many months after everything had ended, and with such clarity Lin wondered if someone else's memories had somehow seeped into her brain. But no—that didn't make sense. Memories were rarely so clear. These nightmares were much more like a movie or a dream…except the same one, over and over without any rhyme or reason….

That wasn't quite true, though. It wasn't always the same one. Sometimes she didn't see Duncrop. Sometimes she saw…elsewhere. _Elsewhere_ wasn't really a place, nor was it just one place, but the other images Lin had, the other deaths she saw…. It was still the same men in the same dark cloaks, but sometimes the number of men varied, and the locations were different and unfamiliar to Lin, as were the people who died. She didn't know where these images came from, either, and they frightened her more.

Nightmares of the deaths in Duncrop, at least, she could explain as the ravings of her imagination. Her brain could easily have pieced the images of the Duncrop deaths together, from what she knew personally of the people and the town, combined with what she'd heard of the Death Eaters and the image of the Dark Mark she'd seen in the _Daily Prophet_.

But the other images….

Lin shuddered as _it_ tried to take her over again. She was unwilling, today, to submit to these waking nightmares, and fought against _it_, lifting her head and frantically reading through her Potions textbook, hoping the normality of the text would ground her and she wouldn't drift away again.

She was fighting a losing battle. Potions wasn't interesting enough to capture her attention, and _it_ swept over her menacingly. _No_, Lin cried, silently, _not again, not again, not again…not today…_. She closed her eyes and prayed, asking for something…anything…some kind of miracle…some kind of—

"Lin?"

Lin's eyes flew open, and she snapped entirely away from _it_ for a moment, surprised. She looked up to see a short, fourteen-year-old boy gazing at her uncertainly. It was Anthony Hall, her partner from Potions class. Lin blinked at him.

"Yeah?" she replied, too surprised to register that _it_ had gone and her prayers had been answered.

"Um…how are you?" Anthony blurted, shifting his books from his right hand to his left uncertainly.

"Uh…fine," Lin replied, still a little dumbstruck.

"What…what're you working on?" Anthony asked, clearing his throat nervously mid-sentence.

Lin forgot. She looked down at her Potions book dumbly for a minute, and then back up at him. "Potions," she said finally. "Essay," she added, unnecessarily. "Stupid," she concluded, and wondered what was wrong with her.

Anthony grinned, a bit uncertainly. "Yeah," he agreed. "Potions is pretty bad. You handled that Sleeping Draught great, though. Yesterday," he added quickly, as though Lin might have forgotten.

Lin didn't mind, though. She _had_ forgotten. Apparently she could still do Potions while under the influence of unwelcome daydreams—that, at least, was comforting. Or…perhaps not. What _else_ had she said and done while in this state that she didn't remember?

"Is today Wednesday?" she asked, feeling dumb.

"Yeah," Anthony replied, nodding fervently. "Wednesday."

Lin's mind sluggishly kicked into gear. "Um," she said, looking at the empty chair on the right-hand side of her table. "Why don't you sit down?" she suggested.

Anthony did, knocking over one of her inkwells in the process. This one, thankfully, was closed, so it didn't make a mess. "Oops," he said, looking embarrassed nonetheless.

"It's all right," Lin assured him, turning it right-side-up again.

"So," Anthony said, fumbling through his books for some parchment. "Care to help me with that Potions essay?"

"Um…sure," Lin replied, thinking, obscurely, that Lily should have been there to help them. "I haven't gotten very far," she warned him. "I'm a bit stuck over all this Mandrake Root nonsense."

"Oh, that! I know what that's about," Anthony said, looking a bit more cheerful. He pointed out several passages in Lin's Potions book that she hadn't noticed before, about Mandrake Root being unusual in the Sleeping Draught because normally it was used in potions that brought people _out_ of coma-like slumbers, or helped to Un-Petrify them.

Anthony ended up helping Lin more than she did him, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, the more questions Lin asked the more confident he seemed to feel, so she didn't withhold any. By the end of the essay, they were carrying on an actual conversation, with very few "uh"s or "um"s or "yeah"s, and it was broken up only by the dinner bell. Lin and Anthony rose rather reluctantly, and accompanied each other to the Great Hall, where they split, and Anthony took a seat at the Hufflepuff table with his loud, boisterous friends. Lin trudged slowly to the Gryffindor table and took a seat at the end, next to a group of giggling, preoccupied Sixth Years who didn't seem to notice she was there.

* * *

Lily had never felt so incompetent in all her life. The only thing she'd managed to do right so far was work the bloody coffee machine, but what kind of accomplishment was that when no one ever needed coffee? Any time she wandered around looking for something useful to do, she'd get yelled at either for _not_ doing anything, or to do something she hadn't been taught how to do, and that just made her more tense, so the next time she was asked to do _anything_ she screwed it up, even if she'd done it ten times before without a problem. 

_What's the point of all this anyway?_ Lily thought angrily, frowning into the palms of her hands.

She was sitting on a closed toilet seat in the ladies' bathroom with her head in her hands, feeling sorry for herself.

She'd spent the last four days toiling around in the Ministry of Magic's Auror offices, working, basically, as an intern. When she wasn't working in the Auror offices, she was with the other Training students, being lectured by Fletcher Hawkes on various Auror duties, or practicing various spells and dueling techniques, or sitting around and whining about how boring it was.

At the moment, Lily didn't find it so much boring as she did…unreasonable. How was _she _supposed to know where to find inter-office memo owls, extra quills, or various outdated editions of the _Daily Prophet_, the _Wizarding Post_, and the _Quibbler_? When the Aurors didn't need her, they treated her as though she wasn't there, and when they did need her, they treated her as though her entire purpose in life was to serve their every whim, and became irritated when she didn't know where to find something or how to do something or didn't carry out the task efficiently enough.

_Look here_, she felt like saying sometimes, _I am the top student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and I resent being treated in such an unfeeling manner_.

Well, no, she didn't ever actually _feel_ like saying this, because it sounded silly, and also despite her complaints about the Aurors, she still had respect for them. They had all gone to wizarding schools, too—many of them to Hogwarts—and graduated, undoubtedly, with high marks. Beyond that, they had accumulated impressive skills in areas Lily was not particularly familiar with…so there didn't seem to be much point in trying to impress them with her academics.

Plus, when they were not chewing her out for her mistakes, many of the Aurors were actually quite nice. Anita Irons, for example, had a wicked sense of humor, and was rarely too stressed out to stop and explain things to the Auror Training students. She'd explained to Lily that, since this was the first year they'd done the program, many of the Aurors didn't know how they were supposed to handle the students—and many were, in fact, entirely opposed to the students being there, which weighed down the atmosphere a bit.

The ones that rubbed Lily the wrong way, however, bothered her so much that not even the kindness of Anita could assuage her bruised ego. Lily had never thought of herself as having an ego before, but she supposed that was the only word for it. She hadn't, for the last seven years, been treated as anything other than an intelligent, responsible, outstanding student, and she wasn't sure she could handle much more of this abuse.

Outside her stall, the door to the ladies' bathroom swung open and slammed against the wall fiercely. Lily jumped and removed her head from her hands, peeking through the cracks in her stall door to see who it was. She couldn't see anything but sinks, though, and her curiosity got the best of her, so—perhaps a little unwisely—she stood and let herself out of the stall.

It was Sally Parkinson.

Sally stood clutching either side of a sink, fuming and glaring at the mirror, muttering unkind things about the Aurors under her breath. When she heard Lily open the stall door, she whirled around and glared at her furiously. Lily stood there for a moment, unsure what to say.

"Do they just—treat you like garbage?" Sally demanded after a minute. Her eyes were damp and shimmering. "Like they don't care how hard you worked to get to this point, and don't have any regard for how brilliant you might be or what family you come from or—" Sally's voice cracked dangerously, and she whirled back to the mirror, trying to compose herself. "Or anything," she finished, rather high-pitched.

Lily slowly approached the sinks and took a paper towel from the rack at the end of the row. "Yes," she said softly, extending the paper towel to Sally. Sally took it without looking at Lily and dabbed at her eyes angrily.

"What's the point of this anyway?" Sally demanded, her voice softer. "What does _this_ have to do with Auror Training?"

"I guess…I guess they want us to get an idea of what it's like to work in the Ministry," Lily reasoned. "They're just not doing a very good job of it."

Sally laughed half-heartedly. "I thought for sure they'd be treating _you_ differently," she said, shaking her head.

Lily blinked and stared at her. "_Why_?" she asked incredulously.

Sally looked at her oddly. "Because you're the Head Girl," she said, as thought it should be obvious. "They're always treating you like you're something special." She shrugged, but her voice was bitter.

Lily knew this was probably true—hadn't she just thought to herself that she should be treated better because of her Hogwarts status?—but she'd never considered that the other students would openly resent her because of this. "We're all the same to them," Lily replied. "Most of them don't want us here and we just get in the way."

"Then why did they bring us here?" Sally marveled, shaking her head at the mirror. "This is just…"

The door to the bathroom flew open again and in burst a smiling, shining Naomi Watts, fellow Hogwarts student and Hufflepuff. "Isn't this just _wonderful_?" she asked of her companions, joining them by the sinks to wash her hands. "Phideus Nott just spent half an hour talking about the training process to me. He thinks I've got _real_ potential," she gushed. "I can't believe how much I'm learning! Isn't it just great?"

Sally and Lily stared at her for a moment. Naomi flashed them a bright, bubbly smile, and Lily considered picking up the rack of paper towels and throwing it at her.

"Yeah," Lily agreed flatly. "It's super."

Naomi giggled and threw away the paper towel she'd been drying her hands with. "Well, I better get back to work. Don't stay in the bathroom too long, ladies, or they'll think you're slacking off!"

Lily and Sally watched her leave, dumbfounded.

"Well," Lily said, turning to the mirror behind her sink. "I think I may just…have to go throw up!" she chirped, mockingly.

Sally snorted appreciatively, then shook her head in disbelief. "_Phideus Nott_?" she repeated, dumbstruck. "That old bastard hates everybody! And furthermore, he—" Sally cut herself off, glancing at Lily. "I bet he doesn't know she's a Hufflepuff."

"Why? What's he got against Hufflepuffs?"

"The same thing every Slytherin has against the Hufflepuffs," Sally snapped, irritated. "They're so…_simple_," she sneered.

Lily sighed. Sally seemed to be recovering. "Well," she ventured, uncertain whether she should make such an unfeeling comment to a Slytherin, "I can think of a couple reasons why an old bastard might like Naomi, and they're both right here," she said, patting her chest.

Sally stared at her for a moment, surprised, and then burst into somewhat unkind laughter. Lily joined in, feeling a bit cruel, but glad all the same that she wasn't alone in her distaste for the training program so far—even if her companion was the most unlikely of witches.

* * *

Melody felt like hell. She hadn't slept much the past few days, and the physical exhaustion combined with her emotional exhaustion was taking its toll on her social life, her studies, and—more pertinent to her current situation—her Quidditch-playing abilities. 

"_Melody_!" Arabella Figg yelled across the Pitch. "I know Sirius is gone, but for the love of Merlin, would you hit some Bludgers?"

Melody groaned inwardly. Did she _have_ to bring up Sirius right now? For the thousandth time that week, memories of Sirius's kiss and Mimi's hurt, horrified face flashed through her mind. Wearily, Melody smacked a Bludger with her club and directed her broom across the pitch, where another Bludger was bothering Arabella.

"_Finally_!" Arabella screeched when Melody arrived, and she zoomed across the pitch toward the goals, where she received the Quaffle from Mundungus and made an incredibly fantastic shot toward the far left hoop, which was unfortunately blocked by Anthony Brown, their rapidly improving Fifth Year Keeper.

_Maybe this would be easier if I hadn't stayed up until two last night practicing hexes on the chamber pots in MHQ, _Melody thought, whacking a Bludger away from Mundungus rather lamely. _Or maybe this would be easier if the new Beater were as good as Sirius_.

They'd gotten Sixth Year Don Mullins to take Sirius's place, and all in all he wasn't bad…he just wasn't as good as Sirius. Better was their replacement for James, though James would be very offended if Melody told him that. Slim, talented Third Year Bridget DeBeauvois was the Gryffindor team's temporary Seeker. Apparently she'd been riding a broom since she was old enough to walk, and her uncle, the celebrated Quiberon Quafflepunchers Seeker Claude DeBeauvois, had been training her as a Seeker since the age of six. Bridget's only problem was her bloated ego, but considering her level of skill and the ego of the man who'd trained her…Melody couldn't really blame her.

Arabella, for the time being, was running Quidditch practices, and while she was a competent Substitute Captain, she was also very high-strung, and yelled at the team about as often as she practiced with them. Bridget was Arabella's favorite subject of ridicule, though Melody couldn't figure out why, and arguments between Arabella and Bridget often interrupted practice for ten minutes at a time. Arabella harped on Bridget for catching the Snitch too soon and ignoring strategy, and Bridget recoiled by criticizing Arabella's sometimes-shaky form.

Often these fights ended with a well-aimed Bludger shot from Don, or some course of drastic action from Mundungus, who was the only person brave enough to fly up to Arabella and clap a hand over her mouth when she was spitting angry. Melody usually didn't pay attention to these fights; she was so tired she just zoned out and tried not to fall asleep on her broom. Once she'd gotten hit by a Bludger while nodding off, right in the stomach, and had keeled over, directing her broom into a sharp nose-dive which she didn't have the strength of mind to pull out of. The combined efforts of Bridget and Arista Appleton—the only two members of the Gryffindor team able to go into steep dives without flattening themselves on the ground—had prevented her from smacking head-first into the soil, but practice ended after that because Melody was too winded to continue, and Arabella was too fed up with Bridget to bother with it.

Melody would be _very_ glad when Auror Training was over.

For now, though, she had another fifteen minutes of practice to suffer through. The Chasers were working out a new play, and Melody and Don were hitting Bludgers back and forth, to keep the balls out of trouble. Arabella finished with the Chasers and explained the play to the whole team, instructing Melody and Don to let the Bludgers fly free. They did, and Melody swerved around Bridget to get her first Bludger hit of the play. Arista made a brilliant pass to Mundungus, who dove to escape an approaching Bludger—which Don got a moment later—before siphoning the Quaffle to Arabella. Arabella started to toss the ball to Arista, who was swooping toward the goalposts elegantly, when Bridget came out of nowhere, hand outstretched, blocking the Quaffle's path.

Arabella lost it.

"What d'you think you're doing ruining a perfectly good play the first time we try to run it? ARE YOU CRAZY"

"I saw the Snitch, I had to—"

"I don't CARE if you saw the Snitch, it doesn't MATTER in practice like it does in a match_—_"

"WELL HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PREPARE FOR THE BLOODY MATCHES IF YOU WON'T LET ME CATCH THE SNITCH DURING PRACTICE?" Bridget bellowed.

"THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN _PRACTICING _AND _SCREWING UP PEOPLE'S BLOODY PLAYS_!"

"YOU CALL THAT A PLAY? I'VE SEEN BETTER PLAYS FROM _HUFFLEPUFF_!"

"WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW, YOU ARROGANT—HOITY-TOITY—OVERZEALOUS—_OVERRATED_—SPOILED—LITTLE—_MAGGOT!_"

Bridget's eyes turned from dusky blue to steely gray. Her hand, which had been slowly tightening around the Snitch, suddenly relaxed, and the little gold sphere zig-zagged drunkenly through the air, its wings bent and battered by Bridget's angry fingers.

In the next five seconds, Bridget did something so astounding Melody's mouth fell wide open, and she didn't move for the next few minutes, her brain still trying to process what she'd seen.

Bridget extended her arms above her head and grabbed a Bludger out of midair, the ball's inertia dragging her arms so far back Melody thought they'd break. Bridget was motionless for a second as she gained control of the ball, and then, screaming, she forced her hands back over her head and hurled the ball at Arabella with all her might.

The Bludger hit Arabella's face with a mighty SMACK, and Arabella's head snapped back. Her body followed, the impact toppling her heels-over-head backwards off her broom. Mundungus caught her as she fell, and the rest of the team hovered, motionless and dumbtstruck, in midair. As Mundungus reached the ground, Arabella clutched her nose and screamed, and the sound seemed to snap Bridget out of her anger.

Bridget's eyes flew wide and returned to their normal color. She dove to the ground, a look of horror on her face, and she jumped off her broom to examine Arabella. The Seventh Year girl was crying, small bits of blood trickling out from under her fingers, which were still clutched protectively over her nose. The rest of the Gryffindor team quickly followed suit, landing and discarding their brooms carelessly, and accompanied Mundungus, Arabella, and a nearly-hysterical Bridget to the Hospital Wing.

By the time they got there, Bridget was sobbing so profoundly Madam Pomfrey thought _she _was the one in need of care, and dragged Bridget halfway to a bed before she realized, through the muddled cries of protest from the Gryffindor Team, that Arabella was the reason they'd come. Madam Pomfrey efficiently shooed everyone out of the Hospital Wing except for Bridget, who refused to leave and was so hysterical that Madam Pomfrey didn't waste her energy arguing with the girl.

It was quite a task to get Arabella to remove her hands from her nose, but when she did Bridget clutched them immediately and began blubbering an apology. Arabella was still in too much pain to respond, but she squeezed Bridget's hands fiercely as Madam Pomfrey wiped the blood away with a warm cloth.

Arabella's nose was healed in a second, with a wave of Madam Pomfrey's wand, but the emotional damage remained.

As Arabella walked out of the hospital wing, fully recovered and looking no worse for the wear, Bridget stumbled behind her, stricken. The Third Year sank to her knees in the middle of the hallway, sobbing, and began pleading with Arabella for forgiveness. Most of her apologies were impossible to understand through the tears, and Melody could have sworn that once or twice she heard Bridget's apologies being spoken in French.

Arabella sank to her knees across from Bridget, and the rest of the Gryffindor team huddled around them, waiting apprehensively.

She raised her hand and let it hover in the air for a moment before swinging it at Bridget's face and giving her a solid SMACK across the cheek. Bridget's head jerked to the side, and her sobbing halted. She brought a shaky hand up to her cheek and cradled it for a moment, staring at Arabella, mascara-soaked tears staining both sides of her face.

"I deserved that," she said finally, nodding.

Arabella's anger left her and she looked at Bridget for a moment, thinking. "So did I," she said finally, and put her arms around Bridget, pulling her into a hug. Bridget sobbed quietly on Arabella's shoulder for a few minutes while the rest of the team watched, stunned.

There were no more squabbles during the Gryffindor Team's practices for the rest of the month.

* * *

On Friday Melody received her first owl from Lily. She was most unhappy to see that the owl who had delivered this letter, after dropping it at Melody's plate, flew to the Ravenclaw table and deposited a similar-looking letter at Mimi's place. 

After glaring over at Mimi for a few moments, Melody ripped open her letter eagerly. She hadn't expected to hear from Lily until she got back from Training at the end of the month, and looked forward to writing a reply, which would be a nice respite from trying to confide her troubles to the boys. Not that she couldn't talk to Arabella, of course, but lately Arabella was a bit preoccupied with Mundungus and Quidditch, and besides she was a blabbermouth—it just wasn't the same.

_Melody,_

_Auror Training is horrible. I'm sure you don't believe me, but it is. All I've done is run around the Ministry of Magic office fetching things for the Aurors, who yell at me all the time and treat me like they don't want me there. (According to one of the Aurors, some of them _don't_ want us there.) I know you wanted to go on the training program, though, so I'll stop complaining about it before I make you feel bad._

_Sirius told me all about you and Mimi. Melody—what were you THINKING! And how could you go and do something like that without telling ME about it? What good's being a best friend if you can't get all the juicy gossip before everyone else does? Geez…_

_All joking aside, I know you must be heartbroken. Believe me though, so is Sirius. And even more than that, he's completely confused and guilty, and doesn't know _what_ he wants. I really hope you do though, Mel. I hope you know what you're doing, and I really, really wish I could talk to you about it. And it's not just Sirius, it's Mimi, too. I hope you're not fighting too horribly. _

_I know something's been bothering you lately, and I wish you'd talk to me about that, too. I'm worried about you. _

_I didn't mean to bring all this up when I started writing, I really didn't. I'm sorry. This must be the most depressing owl ever. Anyway, let me know how things are going at Hogwarts. I'd love to hear about it. I really miss all of you. It's kind of lonely here, even though I did have a really strange bonding moment with Sally Parkinson in the ladies' bathroom today. Oh—and I have kind of a strange request. There's a girl in your House, a Fourth Year, named Linda Sharp. Kind of…keep an eye on her, would you? She lost her family last summer and she's having a hard time coping. It's kind of difficult to explain how we know each other…but I'll fill you in when I get back to Hogwarts. I introduced her to Hagrid, but…she might need someone else to talk to. Just…if she's looking really lonely, go up and try to talk to her, will you?_

_I sent this owl Wednesday…so keep in mind how long it took to get to you, because I won't be able to get any owls from you after next Sunday when I leave the Ministry._

_Hang in there._

_Much love,_

_Lily_

_

* * *

_

_Lil,_

_You must be crazy. What's so bad about Auror Training? Just because a couple of Aurors are jerks doesn't mean you have to take it personally. You're too brilliant. It's the Ministry's fault if they're making you do stupid, menial work instead of something that's actually useful._

_That Linda girl—isn't she the one who ran crying out of the Great Hall last year because of that article they put in the _Daily Prophet_? I think I know who you're talking about. She always looks really sad…I'll see what I can do._

_On to more pressing matters…_

_I don't know _what_ to do about Sirius. Lil, it's all my fault. I made a mess of _everything_. Mimi hates_ _me. And if Sirius is at all in his right mind, he should hate me too. But—oh, Lily, you _know_ that's not what I want. I know Sirius should hate me, and he has every right to, but I don't know what I'd do if he did actually hate me. Avoiding me and dating Mimi is one thing, but hating me? I don't know if I could handle it. I missed him _so much_ while he was dating Mimi, and I didn't mean to screw it up this way, I really didn't, I just wanted to be friends with him again. Is it so bad that I got jealous?_

_I love him, Lily. I really do…despite what you might think about teenagers and love. I just wish I knew what to do to make everything all right again._

_As for me and Mimi…I don't know what to tell you. We're actually not fighting, but maybe that's because we're not speaking. At all. If we pass each other in the hallway we'll either ignore each other or glare at each other. I shouldn't be glaring, though, since I feel so guilty about it, but when Mimi gives me that _stare _of hers, I can't just stand there and take it. I have to glare back at her._

_I hope everything works out, Lil. I really wish you were here to help me figure out what to do. Any suggestions?_

_In desperate need of guidance,_

_Melody_

_XXX OOO_

But Melody's letter was wrong. Melody sent it the day she received her first owl from Lily, on Friday, and Lily didn't get it until Sunday, so when she wrote back to Melody she didn't know about what happened on Saturday. So when Melody opened Lily's next letter, on Tuesday, hoping for some kind of advice or guidance, she was sorely disappointed to realize that Lily had no way of knowing about the trouble Melody was in.

When Lily wrote Melody back on Sunday afternoon, she had not yet received the owl Melody wrote her on Sunday night while she was supposed to be cleaning the trophy room, and therefore had no idea of the mess Mimi and Melody had made of the second-floor Charms corridor, or the duel that had caused this destruction, or the week's worth of detentions both girls had received because of it.

* * *

Saturday was a bad day from the minute Mimi woke up. It had been exactly a week since the day of the Halloween Ball—exactly a week since Melody had destroyed Mimi's relationship with Sirius, and exactly six days since Mimi's best friend had departed for Auror training and left her to face the aftermath of Melody's (and Sirius's) actions alone. Even after a week of recovery, Mimi's mind still reeked of emotional sewage, and her anger toward Melody had not ebbed much. Remus had been on the receiving end of far more emotional outbursts and furious rants than Mimi realized, but she could tell his patience was wearing thin. 

On top of all that, Mimi woke up with a headache. She, Susie, and Matt had played Exploding Snap in the common room for four hours last night, and when they finally trudged upstairs at one o'clock, Mimi was still hearing popping noises in her head. Apparently those imaginary 'pop's had evolved into a headache while she slept, and now she couldn't move without her head throbbing angrily.

Walking down to breakfast was rather painful, but once she got there she was able to pop a couple of pain pills—hey, Muggle remedies still worked, even if Madam Pomfrey didn't believe in them—and eat something hot and tasty, and that helped a bit. She and Susie ate together, and then decided to go back to the Common Room and relax for a while, since neither of them were awake enough to tackle Transfiguration essays yet.

She bumped into someone in the Charms corridor, and would have just said "excuse me" and gone on her merry way, except when she glanced back to apologize she realized it was Melody, and her gaze hardened, almost unconsciously. "Watch where you're going," Mimi snapped, and Melody whirled to face her.

"I beg your pardon," Melody said, annoyed, "but I think you were the one who bumped into _me_."

"Well, I think you're mistaken," Mimi replied nastily, "and you should apologize to me."

Melody's eyebrows shot toward the ceiling. "Oh, _really_?"

"Yes. _Really_."

"Well, I'm not sure you're going to _get_ an apology," Melody snapped, crossing her arms, "and I'm not sure there's much of anything you can do about it."

"_I_," Mimi replied imperiously, crossing her own arms, "am going to wait right here until you apologize to me."

"Well, if all you're going to do is stand around all day, I think I'll be on my way," Melody said, turning her back on Mimi and continuing down the corridor.

Mimi's eyes blazed. She whipped her wand out of her robes and pointed it at Melody's back. "Get, back here you little—_witch_!" she screeched. To Mimi's satisfaction, Melody halted.

Slowly, Melody turned around, and regarded Mimi's outstretched wand as though it were a mildly annoying bug.

"What are you going to do with that thing? Throw it at me?"

Mimi's eyes narrowed. "I can duel, you know," she said darkly, "and contrary to popular belief, I am _not_ afraid of you."

Melody smirked and slid her wand out of her robes, examining it casually. "Are you challenging me?" she inquired, raising one eyebrow at her opponent.

By this time a small crowd had gathered around them, curious. Mimi glanced at the crowd slowly before returning her gaze to Melody, a smirk growing on her own face.

"You bet," Mimi replied coolly.

Melody just grinned.

Remus pushed his way through the crowd a split second before the duel started. It didn't take him much longer than that to realize what was going to happen, and as the first spell erupted from Mimi's opponent's wand, Remus yelled out, "Melody, _NO_!"

It was thanks to Remus that Mimi didn't get completely obliterated. Not because he distracted Melody and her spell missed, not because his words prepared Mimi for the bombardment and she was able to block the spell, and certainly not because Melody took his words to heart and stopped the duel. No, Mimi had Remus to thank for her success in this duel because he really, really, _really_ pissed her off.

The first spell Melody shot at Mimi hit her like a freight train. She flew backwards and hit several spectators, falling to the floor in a fit of horrible coughing. Several slugs erupted from her mouth and she glared up at Melody, wiping slime away from her lips.

"_Rictusempra!_" Mimi screeched, firing a spell at Melody from the floor. Melody dodged it easily, and a Hufflepuff Third Year absorbed the blow, collapsing in a fit of giggles.

Melody shot three more hexes at Mimi before she could get off the floor. One of these she managed to block, one she deflected to a Ravenclaw First Year who fell to the floor, his legs suddenly like jelly, but the last hit Mimi with full force and before she knew what was happening, an itchy red rash exploded on her face and arms. She tried to fire a hex back at Melody, but she fell into another fit of coughing, and up came more slugs.

After she'd deposited six of the slimy green things on the floor, she looked up to see Remus standing in between her and Melody, yelling at her furiously, detaining Melody's attempts to hex Mimi again. "Remus, SHUT UP!" Mimi shrieked. "_Petrificus Totalus_!"

Remus, unprepared, fell to the floor completely paralyzed. Mimi got up and shoved him out of the way. "I can fight my own damn battles, thank you _very _much," she informed him, before whirling on Melody and shooting a Bat-Bogey Hex at her. Melody, infuriatingly, deflected it, but the spell hit one of the portraits in the hallway and landed on a woman in a long green dress, who shrieked and dove behind a bush in her painting to hide, utterly humiliated.

The duel raged on. After seeing what happened to Remus, no one dared try to interrupt the two girls. Melody was a much better dueler than Mimi, but the audience they'd accumulated (those who weren't currently suffering from the effects of a hex, anyway) was rather impressed with Mimi's determination. Despite the number of hexes Melody managed to nail on her, Mimi didn't give up, and eventually landed a curse of her own. It wasn't a very _good _curse, but it made Melody's feet tap dance of their own accord, and this gave Mimi enough time to remove some of the curses Melody had placed on her—the itchy rash, for example, which she was _very _glad to have gone.

The duel carried on this way for a few more minutes, until one of the Sixth Year Prefects had the presence of mind to run to the Great Hall and get a teacher from the staff table. During this time, Mimi managed to deflect or dodge most of the hexes Melody threw at her, and even got off a few of her own, though she didn't land any more, and in the end the hallway and the crowd of students watching suffered far more damage than Mimi or Melody did.

At least until Professor McGonagall arrived, they did.

"_FINITE INCANTATUM_!" the Professor bellowed, so livid her face was nearly purple.

Mimi felt herself returning to normal almost immediately—except for the slugs. She belched up another one and Professor McGonagall glared at her so fiercely she wanted to crawl into one of the portraits and die.

The hexed students returned to normal as well, and the crowd dissipated as the Professor yelled at the students to go about their business. One unlucky Slytherin boy remained, his ears having grown so large and heavy he couldn't lift his head off the ground. Professor McGonagall conversed with one of the portraits for a moment, and sent a fat, jolly-looking friar huffing toward the hospital wing to fetch Madam Pomfrey.

Then she turned her attentions to Mimi and Melody.

Professor McGonagall yelled so loudly Mimi's ears throbbed, and she couldn't make out any actual sentences, just broken phrases, interrupted by the occasional intake of breath, which, Mimi judged, could last the professor a full thirty seconds before she had to stop and take a breath again.

"NEVER IN MY LIFE—CANNOT BELIEVE—UTTERLY IRRESPONSIBLE—_SEVENTH-YEAR PREFECTS_—HALL COMPLETELY RUINED—INNOCENT BYSTANDERS—MY OWN HOUSE—SHOULD KNOW—_NO MAGIC IN CORRIDORS_—SEVENTY-FIVE POINTS FROM—_DETENTION FOR A WEEK_!"

Mimi looked shamefully at the ground, her cheeks burning. She couldn't bring herself to look at Melody, but she imagined her adversary wasn't looking much better.

A burp erupted from her throat and a batch of slugs cascaded out of her mouth.

This was the worst Saturday _ever_.

* * *

James was starting to get the hang of things. He'd finally passed to the next level of Disguises and Cloaking Practice—not only that, he'd been the first one to do it. Monday afternoon they'd done the hide-and-seek exercise for the first time in two days, and James finally found a good spot. Two days of Inquiry and Detection practice had made him a little rusty, but his hiding places were still better than they'd been at the start of last week. Moody took longer to find all of them that day, and this mean that, while James had to stay silent and still longer, he also had more time to _find_ concealment. On his fourth try that day, he finally found a good spot. 

The spot was just off the bank of the river that ran through the mountains, about half a mile away from their campsite. Two boulders jutted up from the riverbed, in water about chest-height—for James, anyway. He wedged himself between these two boulders and sat, waiting, for nearly an hour before Moody found him. The water was cold, but James had a very nice cold-resistant, self-heating cloak, so except for his fingers and toes he was really quite warm.

"Very nice," Moody finally said when he found him. "Protected by a land overhang, not overly conspicuous from the shore, a fast and easy way to escape if need be…not bad, Potter," he growled. "Go wait at the campsite."

James didn't care that he was soaking wet. He whistled happily the whole way back.

Even now, Tuesday night, he still felt proud. Frank had found a suitable hiding place this morning—Vivian this afternoon—and now all three of them were waiting around the fireplace for Adam to return, successful.

"D'you think he'll come soon?" Frank asked, rubbing his stomach. "I'm _starving_."

Vivian snorted. "That dolt? Not a chance."

Frank sighed unhappily, patting his grumbling stomach. They were silent for a few minutes as Frank tried to assuage his stomach and Vivian glared at the fire.

"Why don't you like him?" James asked finally.

Vivian looked up at him, surprised. "Who, Adam?"

"Yeah."

"Because he's a prat," she replied, her gaze slipping back to the fire. "A big ugly stupid prat," she muttered, a moment later.

"Yeah? What'd he do to you?"

Vivian's gazed snapped back to James. She seemed surprised he was still talking to her. "What'd he…do to me?"

"_Yeah_," James replied, irritated.

"He's just a _prat_," she snapped. "Prats don't _do_ anything to people, they're just…_prats_," she said again, as though this would clarify her point.

"So he hasn't done anything to you," James concluded. Sure, Adam was a bit cocky, and he did seem to think that just about every girl he met was in love with him, but he hadn't seen Adam do anything to Vivian _personally_.

Vivian seemed very annoyed by this. "He's a jerk, all right? Didn't you _hear_ me? He's a total _git_. He hasn't said one nice thing to me since we started his trip, and if I have to spend much more time around him and his stupid—blimey—inflated—_bigoted_—prat-ish male ego, I'll just—just—"

"Combust?" Frank suggested.

"_Slap _him!" Vivian fumed, her vicious gaze flitting back and forth between the two seemingly unaffected boys. "Or—hex him! Or—_something_!" she insisted, in a rage. James just shrugged. "_What_?" Vivian screeched, fed up with his lackadaisical manner. "_Don't you believe me_?"

Frank's eyes got very wide. "Yes—yes—we believe you, all right?" he said quickly. "Don't we, James?"

James, who was more amused than alarmed, did not make a very good show of agreeing with Frank, and he thought Vivian's eyes were going to bug out of her head by the time Adam and Moody finally returned to the campsite.

"I did it!" Adam said, more wearily than triumphantly, plopping down next to James—and also, unfortunately, next to Vivian.

"Took you long enough, you stupid—barmy—incompetent—_codger_!" Vivian shrieked, slapping him on the arm. "I'm not hungry! I'm going to bed!" she yelled in Moody's direction, and stomped into her tent.

"Well, she's not going to get very far in Stealth training," Moody observed, sitting down in the spot she'd vacated. It was the first time he'd made anything remotely resembling a joke, and the boys burst into appreciative laughter.

In the tent, Vivian buried herself underneath her covers and fumed. Adam was such a _prat_. He was just a—a stupid prat. Plus he was an arrogant, bloated Ravenclaw Quidditch player, and an all-around git. She didn't _need_ a good reason to dislike him. He was just a dislike-able person, damn it, and she couldn't understand why James and Frank acted like she was treating him unreasonably.

Stupid—stupid—stupid, stupid Adam.

* * *

Things were improving greatly. Fletcher Hawkes had finally worked things out with the Ministry so each Training Student was assigned to a willing Auror, and they could follow them around all day and get a good idea of what it was like to be an Auror, instead of being treated like garbage and asked to…go fetch things all the time. Lily was assigned to Anita—by Anita's choice, Lily suspected—and they got on fabulously. 

Lily still had to do her fair share of menial chores—scribbling out memos, fetching extra parchment, ordering sandwiches and things for lunch—but at least she didn't feel menial while she was doing them. Anita revealed as much about the Ministry and Aurors as she could—which, considering the job Anita was assigned to, wasn't much. Anita couldn't actually _say_ what she was working on, but just from being around her Lily gleaned that it had something to do with Quodpot, Aruba, and talking parrots. (How the three of those had any correlation to one another, and why it was important enough for a British Auror to be working on, was beyond Lily.)

When the day at the Ministry ended, Lily met up with Fletcher Hawkes and the other three Training Students by the elevator, which they rode upward to the streets of London. They were sharing a shabby flat—two bedrooms, a mostly-broken refrigerator, one very tiny bathroom, and a lumpy couch, which the girls made Sirius sleep on—about three blocks away from the Ministry. Fletcher Hawkes confiscated their wands and locked them in each night before Disapparating to, presumably, his own flat, which was undoubtedly more glamorous than the one the students shared.

However, it was warm and, despite the unusual number of spiders they shared their sleeping quarters with, rather cozy.

It was Tuesday, and that night, while the students sat around their crooked, decomposing wooden dinner table and ate supper, Lily received an owl from Melody. She hadn't expected one, because her own owl to Melody should just have arrived at Hogwarts that morning, but when she opened the letter the reason for Melody's correspondence became evident.

"Oh, _bugger_," Lily muttered under her breath, reading the letter and taking a bite of her sandwich. The other students looked at her curiously.

"Bugger what?" Naomi asked.

"Melody," Lily replied, glancing up from the parchment. "Got a bunch of detentions."

The girls rolled their eyes and returned to their meals. "Like _that's_ anything new," Naomi said dismissively.

Sirius, however, paled a bit, and traded a significant glance with Lily, who was hiding her face behind the parchment. "LATER," she mouthed, and Sirius nodded briefly before returning to his soup.

They went to bed not long after supper, having grown bored of the Exploding Snap game Sirius brought along, and without much of anything to talk about, as apparently they'd rehashed all the brilliant parts of their respective days during lunch.

Lily roomed with Naomi—they'd decided Sally's snoring should be locked out of earshot and had elected to give the girl her own room—and Lily waited until her roommate had fallen asleep to creep out of bed and into the living room where Sirius was falling asleep on the couch.

"Sirius," Lily hissed, poking him. He jerked and looked up at her, blinking rapidly.

"I wasn't asleep," he said, sitting up. "I was just…meditating."

Lily rolled her eyes at him. "Sure you were, Sirius. Here," she said, handing him the letter. "Read it."

It was innocent enough for Sirius to read, as it was composed mostly of nasty phrases directed towards Mimi, but it also contained a brief synopsis of the girls' duel and McGonagall's subsequent fit of rage. More importantly, however, it didn't contain any of Melody's sentiments toward Sirius—although if Sirius hadn't figured those out by now he really was stupid beyond all reason.

"_Seventy-five points_?" Sirius gasped. "That'll put us below the _Hufflepuffs_!"

"Hey, McGonagall took seventy-five from my House too."

"Yeah, but…that's not _Gryffindor_, that's _different_!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Just keep reading."

Sirius scanned the rest of the letter and then handed it back to Lily, shaking his head. "This is all my fault."

Lily rolled up the piece of parchment and hit him with it. "It's _their_ fault. It had nothing to do with you."

"They wouldn't be fighting if I hadn't screwed their friendship up in the first place."

"No," Lily said, decisively. "They wouldn't be fighting if they weren't stupid teenage girls. As it is, you're _all_ at odds with each other because you're all stupid teenagers incapable of expressing your true feelings to the people you fancy."

"Oh, this from the _queen_ of expressing her innermost feelings to the boy _she_ fancies."

"_Shush_," Lily said, her cheeks coloring a bit. "We're not talking about me, we're talking about _you_."

"Hey," Sirius protested, "I _did_ tell Melody how I felt. It's not my fault she rejected me."

"No, but it _is_ your fault you didn't tell her sooner—"

"But—" Sirius began, trying to protest that Melody had also refused to admit her feelings sooner, but Lily ignored him and continued.

"—AND THEN you decided that you had to make her jealous and dragged Mimiinto it, because for some reason you thought you'd be able to make Melody admit her feelings for you and then ditch Mimi without anybody's feelings getting hurt."

"I—yeah, all right," Sirius said, giving in. "Go on."

"And Mimi is at fault because she is incapable of admitting her feelings for Remus because he's a werewolf, and—"

"_Wait_," Sirius interrupted. "How do you know about…how d'you know that he's…he's a…" he trailed off, glancing at the closed bedroom doors suspiciously.

"Oh, that," Lily said, her cheeks coloring a bit. "I figured it out…just last week. I'd been thinking for a while that _someone_ at Hogwarts was a…you know…but I didn't connect the dots until we were talking about you and Mimi and Melody on the train. I know Mimi's liked him for a long time, but I couldn't figure out why she'd…not tell him how she felt. She's usually pretty forward about that kind of thing. Anyway, I figured she might be hesitating because of…because of that."

Sirius's eyes narrowed. "You really think she's empty-headed enough to _believe_ all those misconceptions about werewolves, even after knowing him _personally_—" he cut himself off and cursed for a moment, glancing at the closed bedroom doors again.

"I think they're both fast asleep, Sirius."

"You never know," Sirius said cautiously.

"Anyway," Lily said, "I don't really know what Mimi thinks. I haven't really had a chance to ask her about it…you know?"

"Yeah," he agreed, frowning. "Look, Lily…." Lily raised her eyebrows at him expectantly. "What d'you…what…"

"Just spit it out," she advised.

"What d'you think about all this?"

"'All this'? D'you want to clarify that for me, Sirius?"

"What I mean is…what d'you…when we get back to Hogwarts…what d'you think will happen?"

"Oh. That. Well…" Lily thought for a moment. "If I had to take my best guess, I'd say…Mimi and Melody probably won't be getting along very well, although they probably won't be dueling in the corridors anymore, either. And…James of course will have no idea any of this has happened, so he'll be terribly confused."

"Oh, _damn_," Sirius said suddenly. "You're right. I hadn't even thought of that."

"Well, that's what I'm here for," Lily said, patting him on the head. "And then…dangit, you ruined my concentration."

"Just…what d'you think will happen with me and Mimi and Melody?" Sirius prompted. "I have some ideas of my own, but I'm hoping yours will work out better for me."

"Um," Lily said, thinking her ideas weren't going to be any better than Sirius's. "I think…Mimi will probably not want to talk to you."

"I kind of expected that," Sirius said, but he looked rather glum at the prospect. "And…Melody?" he asked, sounding as though he'd rather not ask it.

"She'll be _dying_ to talk to you," Lily said decisively.

"But…?"

"But," Lily continued, sounding regretful, "she won't."

"What? Why _not_?"

"Because she feels too damn guilty, that's why not," Lily snapped. "Look at what happened the _last_ time she tried to talk to you."

Sirius considered this for a moment. "Yeah, but…"

"Besides," Lily said, interrupting him again, "she's not going to talk to you until she knows she can do it without Mimi being mad at her forever. And _besides_," she continued, halting Sirius this time before he could even open his mouth, "how the hell is she supposed to know if youeven _want_ to talk to her?"

"Because…you're going to owl her and tell her so?" Sirius suggested hopefully.

Lily glared at him. "_No_, Sirius. I am _not_ your intermediary."

"Didn't you at least _mention_ me when you wrote to her?" Sirius asked, looking a little downhearted.

"Of course I did," Lily said, and he brightened slightly, "but all I told her is that you felt confused and guilty and didn't know what you wanted."

"That's not true!" he protested. "I do too know what I want."

"Oh, really?" Lily said, arching an eyebrow. "Enlighten me, then. What do you want?"

"I want…I…want…" Sirius though about this for a while. "I want to get back to Hogwarts and discover that the girls have made up my mind for me," he decided. "_Damn it_. You're right, I don't know what I want."

"Yeah," Lily agreed. "I know."

"Do _you_ know what I want?"

"No. Not remotely."

"You're supposed to know these things, Lily-bean."

"Don't start that crap again. It's too late at night for that, and besides you shouldn't antagonize people who are willing to stay up this late discussing your problems."

As much as Sirius loved to annoy Lily, he couldn't argue with this. "All right," he agreed, and Lily looked mildly surprised, "then what d'you think I should _do_?"

Lily thought about this for a while, and then shook her head. "I don't know, Sirius," she said finally. "I can't tell you what to do. Especially if you don't even know what you want. What you need to do…is decide what the hell it is you want, and then…"

"Then _what_?"

"Go for it," Lily said, looking slightly surprised at her own conclusion. "Figure out what you're willing to sacrifice for it, and just…do it."

* * *

Mimi and Melody were forced to serve detention together all week. Sunday night they'd been in the Trophy Room, polishing all of the stupid Hogwarts awards that no one really cared about, until one o'clock in the morning when Filch was finally satisfied with their handiwork. Melody fully loathed each and every one of those trophies, especially Ursula McMillicoff's, as it was by far the biggest and the heaviest and, because it was so ornate, the hardest to polish. It had, in fact, been polished so many times that you couldn't actually read what the award was _for_, just that Ursula McMillicoff had received it in 1306. 

Melody strongly suspected that, if anyone ever_ came_ to the Trophy Room to look at the awards, they would lose interest in Ursula's after reading her name and move on without bothering to see what she got it for. She also suspected that anyone bored enough to go to the Trophy Room would probably not appreciate how clean and shiny-looking the trophies all were, nor would they have any idea of the number of times Melody, James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus had been forced to polish them. Sirius, by far, had been assigned detention in the Trophy Room the most times, with James a close second, but Melody was at least a respectable third.

Not that she appreciated that now. Polishing the trophies was never fun, and it didn't get easier each time you did it—though now Melody knew exactly which spots to work on the hardest for Filch's inspection. Also, she had Mimi's help, which sped up the process a bit—or it would've, had Mimi not kept belching up slugs on the trophies.

Monday was better—but not by much. She and Mimi had to go through the greenhouses with Professor Sprout, applying various types of fertilizer, potting several dozen unruly plants, and applying Anti-Frost spells to the whole of the outdoor gardens.

Tuesday they spent in the library. Melody didn't think detention could get worse than Filch in the Trophy Room…but she'd forgotten about detention with Madam Pince.

She and Mimi had to re-shelve all the library's returned and misplaced books, as well as straighten up any volumes that looked a bit crooked or happened to be shelved in the wrong place, and God forbid Mimi or Melody re-shelve the books in the wrong spot. By the time they'd finished, Melody was beginning to wonder what kind of bribe McGonagall had given Madam Pince for her to even consent to cooperating with this detention. The woman was so obsessed with her books that she screeched if she thought either of the girls was going to drop a book, shelve a book in the wrong place, leave a book lying on a table, or—may God have mercy on their souls—bend or tear any of the pages. In one way this was good, as Madam Pince ended up doing half of the work herself instead of letting the girls do it, but in another it was quite aggravating.

Melody was extremely tense the entire time, and if Madam Pince left for a moment to check on Mimi, Melody would inevitably screw something up in her absence, and when the librarian got back she'd shriek and take over for Melody for a few minutes, before running off to check on Mimi again.

All in all it was the most stressful set of detentions Melody had ever received. Even if she wasn't being advised by a high-strung, book-hugging librarian, she still had to share her tasks with Mimi, and the awkward silence that hung between them was, at times, unbearable.

Wednesday they had to straighten up Professor Thorne's Potions dungeon. _Lily would probably enjoy this_, Melody thought darkly as she reorganized a cabinet of ingredients. _Damn perfectionist Ravenclaws_. She shot Mimi a glare, but Mimi was busy scrubbing out cauldrons and didn't notice. Melody sighed and rearranged several bottles of dragon's blood, not really caring where they went just so long as they were arranged neatly. The best thing she had to say about this was that Professor Thorne had locked himself in his office and was leaving them, for the most part, alone.

Melody glanced over at Mimi again, and then bit her lip, thinking. _Should I say something? _she wondered.

Mimi didn't really _look _like she wanted to talk, but then she didn't look like she wanted to pick up her cauldron and chuck it at Melody's head, either. Melody _hated _awkward silences. Moreover, she hated everything she'd done to Mimi and thought that if she could at least get back on speaking terms with her she'd be able to find some way to apologize.

"How's—how's that cauldron coming?" she ventured finally. Mimi's scrubbing halted for a moment, but she didn't look up and continued scrubbing without replying to Melody.

Melody turned back to her cabinet, frowning. She glared at several jars of newt eyes before shoving them to the back. _Who wants a bunch of eyeballs in the front of their cabinet, anyway?_ Melody reasoned, ignoring the front-row label that clearly read, "newt eyes." She glanced over her shoulder at Mimi, but the girl was still scrubbing away, seemingly unperturbed by Melody, newt eyes, awkward silences, and detention.

"Only three days left," Melody tried again. This time Mimi just frowned and scrubbed at her cauldron harder. Melody sighed, annoyed, and shoved the rest of the ingredients into the cabinet without bothering to glance at the labels. She turned around and looked at Mimi, dead-on, and searched for something to say.

"It'll be nice to have the evenings free again, won't it?" she said finally.

Mimi banged her cauldron on the counter and looked Melody straight in the eyes. "Don't talk to me," she advised, before whirling around and rinsing her cauldron in the sink. She dried it with a towel hastily and threw it on top of the other cauldrons, with perhaps a bit more force than necessary.

Melody stared at the ground and tried not to feel like a worthless bug.

She watched a spider scurry across the dungeons, toward Mimi's stack of cauldrons. Mimi spotted it, too, and squished it with the toe of her shoe.

Melody had the distinct and unpleasant notion that she knew _exactly_ how that spider was feeling.

* * *

Bellatrix Black and Siegfried Lestrange were in trouble. Between them they'd consumed a pint of Firewhisky, two bottles of champagne, and several shots of vodka, and it wasn't even midnight yet. 

"We're gonna die," slurred Siegfried, slumped over the table. "He'ss…gonna…killus."

Bellatrix burped. "Yup," she agreed. "_Dead_."

"Whichiss kinna funny, considewin…considerin…ng…we're _Deatthhhh _Eatersss." He tried to laugh but it didn't come out quite right.

"We gotta have some kinna plan," Bellatrix said, nodding, though after a minute she stopped nodding because the world looked kind of blurry when she did. "Sstay _still_," she told Siegfried, who was still slumped over the table, motionless.

"Sssorry," he replied, not sure what she was talking about.

"We could just…go kill 'em," Bellatrix suggested, burping again.

"You wannago, go ahead," Siegfried mumbled. "I'm too pisss…piss…pissed."

"Not _now_," she said, trying to roll her eyes at him, but she ended up just staring at the ceiling for a while. "Llllater."

"Befo'…or…affta…he killsss uss?" Siegfried mumbled again, more thickly this time. He sounded like he was drifting towards sleep.

"_Beffo_, stupid." She stared at him for a while, and he didn't move. She banged her shot glass on the table. "Wakup," she advised, and burped again, loudly.

A grunting, rumbling sort of noise came from Siegfried's end of the table. Snoring. He'd fallen asleep.

_Typical_, Bellatrix thought. She grabbed the bottle of vodka and stumbled away from the table toward the couch.

She collapsed on the sofa, dropping the bottle of vodka next to it, and plopped her head on a pillow. She tried to take another drink, but she just knocked the bottle over and it rolled away from her, its contents spilling onto the floor. Bellatrix considered getting up and putting a cap on it, but decided it wasn't worth the effort and let her arm fall over the edge of the couch instead, flopping limply against the floor. She stared blearily across the room, trying to evaluate their situation.

The Dark Lord was angry with them, that was certain. They'd failed him. Not just once, either. So many times. Too many times.

Bellatrix and Siegfried were talented killers. They really were. Ruthless, malicious, efficient, intimidating…in short, everything the Dark Lord wanted in a competent Death Eater. However, there was one thing they apparently weren't, and that was thorough.

Siegfried headed the mission to kill an entire Muggle village late last spring, but apparently hadn't investigated well enough, because one of the village's occupants was a young girl attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and she hadn't been caught in the attack. The Dark Lord had been quite angry, because he hadn't wanted to attack anyone connected with that particular wizarding school—not yet, anyway. The Dark Lord did not disclose his strategy to the Death Eaters, but Bellatrix suspected that this was because too many of the students at Hogwarts were Muggle- and Mudblood-huggers, and the Dark Lord wanted to take the time to build his forces secretly, so that when the resistance finally came against his growing power he'd be able to stop it quickly. These were just Bellatrix's own musings, of course; who knew what the Dark Lord was really thinking.

The second mistake had been with some Muggle family last summer, when the mother and two daughters had survived—the two daughters they'd known about shortly following the attack, since two Death Eaters had pursued them until they escaped on the Knight Bus, but the mother had been a surprise. They wouldn't even have known about the mother surviving if it hadn't been for Phideus Nott. As an Auror, he was well-placed to provide the Dark Lord with all kinds of confidential Ministry information—even, occasionally, Ministry information he himself wasn't actually privy to. He was one of many loyal spies working for both the Dark Lord and the Ministry.

The next several incidents that displeased the Dark Lord weren't a result of carelessness so much as they were of blatant failure. Bellatrix—finally seasoned enough to coordinate an attack—and Siegfried headed five unsuccessful attempts on the Minister of Magic's life, and the Dark Lord was getting quite annoyed with their inability to complete this task. He'd expected, of course, that it would be a trifle difficult to kill the Minister, but he'd been prepared to wait for two or three attempts at most—not five or six. Now he was getting so aggravated he was prepared to do the killing himself, and if the Dark Lord had to take time out of recruiting his army of Dementors and Giants to off some stupid politician, he'd be _very_ upset.

Normally it was not the Dark Lord's policy to kill his faithful servants, but if they made too many harmful mistakes he didn't really have a choice. It was either that or boot them out of the Death Eaters, and frankly death was a much safer bet than letting someone with too much information wander free. (Unless of course they became a ghost—but the Dark Lord had ways of dealing with that too, which Bellatrix didn't care to think about.)

Bellatrix and Siegfried had to get back in the Dark Lord's favor, and quickly, or they could very well end up dead…which, being only eighteen years old, wasn't something Bellatrix wanted.

If only…they could think of some way…to please him….

_There must be…something…we could do…_ Bellatrix thought sleepily, and she closed her eyes to ponder this.

She didn't open her eyes again until morning, when she awoke with a pounding headache and a very unstable-feeling stomachache.

* * *

James felt like he'd been walking for days. Really it had only been four hours, but it felt _much_ longer. Hiking up the side of a mountain, apparently, was not for the faint of heart. Not that James considered himself faint of heart…he was just more accustomed to flying than he was walking, and at the moment his legs were very unhappy with him. 

Moody insisted this was all part of Detection and Inquiry practice—apparently they were looking for something—but to James it felt more like Endurance and Survival practice. The other training students, plopped on the ground near James for their twenty-minute break, looked as though they weren't quite cut out for a seven-hour hike, either.

"'S a good thing we only have a couple more days out here, isn't it?" Frank voiced finally. "I don't know that I'm cut out for much more of this."

"It's not so bad," Adam said, trying to sound unaffected by the hike, but his flushed face indicated otherwise.

"Oh, stuff it, Adam," Vivian said, rolling her eyes. "You're just as tired as the rest of us."

"I'm in better shape than _you_," Adam shot back, taking a drink from his flask.

James and Frank looked at each other wearily. _Not again_….

"Oooh, you know what, that's _it_!" Vivian shrieked, throwing down her own flask. "I've had just about enough of you, you little maggot!"

"I'm _so_ afraid," Adam replied, taking another drink.

Vivian slapped his flask away from his mouth and grabbed the collar of his shirt. "_Look_," she said icily. "Just because I am a girl doesn't mean I'm any less qualified for this than you. And _just because I'm a girl_ doesn't mean I can't hike, _or _play Quidditch—which, _in case you've forgotten_, I happen to do quite well! And I don't see where you get off criticizing Slytherins either, just because you have a superiority complex the size of Africa doesn't mean you can go putting down other people's Houses all the time, and you know what, my hair is _not_ frizzy _or _carrot-like, just because it's red doesn't mean it's _ugly_, and I don't care _how_ broken-up you're feeling about your stupid _Hufflepuff girlfriend leaving you_, you shouldn't take that out on other people, and furthermore—"

Vivian continued, but James stopped listening. He'd lost her around the time she started talking about Quidditch.

Apparently there was some kind of history between Adam and Vivian that James wasn't aware of. James looked over at Frank, who just shrugged, looking bewildered.

"—and you know it isn't easy being the only girl on a trip with three boys, especially when one of them's always haranguing you within an inch of your life, I mean, don't you think you could at least _try_ to be nice to me once in a while?" Vivian demanded, halting to take several quick, unsteady breaths.

Moody reappeared just then, and Vivian let go of Adam's shirt, whirling around to collect her flask, which she took a large swig out of before focusing her attention on Moody.

Adam managed to look both floored and furious at the same time.

"We're splitting up now," Moody informed them. He pointed them all in different directions and said he'd be checking up on them all periodically, before Disapparating to who-knew-where. The students looked at each other and then rose without speaking. James shrugged and waved good-bye to all of them before turning and walking in the direction Moody had pointed him.

* * *

Frank left shortly after James. Vivian whirled around to stalk off in her own direction, but Adam caught her by the wrist and pulled her back. 

"Oh, just leave me _alone_," Vivian moaned.

"No," Adam said, tugging at her wrist until she turned around. "You can't just say all of that stuff to me and then stalk off without at least giving me a chance to reply."

"I've had just about enough of you ridiculing and harassing me, thank you _very_ much," Vivian informed him, trying to tug her wrist away from his hand, without much success.

"Well what about all the ridiculing and harassing you've been doing to _me_?" Adam demanded, seizing her other wrist. Vivian tugged against his hold until she slipped one of her hands free, and then began prying at the fingers on Adam's other hand.

"_Stop_," Adam said. "If I let you go will you stay so I can talk to you?"

"No!" Vivian spat at him. "We have _work_ to do, in case you've forgotten."

"Yes, well, we'll get to that in a minute, won't we?" Adam said, releasing her hands and grabbing her arms instead, pinning them against her body. Vivian glared at him, enraged.

"Just let me _go_!" she shrieked. "Do you want Moody to come back and find us and be mad at us again? I don't know how _you_ feel about being an Auror, but it's kind of important to me!"

"If you'd just stay still for a minute I'd be able to say what I want and then you could _go_," Adam informed her, his teeth gritted.

"Well, maybe I just don't want to hear anything you have to say. Did you ever think of _that_?"

"Damn it, Vivian, if I had to listen to you rage at me, you should have to listen to _me_."

"Well, the world is full of injustices. Go complain to someone who cares," Vivian hissed.

Adam shook his head and let her go. "You know what, never mind. I don't know why I waste my time on you."

"Fine," Vivian said, and glared at him one last time before turning on her heel and stalking off in her specified direction.

"You know what I don't get, though, Vivian?" Adam yelled, stalking after her, and Vivian whirled to face him, her eyes blazing.

"WHAT?" she snapped. "Just _say_ it, damn it, and then maybe you'll leave me _alone_!"

"I don't get why it's just _me_. You don't seem to be raging at James or Frank much, and the _insults_ you come up with…it's like you sit around and work yourself up to hating me, and then the second you see me, you just start spewing things out without thinking about them. What's your problem with me, anyway?"

"You're just a smarmy _git_!" Vivian replied shrilly, backing away.

Adam shook his head, glaring at her. "You're full of it," he informed her, walking up to her and sticking a finger in her face. "Maybe I'm a little bit of an ass sometimes, but I'm not _that bad_. I don't know what's really going on in your head, but I'd appreciate it if you'd stop _attacking_ me all the time."

"Well maybe I would if you'd stop making _fun_ of me!" Vivian blurted, a hurt look crossing her face briefly before she replaced it with a mask of anger.

"I'm not making fun of you, I'm just _teasing_ you!" he cried, exasperated, but something clicked in his head.

"Well maybe I don't _like_ to be teased!"

"Then maybe you should get a sense of humor!" Adam bellowed.

"I _have_ a sense of humor," Vivian spat, fuming. "It's just not one you'd appreciate."

"Oh, really? And why is that?"

"Because it's the kind that involves making fun of _you_."

"That's not humor, that's just the jealous ravings of someone with a gigantic pole shoved up her ass!"

"I am _not jealous_!"

"You are too."

"Oh, really? Jealous of _what_?"

"Of people like Alyssa Prewett, that's what."

Vivian sputtered at him. "Jealous of _that_ little sniveling whiny—"

"Ah, see there, you're all flustered now. I'm right, aren't I?"

"No, you're _not_," Vivian informed him, "and frankly I don't know what in the world made you think I'd ever be jealous of _anyone_ like Alyssa Prewett."

"Because she dated me, that's why," Adam said, smirking, "and you're outrageously jealous of her."

Vivian's anger seeped out of her, and she just stared at him, shaking her head in disbelief. "You really are the most conceited, arrogant, big-headed—"

"Before you start rambling on about my finer attributes, could you just hold on a second?"

"Why?" Vivian demanded, crossing her arms and staring at him icily.

Adam put a hand on her back and pulled her closer to him. Vivian blinked up at him, getting the distinct impression that she knew exactly what was going to happen next.

"Because this is going to work so much better if you aren't talking," Adam replied before leaning down and kissing her. Vivian was quite annoyed to discover that her heart sped up a bit when he did this.

It was awkward to kiss someone with folded arms, so Vivian unfolded hers and placed her hands on Adam's chest.

She shoved him away. "You're such a _prat_," she informed him, but she wasn't quite angry enough for this to be effective.

Adam grinned at her. "I'm a good kisser, though, aren't I?"

Vivian rolled her eyes at him. "I have to get back to Auror Training now, if you don't mind," she informed him. Adam grasped her wrist again as she turned away. "What now?" she asked, turning back to face him.

He kissed her again, but this time she didn't resist quite as much.

"You going to keep calling me names?" he wanted to know.

Vivian considered. "Probably."

"You going to mean it?"

Vivian arched an eyebrow at him. "We'll see."

Adam grinned again, then caught his lips against hers for a third time.

_Okay, so, this isn't _so_ bad,_ Vivian thought to herself. _But for the love of Merlin, he's a Ravenclaw, what am I _doing

She pushed him away again, but not quite as forcefully, and Adam smirked at her. She didn't say anything, just stepped away, turned around and began walking.

"I _am_ a good kisser," Adam called after her.

Vivian rolled her eyes, but a smile tweaked at the corners of her mouth. "Bye, Adam," she called airily over her shoulder.

Adam just laughed as she walked away.

* * *

James didn't know about the other Auror Training Students, but the direction Moody'd pointed out for him really _smelled_. The smell hadn't been so bad at first, just a little whiff of something unpleasant, but the farther along he walked the worse it got. He seemed to be approaching whatever-it-was that was making the smell, but he couldn't actually see anything in the path ahead of him, so he was slightly concerned. 

He glanced around for caves or ledges or sturdy-looking tree branches, trying to figure out where something might've been lurking that had caused the smell…but there was nothing. Eventually it got so bad James brought his shirt up to his nose and tried to breathe through the fabric, hoping that would lessen the stench. It worked—almost—until he tripped and fell, landing, splayed-out, over the very source of the smell.

It was a dead animal. A large, gross, nearly-impossible-to-see dead animal, but it was there all the same.

James scrambled off of it quickly, repulsed, and backed away, trying to determine what it was. The creature had a weird, shimmering, hard-to-see kind of fur, which made the animal impossible to see, unless you knew what you were looking for, and…

_Holy Mother of Merlin_, James thought. "A Demiguise," he breathed. Apparently Care of Magical Creatures class was useful after all.

Demiguises were extremely hard to find, due to the concealing nature of their coats, and were highly prized kills, as their fur could be used to make highly rare and valuable Invisibility Cloaks. Only very skilled and experienced hunters were even able to spot the beasts, and the sales from one pelt of Demiguise fur could make them a very rich man for a very long time.

_This beast wasn't killed by any wizard_, James decided. _But then what could've…_?

He puzzled over this for a moment until Moody appeared beside him. "Augh! What's that _smell_?" Moody demanded, covering his nose with his hand.

"Demiguise," James said, pointing. "Dead."

Moody crouched down and examined the creature. "Well, this isn't at all what we're looking for," he said after a minute. "Wasn't killed by any wizard, that's for sure."

"What d'you think killed it, then?"

Moody considered for a moment. "Probably a yeti," he concluded.

"A _yeti_?" James repeated, looking around and feeling alarmed. "Is it really safe for us to be here?"

"Yetis usually don't stray this far below the snow cap. I wouldn't worry about it."

"Yeah…except there's a dead Demiguise right there," James reasoned.

"Food must be scarce," Moody reasoned. "But like I said, don't worry. If it is a yeti, got what he came for. There's very little meat left here. The coat, though…it's still mostly intact. That's a valuable pelt, right there."

"What are we going to do with it?" James asked.

Moody looked at him for a moment, sizing him up. "You're a pretty good student, Potter," he said. "If you decide to pursue this line of work, I think you have a good chance at it."

James, shocked, couldn't think of anything to say. He gaped at Moody for a minute. "I…er…yeah," he replied.

Moody laughed. "All right then, Potter," he said. "How'd you feel about having an Invisibility Cloak?"

* * *

Lin was in relatively high spirits. She'd just had tea with Hagrid, who was an extremely enjoyable companion, and usually managed to lift Lin's mood, no matter how dark it had become. She'd visited him several times in the past few weeks, and thanked Lily silently each time she did so. Hagrid was a better companion for Lin than even Lily realized—he, too, had lost the people dearest to him, and unlike Lily, had not had any surviving family members to console him. 

So, over tea and barely-edible cookies, Lin and Hagrid discussed life, death, cooking, magical creatures, and Anthony Hall. Lin avoided talking about Wendy, even though Hagrid prodded her to every time she visited. Wendy was just too complicated to think about.

Lin entered the school by way of the front doors, and rubbed her arms a bit as she stepped into the Great Hall. Her cloak was warm, but it didn't entirely block the chilly November winds, and she was glad to be back inside where it was warm and welcoming. She saw a group of fourth-year girls descending the stairs for dinner, giggling over something, and glared over at them.

Well, maybe it wasn't exactly _welcoming_….

Lin straightened and lifted her head, trying to look confident as she brushed past Wendy and her ridiculous new friends to get to the Great Hall, and heard several of the girls make noises of annoyance as she did so.

"Pardon _me_," Gillian Johnson said, jutting her chin out in the air in a mocking impression of Lin.

Lin glanced back at them to see Lucy Forester, their ringleader, burst into laughter, and her cheeks burned as she saw Wendy joining in.

_What happened to her?_ she wondered, slumping down at the end of the Gryffindor table. _I always thought she'd be there for me…_

* * *

Wendy Thompson had many complicated feelings about Linda Sharp. Sure, she felt bad about laughing at her—Gillian's impression hadn't been _that_ funny—but really, Lin almost brought it upon herself, the way she went around sulking and brooding all the time. Obviously she'd been through something tragic, but if she wasn't even willing to _talk_ about it with people…what did she expect? Wendy glanced toward the end of the table as she sat down next to Lucy. She felt a twinge of guilt in her stomach. 

_Don't be stupid_, she chided herself. _You tried. You _tried_ to talk to her…it's not your fault if she's completely closed off…._

Her mind flashed back to the conversation she'd tried to have with Lin on the train at the beginning of the year.

* * *

"Lin?" Wendy said as they departed from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. "You excited about going back to Hogwarts?" 

Lin, who was already staring out the window aimlessly, nodded. "Yeah," she replied.

"I didn't hear from you all summer."

"Yeah. I was…I wasn't allowed to use owls."

"Oh. Where'd you stay?"

Lin turned a dull gaze on Wendy. "Where d'you _think_ I stayed?"

Wendy blinked. "I don't…I don't know, Lin. Am I supposed to know?"

"Orphanage," Lin said finally, her gaze slipping back to the window. "Don't want to talk about it."

"Lin, you should've told me! I bet I could've convinced mum to let you stay with me."

"I couldn't owl anyone, remember?"

Wendy couldn't seem to think of anything to say. "I'm really sorry, Lin, if you want to talk—"

"I don't want to talk about it. Don't worry about it."

"Lin, you're my best friend, how am I supposed to _not_ worry about it?"

"Well there's nothing you can do about it and talking doesn't help, so can't we just talk about something _else_?"

* * *

Wendy had been hurt. What good was having a best friend if you couldn't talk to them about everything? And what was there that Lin couldn't say to Wendy, anyway? 

She'd reasoned that maybe Lin just wasn't in the mood…it was, after all, a pretty serious subject, so she switched to talking about Chocolate Frog cards and her summer, but Lin wasn't a very active participant in this conversation, either. Mostly she stared out the window and mumbled things at Wendy every so often to assure her she was still listening…but even then, Wendy didn't really believe she was listening.

Wendy wouldn't have minded so must if this hadn't been the jist of _every_ conversation she'd had with Lin since the start of term.

After a few weeks of trying to talk to Lin, with no luck, Wendy got fed up. She exploded on Lin one day in the library, and stalked off to the common room to recover.

The fight would've just been temporary, just like all their fights, and Wendy expected they would've made up, if it hadn't been for what happened when Wendy got to the common room.

* * *

Wendy threw herself into an armchair furiously and crossed her arms, glaring intensely at the wall. Lucy Forester, Gillian Johnson, and Rachel Wood had been sitting on a couch nearby, laughing over something. Lucy turned to Wendy and spoke. 

"Are you all right?" she asked. "You look angry."

"It's nothing," Wendy snapped. "Just having a row with one of my friends, thanks."

Lucy exchanged glances with Gillian and Rachel. "Not that weird Lin girl you're always hanging out with?"

Wendy's eyes narrowed. "Not that it's any of your business, but yes, it is with Lin, and she's not weird."

The three girls exchanged glances again. "I don't want to hurt your feelings," Lucy said, "but she _is_ kind of weird. She always looks so…_depressed_."

"Her whole family died. How'd you be?"

Lucy looked at Gillian significantly, and this time Gillian spoke. "It's not that we're trying to downplay what happened. It _was_ pretty awful."

"But it was four months ago," Lucy finished. "She's not even being _social_ with anybody."

"The other day I tried to talk to her," Rachel chimed in, finally. "I asked her for a quill in Charms, and she ignored me. It was awfully rude."

"She doesn't carry extra quills," Wendy said defensively.

"Oh, we're not saying she's obligated to give people quills all the time," Lucy said quickly. "She just didn't say _anything_."

"She could have _said_ she didn't have any extra quills," Rachel pointed out. "But she just kept staring straight ahead, as though she didn't hear me."

"I don't think that's acceptable," Lucy said. "Even if you're depressed you should at least be civil to people."

Wendy shrugged. Lin _had_ been zoning out a lot lately…still, it was nothing Lucy and her friends needed to worry about. "She has a lot on her mind. She didn't mean anything by it."

Lucy exchanged glances with her friends again. "Well, you know, it's just our opinion." She turned back to her friends and they whispered together for a minute. "Well, we have something important to do. But if you ever get tired of spending time with her…you're welcome to hang out with us. We know how hard it must be to deal with someone who's being so…anti-social."

Wendy watched Lucy and her friends leave the common room in disbelief. _Did that really just happen?_ she wondered to herself.

* * *

She hadn't expected to accept Lucy's offer, but a few more one-sided conversations with Lin and she was starving for some social stimulation. 

Her first afternoon with Lucy and her friends was an eye-opener. The girls seemed to know all the gossip about _everybody_, and within two hours she knew more about the girls in her House—and many of the girls in her year who were in other Houses—than she'd ever really wanted to know. After a solid week of spending time with Lucy, she had a date for Hogsmeade—extremely cute Fifth Year Thomas Moore—and within two weeks, Thomas was her boyfriend. Good things happened when she was around Lucy, and Lin just…dragged her mood down.

Not that she dropped Lin like a hot tamale. She _tried_ to spend time with her, but Lucy just had so many activities planned that it got harder to find time for Lin around her social schedule—she couldn't believe she even _had_ a social schedule—especially since her social activities left little time for essay-writing. Mostly Wendy and Lin did homework together, which wasn't exactly enjoyable, though since Lin didn't talk much it was much more productive than any of their previous study sessions together.

Eventually Wendy started doing her homework with Lucy and her friends, which was more fun, though admittedly her work didn't go quite as quickly, and Lucy, Rachel, and Gillian weren't very good at answering her Potions questions. Actually, Wendy found herself giving most of the advice—especially where Arithmancy was concerned—but didn't suspect Lucy of using her just for homework answers, since she rarely asked about Charms or Herbology and never once asked Wendy to write out answers for her.

Lin and Wendy had a silent and gradual falling-out. By mid-October they weren't even speaking, and by November Wendy stopped worrying about it.

Except for days like this, when they ran into each other…Wendy never said anything outright nasty to her, but…what was the point standing up for her in front of Lucy? It wasn't as though she spoke to Lin anymore anyway, and Lucy wouldn't care about anything Wendy had to say in Lin's defense.

But what was Wendy supposed to do? Sacrifice her entire social life because all Lin wanted to do was sit around and mope?

That would've just been…well…_unfair_.

* * *

Friday was Melody and Mimi's last day of detention together. Melody thought they would've had detention until Saturday, but according to McGonagall Friday was day seven, and seven days was a full week. Melody didn't attempt to argue with this. Mostly she figured McGonagall was tired of asking various professors if they'd take two girls for detention, especially as this last night of detention the girls were serving with McGonagall herself. 

McGonagall was having them De-transfigure some of the objects the younger students had been working on. Mimi was turning a pile of needles back into toothpicks, and Melody had a cage of rats to turn back into teacups. After they were finished with this, McGonagall had informed them, they were going to apply Anti-Cheating Spells to a batch of quills, and then test to make sure their spells were accurate. When they were finished with _that_ they had to go apologize to several of the portraits in the Charms corridor, and then they'd be done with their week's worth of detentions.

An awkward silence still hung between the girls, but Melody couldn't think of a way to break it without earning a sharp glare from McGonagall, who was sitting behind her desk grading a batch of essays and making sure the girls didn't screw up the De-transfiguration too badly.

Melody sighed and grabbed another rat from the cage, muttering the spell under her breath a little lazily. The rat squirmed for a minute before transfiguring into a pretty blue teacup, which Melody placed with her pile of variously patterned and shaped teacups. She'd always been rather good at turning teacups to rats, and vice versa, and enjoyed the practice, even if it was quite a few years below her skill level. At least it was something to keep her mind off of Mimi's stony silence.

_Seven days of detention and we haven't even had a conversation_, Melody thought glumly, tossing a yellow teacup onto the pile. Well…so much for keeping her mind off it. _You're a bloody coward, that's what you are,_ she told herself, frowning and tossing another teacup onto the pile. She cringed when she heard the distinctive tinkling sound of breaking china, and McGonagall looked up from her papers, irritated.

"Do have a care, Miss Cauldwell," she advised. "I don't want to have to replace my teacups more than once in a year."

"Sorry, Professor," Melody mumbled, handling her next several teacups more delicately.

"That's much better," McGonagall said approvingly. "Now, if you girls can behave yourselves for a few minutes, I have something I must deliver to Professor Dumbledore." Her tone suggested that she expected nothing but the best behavior from both girls, and she left without waiting for a response.

Melody glanced over at Mimi after she'd gone and tried to think of something appropriate to say. Mimi felt her gaze and looked up. Melody opened her mouth, but Mimi shook her head and spoke first.

"Don't," she said. "Just…don't say anything."

Melody stared at her for a moment, hurt, and then spoke anyway. "Damn it, Mimi, how am I supposed to apologize if you won't let me say anything to you?"

"_Apologize_?" Mimi repeated in disbelief. "After everything that's happened, what makes you think I'd even _accept_ an apology from you? Who says I even _want_ your apology?"

"I would've thought that's about the _only _thing you'd want to hear from me," Melody said softly, staring at the teacup on her desk.

"Well, I think it's a bit late for an apology," Mimi said coldly. "If you wanted to do that, you should've done it a week ago."

"Would you have listened then, either?" Melody asked. "Every time I saw you, you just _glared_ at me."

"Yes, well, it wasn't as though you'd given me a reason to suspect that you felt anything other than perfectly satisfied with your lying, boyfriend-stealing self."

Melody sputtered at her. "Well—well—_first of all_," she managed finally, "I am _not_ a boyfriend stealer."

Mimi's eyebrows shot toward the ceiling. "You dragged my boyfriend away from the Halloween Ball to snog with him in a deserted classroom. Which part of that makes you _not_ a boyfriend stealer?"

"The part where Sirius didn't want me," Melody said, very quietly.

"_Bullocks_," Mimi spat. "He told me just that _afternoon_ he wanted you."

Melody's eyes flew up and locked on Mimi's, shocked. "_What_?"

"I'd rather not talk about it," Mimi said tightly, turning back to her pile of needles. "I'd rather not talk to _you_ anymore, either."

"You can't just say something like that and leave me hanging!"

"Maybe I can. I'd say you deserve a little torment."

Melody stared at her in disbelief. "What, you think I've gone through the last two weeks without any torment? Mimi…I lost two of my best friends in the same night, because of some stupid, idiotic thing that _I_ did, and there isn't a minute in my day when I don't feel wretched about it."

Mimi looked at Melody and considered. "Really?"

"_Yes_," Melody replied, her voice raw. "I'm _miserable_."

Mimi sized her up for a moment, and then nodded. "Good," she said, and turned back to her needles again.

Melody stared at her helplessly. "Aren't you even going to let me _try_ to apologize?"

"Don't see a good reason to," Mimi replied. "And anyway, none of this is anything more than you deserve."

"Are you always this—this—_horrible_ to people who make you mad?"

"Make me _mad_? I don't think that quite covers what happened."

"Fine, then. I was horrible, and I stabbed you in the back."

"That's better."

"But—honestly, Mimi, don't you care at _all_ that I feel horribly about it and want to apologize to you?"

Mimi shook her head, staring decisively at the ground. "What's an apology worth anyway? It doesn't change what happened."

"I _know_ that! But maybe it can change what's happening _now_!" Melody cried, tears brimming in her eyes.

"Oh? And what's happening _now_?"

"We're fighting again! We're—we're—shooting our friendship to hell over a stupid _bloke_!"

Mimi stared at the floor. "You know," she said softly. "It always sounds stupid when people talk about it that way. Girls fighting with each other over some stupid bloke. But you know what? They never remember to mention just how _shoddy_ it feels to have one of your best friends _stab you in the back_!"

"Oh, why do you care anyway?" Melody shrieked back. "You know, I never understood why you wanted to be Sirius's girlfriend in the first place, because before the beginning of this year you expressed _no_ interest in him as anything other than a mate. And you knew _perfectly well _how _I_ felt about Sirius, so don't try to paint yourself like you're so innocent and victimized!"

"Well, looks like your 'apology' nonsense just flew out the window, now didn't it?" Mimi snapped, glaring at Melody full-on. "But don't you dare try to make _me_ out to be the mean one. You know what's funny about your little infatuation with Sirius? _How you never told Sirius about it_. So don't blame _me_ for his actions just because you're too scared to tell people how you feel about them."

"Yeah, well, is it any wonder why I was afraid? Look what happened when I finally _did_ tell him!"

"D'you expect me to have _sympathy_ for you or something? You know what, next time you decide you're going to confess your deepest feelings to the boy you fancy, why don't you WAIT UNTIL HE'S AVAILABLE FIRST?"

"Oh, thanks for the helpful advice," Melody shot back. "And hey, guess what? I've got some helpful advice for you, too! How about the next time you go out with a boy, you pick one that you ACTUALLY FANCY?"

Mimi did not appreciate this statement. She didn't appreciate it so much, in fact, that she picked up a handful of needles and chucked them at Melody viciously.

Melody shrieked and shielded her face with her arms, feeling the prick of several needles biting into her skin. "That was _low_," she growled, brushing the needles away angrily.

"Well, so was your advice!" Mimi shrieked.

"Well so was _yours_!" Melody shrieked back, chucking a rat at her. Mimi squealed and jumped out of her chair to avoid the animal.

"You want to fight?" Mimi asked. "_Fine_!" She picked up a handful of toothpicks and hurled them at Melody, who ducked and grabbed several teacups, which she tossed back at Mimi with great force and horrible aim. They smashed against the wall quite fantastically and made such a racket that all the rats began chattering angrily in their cage. The rat Melody had thrown scurried across the room and into the hall, unwilling to take any more abuse.

"This isn't fair!" Mimi cried, stomping her foot. "You always have better weapons than me!" she hurled another batch of toothpicks at Melody, one of which pricked Melody rather severely in the nostril, which hurt more than she expected.

"Yes, well," Melody replied, brushing off the toothpicks. "It's not my fault you're horrible at dueling."

"But—but even _now_! How are toothpicks and needles supposed to compete with rats and teacups?"

"Hey, don't downplay the power of needles and toothpicks. You could poke my eye out, you know."

"Yes, well, I'm not sure I'd feel too bad about it at the moment, actually," Mimi replied, fuming, and threw several more needles in Melody's direction. Melody hopped over her desk and hid behind the pile of teacups for protection, crushing several of them in the process.

McGonagall walked in on them like this, Mimi throwing handfuls of toothpicks and needles at Melody, and Melody cowering behind a pile of teacups. Occasionally Melody would pick up a teacup and chuck it at her opponent, but for the most part she missed fantastically, which created a rather interesting array of teacup remains against the far wall.

"Ladies!" McGonagall yelled when she'd finally processed what was happening in her office. "That is _enough_!"

The girls froze and dropped whatever they were holding—in Melody's case, a teacup, which shattered against the floor and infuriated the Professor further.

"Twenty points from both your Houses, clean this mess up _now_, and DETENTION FOR ANOTHER WEEK—_SEPARATELY_!"

Mimi and Melody stared at each other for a moment unhappily, and then silently went about cleaning McGonagall's office.

Instantly more regret flooded Melody's head. _Damn it_, she cursed herself, scraping up the remains of several teacups and tossing them in a rubbish bin. _How do I even begin to apologize for this?_

Across the room, Mimi was having thoughts of her own. _I could have avoided that_, she admitted, picking handfuls of toothpicks off the floor. _I should've just…let it go_. She sighed and sat back on her heels, examining the mess they'd made.

Something struck her at that moment, as she saw Melody examining the floor on her hands and knees, searching for bits of shattered teacup.

_Wow_, she thought to herself suddenly, staring down at the toothpicks in her own hand. She ran over the events of the past two weeks in her head, and then shook it back and forth several times, thinking. _Melody_ _was right, _she realized, blinking at the floor in shock.

_This has all just been so…so…_

…_stupid_.

* * *

A/N: Stupid indeed. 

I had a lot of fun mocking these characters in this chapter…could you tell? I hope you all enjoyed Remus. He's a doll, and oh-so-much fun to write. Forgive him for zoning out during Mimi's sob session; yes, he is caring and considerate, but he's still a _guy_.

A couple of notes about the character names: There are several duplicate first names in this chapter. Anthony Brown, who plays Quidditch for Gryffindor, and Anthony Hall, the boy Lin likes in Potions. Also, there's Bridget Debeauvois (whose last name I had a hideous time trying to figure out how to spell and which is pronounced "Duh—boh as in "I'm tying a bow in my hair"—vwah," in case like me you have no clue about French. (I had some of my French-studying friends help me out on that one, and it could still be wrong. Who knows?) Anyway, this Bridget is not to be confused with the Bridget of earlier chapters, who is indeed a Muggle, and who Ethan goes out with for a bit during the summer, and who I'm sure you've all forgotten about since that was several chapters ago, but in case any of you _did_ remember this, I just wanted to clarify. The most important note, however, concerns Naomi Watts.

I named her several chapters ago, during one of the Auror Training meetings, and she's been written down in a notebook forever, and I really, really like her name…it's just that I'm a total ditz and did not remember that this is also the name of an actress until my beta-reader pointed it out to me. I knew the name sounded good; I also knew it sounded vaguely familiar, but I just didn't connect the dots. So I would like to add a disclaimer.

Disclaimer: The name "Naomi Watts" in no way references the actress Naomi Watts and is not intended to infringe upon guidelines or the actress's life and privacy in any way. I happen to be a total doofus who names characters without thinking about it, so nobody sue me/delete my story. Thanks very much.

Also along the lines of character names, some of you are getting Lucius Malfoy and Lucifer Malfoy confused. _Lucius_ Malfoy indeed goes to Hogwarts with Lily and the gang; _Lucifer_ Malfoy is a character I made up whose lineage/history/age will be explored later.

That said, here's a** Very Important Note Concerning The Thank-You Section Which I Think Everybody Ought to Read, Which is Why I'm Capitalizing Most of These Words:**

I will again be changing the manner in which I post the thank-you section. I think that thank-yous are very important, and I truly appreciate all the wonderful, helpful, flattering feedback you all give, but it's gotten to a point where I spend anywhere from one to three hours writing out my end-of-the-chapter thank-you section, and frankly I think this is a little ridiculous.

So I will be reverting to my old style of thanking people, which is to put everyone's names in a paragraph-style list at the end of the chapter, just so everyone feels properly and equally appreciated.

HOWEVER, I still would like to reply to questions/comments/concerns that you write in your reviews, and as such I've created the Eyes Database. This is the description I posted on Yahoo! Groups, and also in my profile:

Due to growing narcissitic tendencies and the need to provide instant feedback to my reviewers, I've created a group for the use of "Eyes as Green as a Fresh Pickled Toad" fans. Here I will answer questions posed in reviews and handle comments/concerns about the fic. I will also try to keep readers updated on the progress of upcoming chapters, because I know sometimes it seems like I'm never going to update, and I don't want anybody giving up in despair.

I figure this way, I can reply to all your questions, comments, and concerns as I receive them. That way, when you read my response to your reviews, you will actually remember what you WROTE in your review, and my replies will therefore make much more sense.

This might be a stroke of brilliance; this might be terribly inconvenient. However, unless there is a severe outcry of protest from everybody, this is where I will be replying to your reviews for Chapter Seventeen of "Eyes…". If this doesn't work out, obviously I will revert to the old method…but I'm hoping I won't have to, because it really does take an extraordinarily long time to write out the thank-you section all at once.

If you would like to join the Eyes Database (and it'd be very nifty if you would), PLEASE go to my profile and click the link I've posted there, as fanfictionDOTnet is being a total butt and won't let me post any links here.

Also, I've uploaded an Eyes FAQ, with answers to questions like, "How long is this fic going to be?" and…things like that, which I get all the time in reviews. You can access that file in the "Files" section of the Eyes Database, which you can get to through the link in my profile. Hooray? I think...except for the part where I can't post links...

That said, on to the thank-you section for last chapter! (I apologize if my responses are somewhat abbreviated/nonexistent. Please don't be offended. I have a lot to do today, but I wanted to get this chapter up before HBP came out, so onward ho!)

A huge, colossal, cavernous, mind-boggling, jaw-dropping, enormous, spacious, stupendous, stalactite- and stalagmite-filled THANK YOU (no, not a cave, but a thank you) goes to:

**Emrisah**

**cho-kaoru88**

**Story Book**- Lupin is your squishy? That really made me laugh. I hope you appreciated him in this chapter, then.

**ffadix**

**Violets-in-Spring**

**blueforest**

**mystikalolo-** I realize Melody is very dislikable right now…but at least she's not all pleased with herself or anything. And I hope Auror Training wasn't too disappointing.

**Aria327**

**Suggalollies**

**Westernshakespeares**

**Anar ar Isil**- Well frankly I don't think this chapter would exist right now without your help, so there's not much more I can say except 'THANK YOU' over and over again. (Also, as you can see I've pushed Storytime With Sirius back again…but it'll be in the next chapter. Really. I PROMISE. You can slit my throat if I'm lying.)

**birthday cake** I'm assuming this is referencing my birthday, which rolled around about the time I put the last chapter up. Thanks!

**forestofgreenjello**-How do you come up with a name like that?

**Squeak4ever**

**no-comment-carissa**

**everblue3**- Your review made me blush severely. If people keep reviewing like that, I'm going to have an ego the size of Africa. (It's good to see you at TGB, by the way.)

**Sweet Sarcasm**

**always-blond**

**LadyElla64**

**moony128**

**Stardust3ANNOYEDW/AUG.2nd- **I bet you didn't see this coming, did you? (That's a lie, I've been babbling to you about Eyes for like the last two weeks, but oh well.) I'm sure you're positively shocked that stuff ACTUALLY HAPPENED in this chapter. (So was I.) Hooray!

**Wildcat Ohrya**-ha-ha! I made a random reference to you in this chapter! Did you notice? Were you shocked? Profuse apologies for not including you in the last thank-you section. Don't know how that happened. You're really fantastic at reviewing, by the way—have I told you that before? My head's getting all bloated…

**Alyssa**- Don't worry, all the stuff about Lily's necklace is coming…as a matter of fact, it's all going to come in a huge chunk, like in one or two chapters and you're all going to want to kill me for building up the suspense forever and then just slapping it at you all at once. It's going to be great.

**Britz-** It was so awesome and random to hear from you…I left you a review to…something…I don't know if you ever got it. I hope you're doing all right!

**Chrissy Sparkle-** LOL, no, Lily's definitely not pregnant, but every so often I like to throw in random bits of foreshadowing like that for fun. Also, there will be _much_ more about Lily's necklace in the next chapter, and even more concerning it in the chapter after next. So…I'm getting there, I promise.

**Rowan BlackPanther-** Well I'm glad you finally decided to review! No, I'm not fifteen or younger—I'm eighteen—but I've been working on this story for four years, so when I started it I was younger than fifteen. I'd like to think my writing's improved a bit since then…

**Miss Prewett**

**Irish Silhouette**

**amy-** aha! Three months! Are you happy?

**Beyond the Wreckage-** I haven't e-mailed you in forever, I'm sorry! But I've been working on Eyes so…um…is that a good excuse?

**Janus-** Your review for Chapter 16 was really thorough…tres awesome. I know the Lin stuff can be kind of aggravating, but it has a point, I promise.

**Bininny**

**Anonymous Contributor**

**kat44**

**lola17**-Well, I'm still pondering over your comment about me oversimplifying things. Um…care to be more specific?

**splatethy**

**DeppGirl14**

**sun-star-n-moon**

**yomomma777**

**ELPHIESchihuahua**

**bookworm093**

**emotionalsoul**

**dobbyisapenguinindisguise**

**Cilverblood**

**phat duck-** The necklace thing has been planned out for a _long_ time. Possibly even since the start of the fic…or maybe a few months after I started it…originally there were four necklaces, but then I decided that wasn't going to work so now there's just one. And Chapter Sixteen was pivotal, I'm glad you think so too .

**nilepharaohess**

**xDreamerx**-Wow—I'm glad you feel for the characters so much! That's awesome.

'**God'**

**NatRat**

**qweennnnnn, dd, ws**—Are you all the same person? All the reviews were anonymous so I couldn't tell. (My apologies if you aren't.)

**blackbutterfly88**

**JessiAnne032791**

**RavenclawSteph**

**Me?**- Nice anonymous screen name. ;-) I agree entirely with your review—this story is highly inconsistent and full of plot holes, and based on dozens of L/J fanfic clichés. But all things considered, apparently it reads pretty well. Hooray for that!  One day, when it's finally finished, I plan to go back and revise bits of it, to make it a more complete, flowing, plot-hole-less story. But until then…I'll take what I can get.

**Alex**

**Rinaula**

**katdance666**

**UnangelicHalo**

**funky-munky6**

All righty! Well, thank you all again…your reviews rock my socks off. ;-)

I'll see you all after HBP comes out! (Hopefully there'll be some fun L/J tidbits I can use to my advantage…hee hee.)

Cheers,

Sierra Charm


	18. The Necklace

A/N: All right, so, this chapter isn't going to _seem_ like it's about the necklace, but trust me, it is. Also, this chapter officially surpasses last chapter as the longest-ever chapter of "Eyes…." It's sixty-six pages in Word, how ridiculous is that? The chapters WILL be getting shorter after this, I promise.

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to my beta-reader again for _her_ fabulous dedication, and for making sure I don't write anything too stupid or inaccurate.

(reasonably) brief summary of last chapter:

_Lily, Sirius, Naomi Watts, and Sally Parkinson, embark for Auror Training work at the Ministry, which proves to be demeaning and frustrating for both Lily and Sally, though Naomi seems to be enjoying it quite thoroughly. James, Frank Longbottom, Adam Johnson, and Vivian Horvath leave for Auror Training with Moody, which is harder than they anticipated, but James has an excellent time of it and even has the good fortune to stumble across a Demiguise. Moody offers to have an Invisibility Cloak made for James out of the animal's pelt. _

_Meanwhile, back at Hogwarts, Melody and Mimi get into a duel in the middle of the hallway and receive a week's worth of detentions together, at the end of which they get into another fight in McGonagall's office and receive another week's worth of detentions, this time separately. News of Mimi and Melody's detentions is the last thing Lily and Sirius hear about life at Hogwarts before they leave the Ministry, and Sirius is convinced when he gets back everything is going to be horrible._

_Wendy explains why she started hanging out with Lucy and her snobbish friends, and Lin continues to be snubbed by these girls, although now she has Hagrid to confide in and she seems to be getting along reasonably well with Anthony Hall, her Potions partner. Unfortunately, she is also being plagued by visions of the Death Eaters, and no one really knows why._

_Bellatrix and Siegfried get completely drunk because they are afraid Voldemort is going to kill them, and they are afraid they won't be able to come up with a way to get back into his favor._

I think that's all for now…enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter Eighteen**

**The Necklace**

Lily _really_ needed to snog someone. Well—all right, not _someone_, she needed to snog _James_, but James wasn't exactly available at the moment, so a mysterious _someone_ would suffice. She'd been so busy the past couple weeks she hadn't really thought about it much, but Disguises and Cloaking practice left her a surprising amount of time alone, and leaving Lily Evans alone with her thoughts was always a dangerous venture.

Actually, Lily was rather surprised with herself. She imagined that during her spare time she might've thought about Sirius's dilemma with Mimi and Melody, or her mysterious necklace, or Lin, or the fact that she was quickly running out of Dreamless Sleep Potion, or even—God forbid—Auror Training, but no, instead she was daydreaming about James.

_His eyes are really…brown…_ she thought to herself dreamily, staring at a piece of tree bark. _Kind of like that, but…warmer..._

"EVANS!"

Lily jumped and looked up to see Alastor Moody towering over her.

"What?" Lily replied, looking around and jerking herself back to the present. "Holy Mother of Merlin!" she exclaimed, leaping to her feet.

She was supposed to be finding a new hiding place, but she'd gotten so distracted thinking of James she hadn't bothered to move from her old one.

"Focus, Evans, focus!" Moody barked, before Disapparating with a _pop!_

Lily cursed at herself for a moment before running off to find a new hiding spot.

She wasn't quite sure where the Portkey had taken her Training group, but wherever it was, it was _hot_. And muggy. And bug-ridden. Sure, it was beautiful and tropical and everything, but that didn't quite make up for getting drenched with rain every two hours and being subsequently attacked by mosquitoes the size of house cats. (Well—all right, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration; Moody did put some sort of bug-repellent spell on all of them every morning so that they never actually got _attacked_ by these bugs, but Lily had _seen_ them, and just looking at them was enough to gross her out.)

Mostly Lily was concerned about the state of her hair. She'd heard Naomi Watts whining about her hair as well, but Lily thought Naomi was full of tosh, as _her_ hair didn't get all frizzy and poofy and stick out a foot on either side of her head each time it rained. (Well—maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration as well, but _still_, the humidity did nothing to improve the quality of Lily's hair.)

And she'd always supposed tropical rainforests to be so…romantic.

_Imagine if _James_ saw me like this,_ Lily thought in horror, attempting to smooth down her frizzy locks. _Maybe it's a good thing he isn't here after all…_

_Though of course if he was here I could just tell him to close his eyes and kiss me and he wouldn't even have to _look_ at my hair…_

_Except that he likes running his hands through my hair, and that would just be horrible, because it doesn't feel very nice right now; in fact, it's positively dreadful, and tangled, and…thank _goodness_ James isn't here…it's bad enough Sirius is here to see it…_

Of course, Sirius had hair problems of his own. Normally his hair was very smooth and silky-feeling, and fell into his eyes with a sexy sort of grace. The humidity, however, zapped all the elegance out if it, and it was depressingly limp. Sirius, of course, would not admit that he cared about his hair having gone limp, but Lily had caught him fussing over it in the mirror inside the tent yesterday morning when he thought all the girls were still asleep.

At any rate, Lily would be glad when Auror Training was over, because she really missed James, she missed her wand, she missed her potions, and—most importantly—she missed her conditioner.

But enough of that. Right now, she was supposed to be concentrating.

_Where to hide, where to hide?_ Lily wondered, shoving her way through a clump of overgrown leaves. She purposefully avoided a large, sticky spider web and glanced around for an opportune hiding spot.

Above the canopy, thunder rumbled, and Lily glared upwards. The humidity was bad enough already…her hair, though she'd knotted into a nice secure bun just after breakfast, was sticking out in every direction it _could_ stick out, and no matter how many times she smoothed it down, it always frizzed back up again. Additionally, her clothes were already uncomfortably damp. She wasn't sure if it was the humidity or her own sweat, but her shirt and shorts both felt rather dewy. Lily, in an attempt to assuage some of this feeling, unbuttoned the bottom half of her shirt and pulled it up, tying the front ends in a knot just under her breasts. After taking a moment to note how pathetically pale her stomach was, Lily sighed and tramped on through the forest.

The most useful article of clothing Lily had were her boots. Moody'd handed them out to all the students on their first day, along with personal flasks and compasses, should they happen to get hopelessly lost. Lily hoped she'd never have to use hers, because she didn't much like the thought of being stuck in this jungle alone. Of course, she couldn't really figure out why Moody thought they needed compasses, since he seemed to have an inexplicable knowledge of their whereabouts, but…oh, well. Who was Lily to question an Auror?

_And who I am to _be_ an Auror, anyway_? she wondered miserably.

So far, nothing in Auror Training had gone the way she expected. The Ministry work had been demeaning and pointless, and _this_ part of training, though it did seem more useful, wasn't exactly Lily's forte. _Where does Potions come in_? she wondered. All prospective Aurors were required to take N.E.W.T. level Potions classes, and Lily did extremely well in hers, but there didn't seem to be much call for Potions in the middle of a rainforest.

She stumbled through another mass of overgrown leaves and into a little grove, where a tall, thin waterfall dropped into a small, shallow pool. She could see a cave behind the sheet of water, and debated for several minutes whether this was a good hiding place.

_Not really,_ she conceded. Three days of Auror training had taught her _something_, because she could tell just by the appeal of the cave as a hiding place why it _wasn't_ a good hiding place. _Too obvious,_ she thought to herself, and sighed, preparing to bypass the cave and look for somewhere else to disappear to.

_Wish I _could_ just disappear_, she thought miserably. Really powerful wizards had the ability to conceal themselves at will, and she was sure that for them this part of training would be obsolete. There were other ways to become invisible, of course—cloaks and potions were both options, but Invisibility Cloaks were exceptionally rare, and potions wore off after a while, so neither were really feasible for most wizards.

Lily took one last look at the cave behind the waterfall and sighed. _Moody'll probably come find me before I can find another hiding place anyway…and…oh, sod it, I'll just make myself look stupid again, it won't be any worse than usual!_

She tramped over to the shallow pool and splashed into it, skirting around the waterfall and climbing into the cave. All she needed now was an alcove…or a big rock to crouch behind…and then she could wait for Moody to find her and berate her for being silly. She slipped into the shadows underneath an overhang and sighed, wondering if she would ever get the hang of any of this Auror Training stuff.

Lily picked up her necklace and fiddled with it, staring down at the golden "L" pendant absently. She vaguely wondered what James was up to, if he was having any fun…if he missed her at all….

"Evans!" Moody barked, appearing suddenly and yanking her out of her hiding space. "This is pathetic!"

Lily stared pointedly at the ground and tried, without success, not to feel foolish.

"We've been working on Cloaking for three days now, and you're smarter than this!" he snapped, and Lily's head jerked up with equal force. She blinked at him, astonished. "You're just being lazy now, and that's not acceptable. Now go find a _real_ hiding place, because I'm not letting you back to camp until you do!"

Moody Disapparated, and Lily stood alone in the cave for a moment, still shocked. _Moody thinks I'm…smart?_

Relief flooded in her chest and a small smile tweaked the corners of her lips.

_Well then…maybe I'm not completely hopeless after all._

_

* * *

_

_Remus_-

_I'm at the Ministry now and we're allowed to send owls, so be sure to send me one back because compared to last week this is ridiculously boring. Of course maybe that's because my dad's the Minister and I've been to the Ministry a thousand times, but who knows? I think some of the other students are having trouble here, but I don't see them very often so it's hard to tell. _

_Anyway, how is life at Hogwarts? Boring? I hope the end of next week goes all right. Sirius and I will be back before it's all over though, so at least we can still have some fun out of it._

_Speaking of which, have you heard anything from Sirius? Or any of the people from the other training group? I haven't. I hope they're doing all right._

_Not much to report here, except Adam Johnson and Vivian Horvath fight all the time and it's really annoying._

_-James_

* * *

Mimi was getting used to detentions. It probably wasn't a good thing that she was getting so used to detentions, but still, she supposed being used to them was better than bursting into hysterical tears over them. She'd shared yesterday's detention with a first year, who thought getting a detention was the most shameful thing in the world, and who'd howled miserably the entire time they were in the Astronomy Tower cleaning Professor Sinistra's high-powered telescope. 

Tonight's detention was blissfully silent. True, she'd been assigned to Filch, but he kept running off to chase rogue students, so for the most part she was alone. She had to re-copy some of Filch's files—detention records from the 1940's—and filing them in a brand-new file folder. Mimi wasn't positive that they were _Filch_'s files, but they belonged to him now, so if they'd been kept by the caretaker before Filch, it didn't really matter. The work was tedious, but not very demanding, and Mimi had time to mull over things as she wrote.

Ironically, now that Mimi had to take her detentions alone, she half-wished Melody was there with her. The girls hadn't quite made up yet…in fact, they hadn't even spoken since the fight in McGonagall's office…but Mimi was ready to. She'd spent most of the weekend thinking about their fights, and the reason for the fighting, and she'd long concluded that the whole thing was stupid; that although she had been attracted to Sirius, she'd never felt the way for him Melody did, and besides there was no point fighting over someone who wasn't even _there_.

Not that it would have been any better if Sirius _had_ been there—he didn't need to have his ego inflated any further with the knowledge that girls were now literally fighting over him—but at least he'd be around to see some of the damage he'd caused.

Lily, of course, insisted that Sirius felt positively terrible about the whole ordeal, and while Mimi enjoyed the thought of Sirius squirming, she didn't quite believe it. How could she, when he'd practically _told_ her that he preferred Melody's company to her own? So while she wanted to set things right with Melody, she hadn't quite forgiven Sirius.

And this was another reason she hadn't spoken to Melody yet. If she made up with Melody, and things were set right between them, when Sirius got back he wouldn't have to deal with all of the crap Mimi and Melody had been forced to deal with in his absence. To him, everything would be perfectly peachy, and he'd probably start dating Melody as soon as he could, leaving Mimi in the lurch again.

Mimi didn't really _want _to go out with Sirius again after all that had happened…but that didn't mean she couldn't still make him feel guilty about what he'd done to her…did it?

She supposed Sirius and Melody going out wouldn't be _too_ terrible a thing…really, if she thought about it honestly, her own relationship with Sirius hadn't done anything more than delay the inevitable. Melody and Sirius had been skirting around a relationship for _years_, and they might as well just get it over and done with _now_, so Sirius couldn't break any more hearts trying to get to Melody's.

Not that Mimi's heart was exactly _broken_, per se, but it _was_ a little bit bruised. Her ego, more than anything, had gotten hurt, but Melody had apologized enough already to assuage that a little, and if she could just get some sort of heartfelt apology from Sirius, everything might be all right.

Sirius, of course, did not know any of this, and Mimi had no intention of enlightening him. Just because she thought it might be all right if he started dating Melody didn't mean she was going to _tell_ him so. She wanted him to suffer a bit, just the way she'd suffered, and she wouldn't mind seeing him prostrate himself in front of her and beg her for forgiveness, either.

_R. Hagrid_, she wrote absently. _Sneaking into Forbidden Forest. Detention._

Was it really fair to Melody, though, for Mimi to refuse to speak to her for another week and a half just because she wanted Sirius to suffer more?

_E. Prince_, she scribbled, frowning. She knew she wanted to make up with Melody, but…_how_?

Melody hadn't spoken to Mimi since the fight, either, but whenever Mimi saw her she didn't look angry, she just looked sort of…morose.

What could Mimi _say_, though? "Hey, I'm sorry, let's forget about this and be friends again"?

Could it really be that _simple_?

She sighed and finished filling out E. Prince's card. _Hexing first years. Detention_.

_Maybe I should talk to Remus about it,_ she considered. _He usually gives pretty good advice…._

But no, she'd already laid her burdens on Remus a hundred times in the last two weeks, and she was sure he was sick of listening to her prattle on about it. She supposed she could talk to Matt or Susie about her dilemma…but then, neither of them knew Melody all that well, and both of them were still mad at Melody for what she'd done to Mimi. First wrecking her relationship with Sirius, then dueling with her in the hallway—and royally pummeling her, too—and then of course getting Mimi an extra week's worth of detentions. Mimi didn't really blame Melody for this, but Susie and Matt did, so maybe they weren't the best people to talk to about it after all.

_I wish Lily were still at the Ministry…I could send her an owl and ask her for advice…_.

Mimi thought about this for a moment. _She'd probably tell me to stop being stupid and just go make up with Melody. And she'd probably be right._

Still, though…just because Mimi knew what she _ought_ to do didn't mean she was going to _do_ it.

She sighed and snatched another card out of Filch's file. _T. Riddle_, she wrote, feeling bored. _Out of bed after hours. Detention_.

_God, did this caretaker do anything besides give out detentions?_ Mimi wondered. _And why were all the people at Hogwarts in the 1940's so boring, anyway? Didn't anyone pull pranks there?_

She tossed T. Riddle's card aside and grabbed another one just as Filch reappeared.

"You're not being very neat," he wheezed, having clearly just failed to capture another student out-of-bed. Mimi rolled her eyes and picked up T. Riddle's card, placing it carefully into the appropriate file.

"That's better," he said reprovingly, sitting down on the other side of the desk. Mimi had to work hard not to roll her eyes again, now that Filch could actually see her. She bent over the next card, pretending to study it carefully, and her mind drifted back to Sirius and Melody.

_Oh, to heck with it_, she decided finally. _I might as well just go up to Melody tomorrow and apologize and get it over with._

This thought made her feel a little better, and she zoomed through the cards after that, ignoring Filch's inane babbling about the punishments he wished he could enforce on the students.

_I can't wait until Friday when this is all over_, Mimi thought, sighing inwardly. _Four more days…_

* * *

_James-_

_PRAISE ALLAH! You have no idea how horrible it's been here. Melody and Mimi are fighting, and since Lily's gone they've both decided that they have to talk to ME about all their problems, and I think all this girly talk is making me lose my mojo. _

_And no, I haven't heard from Lily.(Nice job trying to be subtle, by the way. It almost worked. It probably would've worked better if you hadn't written J.P. + L.E. in little hearts all over the back of your parchment. Just a thought, mate.)_

_Maybe you could owl Melody and ask her if Lily's sent her any owls about how much she misses you, how she's just PINING for you and can't stand being separated from you for this long, the agony is just too great!_

_Maybe you should compose an epic sonnet about how much you miss each other, about how the poor depressed Lily-bean plant cannot bear to live without her ickle Prongsie for more than a day before she starts wilting in depression…it would be beautiful…_

_O, the laste day I saw my dearest Darlingest Lily-bean plante,  
__She did blossome in my presence, and open her buds to me  
__And when we parted, she did wilteh, woefully soe  
__And as I started my epic journey, I heard her wailing in despaire  
__That she might never see my mussed-up black lockes again,  
__Oh that she might never set gaze upon that wondrous of most wondrous heads of haire,  
__That looketh as though the Lord himself did create my shiny wondrous black haire when I was a wee babe,  
__And then set about to shove my finger into the nearest electrical outlete  
__So that it did stick up in every direction forevermore…_

_  
__It would be beautiful, James, I think you should do it._

_-Remus_

* * *

Mimi chickened out. She _meant_ to go up and apologize to Melody, she really did, but things just kept getting in her way. 

Susie and Matt, for example. They'd accompanied Mimi to breakfast, and upon encountering Melody in the hallway had both sneered rather viciously in her direction. Mimi had attempted to smile and wave apologetically, but by that time Melody had already stuck her chin into the air defiantly and quickened her pace to catch up with Remus and Peter, who were just down the hall.

Mimi'd meant to say something at breakfast, but Melody ate very quickly and dashed out of the Great Hall before she got a chance. Melody didn't take Arithmancy, so that class was no good, and by the time Mimi got to Charms she'd lost some of her resolve.

Charms class was a bit hectic anyway, so Mimi doubted she would have had time to talk to Melody, even if she hadn't sat herself on the side of the room farthest from Mimi.

At the end of class, however, fate intervened. Both girls reached the door at the same time, and they halted, staring at each other.

Mimi gave a small smile. "You go ahead," she offered.

Melody blinked and looked at her for a moment, surprised. An expression of relief slowly crept over her face and she hesitantly returned Mimi's smile. "Thanks," she said quietly, walking out the door.

Mimi followed her out and took the opposite direction, toward Ravenclaw Tower. Even though the girls were heading separate directions, however, Mimi felt as though they'd bridged a small gap. She hadn't managed to _apologize_, exactly, but she'd at least taken the first step towards setting things right, and for today, that was good enough.

* * *

_Moony-_

_You're a real prat, you know that?_

_WHAT, exactly, are you suggesting Lily and I do in our free time?_

_And I've never even SEEN an electrical outlet, except for those pictures they showed us in Muggle Studies._

_What kind of sonnet was that, anyway? I hope you didn't write down a copy of it. If you ever show any of that to Lily I'm going to turn you into a chamber pot._

_And I'm going to start writing letters to Peter instead of you, you barmy codger._

_-James_

* * *

Lin regarded Wendy sadly from across the Potions dungeon and sighed. Her former best friend was sharing a table with Lucy, Gillian, and Rachel, and they were all twittering over some stupid story or another that Lucy had just told. 

_Oh, who cares about Lucy's stupid stories anyway?_ Lin thought grumpily, tossing some roots into her cauldron rather carelessly. _Just because _Wendy's_ become shallow enough to enjoy them…_

"Earth to Lin…"

Lin blinked and tried to figure out if someone had spoken to her, or if she'd just imagined it.

"Are you even paying attention?"

"What?" Lin replied, sliding her gaze from the giggling girls across the dungeon to the face of her (rather more attractive) lab partner, Anthony Hall.

"You just spilled about half of our roots on the floor," he informed her, pointing.

"Oh…oops," Lin said, her cheeks going pink. She stooped to collect the roots.

"What were you thinking about, anyway?" Anthony asked, sounding amused.

"Oh…nothing," Lin said bitterly, shooting another look across the dungeon as she dumped the recovered roots into their cauldron.

"Ah," Anthony said, following her gaze. He decided not to press the matter. "Would you like to stir it, or should I?"

"You go ahead," Lin said, wrinkling her nose at the potion, which was rather smelly. "I'll measure out this newt extract."

She tried not to let her thoughts wander back to Wendy, but a burst of giggling from across the dungeon ruined her concentration. Distracted, she poured out far more newt extract than necessary, and had trouble siphoning the liquid back into its original jar.

"You _sure_ you don't want to stir this potion?" Anthony pressed, eyeing the puddle of newt extract Lin was making on the table.

"_No_," Lin snapped, slamming her measured jar of newt extract back onto the counter. "I'm fine."

Anthony raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything. Lin hastily wiped off the tabletop.

"You ready for the newt extract yet?" she asked after a minute, more subdued.

"Not yet," Anthony replied, checking the potion. "Give it a couple more minutes."

He set down the spoon he'd been using to stir the potion and cast a furtive glance at his lab partner. Lin, in another attempt to ignore Wendy and her stupid giggly friends, picked up a pair of tongs and poked at the tray of shriveled eyeballs on their table, frowning.

"Hey, Lin?" Anthony ventured after a moment, and Lin looked up, surprised.

"Yeah?"

"Don't worry about those girls."

Lin raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him.

"I mean, they're not that great," he said, his words tumbling out more quickly now.

"You don't think so?"

"Nah," Anthony replied, scratching his head nervously. "I mean—I'd take your company over theirs any day."

Lin felt warmth creeping into her cheeks. The corners of her mouth tweaked upward. "You—you think so?" she asked, clearing her throat and trying not to grin like an idiot.

"Yeah," Anthony said, a stupid grin plastering itself across his face. Lin couldn't help grinning back.

She hadn't felt this good in _weeks_.

* * *

James was getting rather annoyed with Remus. Who'd given him the authority to write sonnets about Lily, anyway? And _what_, exactly, did he have against James's hair? 

James scowled at himself in the mirror and attempted to smooth down his hair, but it didn't work.

Honestly, could he _help_ it if his hair grew all over the place? It didn't look _that_ bad…did it? Obviously James knew that sometimes his hair could use some work, but at other times, the messy-ness made it looked almost windswept, and that was sort of…sexy…wasn't it?

_Lily's certainly never complained_, he thought, frowning.

He hoped to God Sirius never got wind of any of this. James would never live it down.

Or worse…what if _Lily_ got wind of it? James shuddered at the thought.

He could only imagine the hexes she would use on Moony for embellishing so greatly on her Lily-bean nickname…and even worse than that, she might start making fun of James's hair. James didn't know if he could handle that…not from Lily, anyway. Not from the girl who'd spent hours running her hands through his hair. That would be too frustrating for words.

Maybe he just didn't want Lily to mock him. She teased him enough as it was, and she didn't need any help from Moony to poke fun at him.

James was only briefly annoyed with this imaginary Lily, however, before he considered just how much he _missed_ Lily's playful teasing.

_Two and a half weeks_, he though miserably. _It's been eighteen days since I've gotten any kind of action. That's just…that's just…well, that's just wrong, isn't it?_

Not that he only missed the 'action,' of course. (And in all honestly, there really wasn't much action to be had. They rarely did more than kiss, and when they did more, it wasn't _much_ more.) He also missed…hearing her talk. Watching her talk. Slipping his arm around her waist. Lacing his fingers through hers. That funny little jolt he got in his stomach whenever he saw that distinctive red hair swinging its way into Potions class or bobbing down the hallway…that sweet, fruity scent he associated with the aforementioned hair….

Mostly, though, he missed how warm she was…the way she sidled up against him when they were sitting side-by-side…how soft her mouth was….

_Damn_, James thought, flopping back onto his pillow. _I don't know what I've got for Lily, but whatever it is, I've got it _bad.

* * *

Lily dug through her bag, searching for her Dreamless Sleep Potion. She found the small silver bottle easily enough and pulled it out, removing the cork. She swirled around the bottle's contents, trying to ascertain just how much potion she had left. _A week's worth at best_, she thought grimly, replacing the cork. Only one more week until she ran out and the dreams started again…and she still had a full week and a half of Auror Training left. 

"Bullocks," Lily whispered, staring at the bottle. _How could I have run out so quickly?_

"What's that?" came a chirpy voice from the tent flap. Lily jumped and dropped the bottle, cursing as it rolled underneath her cot.

"Just some…medicine," she lied, crawling underneath her mattress to retrieve it. "Oh, _shit_," she said, noticing the puddle growing underneath the bottle. She snatched it off the ground and jammed her finger onto the cork, making sure it was completely secure before placing the bottle back in her bag.

_So much for having a week's worth left_, she thought darkly, sending silent curses in Naomi's direction.

"What kind of medicine?" Naomi wanted to know.

"For allergies," Lily snapped. "What do you want?"

"Supper's ready," Naomi said, frowning. "And you don't have to be so _rude_," she huffed, turning and flouncing out of the tent.

Lily's shoulders sagged after she'd gone, and she put her head in her hands.

_What am I going to do? _

No one else knew about her nightmares…except James…and she _really_ didn't want to wake up screaming in front of the other Training Students. Especially not _Naomi_. She'd never understand.

Sally probably wouldn't, either, come to think of it. Neither would Sirius, really, but Lily at least knew he cared about her, and she wouldn't feel quite as uncomfortable confessing her troubles to Sirius as she would to Sally or Naomi.

"Lily?" came another voice from the tent flap, and Lily lifted her head out of her hands. "Are you all right?"

It was Sirius.

"Yeah," she replied. "I'm just…not very hungry right now, that's all."

Her stomach rumbled angrily in protest.

"Well, there goes that excuse," Sirius said, giving her a little half-grin. "What's really on your mind?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh, come now, Lily-bean," Sirius protested, sitting down on the bed across from her, and Lily glared at him. "I've complained to you dozens of times already on this trip. Surely you can talk to me about something."

Lily considered this for a long moment. She could give Sirius some codswallop about missing James…or missing Hogwarts or feeling inadequate about all this Auror Training business…and it wouldn't be completely untrue, but it wasn't what was really on her mind, and she was afraid Sirius would see through the lie.

"You're probably right," Lily said quietly, "but now really isn't the best time to have this discussion."

Sirius surveyed her for a moment. "All right," he said finally. "But we _are_ going to discuss it."

"Eventually," Lily agreed. _After the Dreamless Sleep Potion runs out, I won't have a choice._ "But for now, let's go eat. What's for supper?"

"Some really disgusting-looking stew."

"Mm—sounds _wonderful_," Lily said sarcastically.

"Yeah, it's hideous," Sirius agreed. "I've had two bowlfuls already."

Lily snorted in amusement. "Hard to please, you are."

"What can I say?" Sirius grinned, holding the tent flap open for her. "I was just born to wreak havoc."

* * *

_James-_

_I just thought I'd let you know that I laughed so hard when I wrote that letter, and laughed so hard when I got your last owl, that I cried, and used a grand total of twenty-three pieces of tissue to wipe my face off._

_That was brilliant. We ought to do that more often._

_-The Poet Moony_

* * *

Lin hunched over her Transfiguration book in the library, trying to suppress the roaring _it_ growing inside her. _Not again, _she pleaded, closing her eyes as a sudden nausea swept through her system. Her vision clouded, and her head plopped onto the Transfiguration book as her eyes responded to images that weren't there…to cries and screams and Death Eater masks hundreds of miles away….

* * *

Bellatrix and Siegfried weren't dead…yet. The Dark Lord hadn't punished them, exactly, but they could sense his displeasure. Their assignments now were far more menial--demeaning, even—and Bellatrix swore she could see the other Death Eaters smirking at her from beneath their masks. But Bellatrix and Siegfried had plans. If they were going to be on the bad side of the Dark Lord, they weren't going to be there long. 

Bellatrix examined herself in the mirror. She turned around, surveying her dress and wondering if it was maybe a bit too tight for the occasion. Deep blue and elegant, the garment matched Bellatrix's eyes and hugged her curves, its neckline scooping between her breasts with just the right amount of suggestion. Her lips curved into a self-satisfied smile. _Then again, perhaps it's perfect_, she thought, envisioning the company she was about to be in. _Lucifer always did have a lust for younger women_.

"Are you ready?" asked Siegfried, leaning against the doorframe.

"Mm," Bellatrix replied, fastening a slinky silver chain around her neck. "Nearly."

Siegfried's eyes ran over her curves hungrily. Bellatrix caught him looking and smirked.

"Not until later, darling. What would Mr. Malfoy say if we were late?"

"You're an evil woman, Bellatrix. You wore that dress on purpose."

Bellatrix smiled and turned away from her mirror. "Innocent little me?" she joked, walking toward him and fluttering her eyelashes. "Who do you think I'm trying to entice, dear? You, or Mr. Malfoy?"

"Does it matter?" Siegfried replied as she neared him, grabbing her waist. His lips descended on her neck, hot and desirous, and Bellatrix's breath caught as his kisses descended down her neck, across her chest, into the deep "v" where her neckline plunged, and—

Bellatrix caught his hand as he attempted to push away the fabric covering her breasts and shoved his mouth away from her chest. "Honestly, Siegfried," she snapped, trying to sound annoyed, but her face was rather flushed. "Can't you control yourself for five minutes?"

"It's a compliment, darling," Siegfried protested, but his next kiss landed on her lips and did not linger.

Bellatrix tried not to be disappointed, and reminded herself that she hadn't gotten dressed up for Siegfried—she'd gotten dressed up for Malfoy.

She sincerely hoped, however, that Mr. Malfoy would not have the same reaction to her outfit that Siegfried had.

* * *

Lucifer Malfoy glanced at his watch and sighed. Bellatrix and Siegfried weren't late yet, but they weren't going to be early, either, and Lucifer hated waiting. He ordered another glass of wine and waited impatiently for the waiter to return. 

In the chair to his right, Hans Cauldwell shifted uneasily and glanced around the restaurant, his gaze lingering momentarily on a plate of steaming crab legs. Hans was a portly wizard who enjoyed eating, and the recent dip in his finances, Lucifer knew, was costing him precious luxuries. His face reflected these changes; his second chin had receded almost completely since July, and he had a look of constant hunger in his eyes, although whether this look was for food or for money it was sometimes hard to tell.

Lucifer, though several years Hans's senior, had aged much better, and managed to stay more fit. Hans clearly did not have Lucifer's self-control, which was why, now, Hans was overweight, balding, and losing control of his fortune, and Lucifer was fit, elegantly graying, and slowly seizing control of Hans's assets--which included a very nice summer home in Majorca, a lovely mistress named Catalina, and, at some point in the future, an even lovelier niece.

Siegfried and Bellatrix arrived almost exactly on time. At the sight of Bellatrix, Hans got an obvious look of desperation in his eyes, and Lucifer made a mental note to order him a large steak so he would be otherwise occupied for most of dinner.

"Mr. Lestrange, Miss Black, how kind of you to join us," Lucifer greeted them. "Please, have a seat."

"We are not late, Mr. Malfoy," Bellatrix noted, eyeing Hans with a certain amount of suspicion, "so don't be annoyed with us if you've been left waiting."

Lucifer smiled. "Well spoken, Miss Black. Now please, sit down."

Bellatrix regarded him with a raised eyebrow and sank into her seat.

They didn't discuss much over dinner; finances, politics, and this year's Christmas Season came up, but Lucifer could see Bellatrix growing impatient to reach their _real_ topic of conversation by the time the supper plates were cleared. Hans looked rather sorry to see the plates go—which was surprising, considering he'd just consumed a slab of meat larger than his head—and Lucifer sighed inwardly. He expected Hans would order an equally enormous dessert.

"Well, Mr. Malfoy," Bellatrix said, taking a sip of her wine. "I believe you are aware of our…situation. I assume both you and Mr. Cauldwell have something useful to contribute?"

"Astutely stated as always, Miss Black. Together, Mr. Cauldwell and I have collected certain information that appears to be…applicable to your cause."

Bellatrix leaned forward a bit in her seat.

"We're listening, Mr. Malfoy," Siegfried said, attempting to look less interested than his partner.

"Hans is familiar with a man named Philippe Gerard—perhaps you've heard of him?"

Bellatrix and Siegfried exchanged a glance, and Bellatrix gave a small shake of her head. "No," she replied. "We haven't."

Lucifer nodded. "Monsieur Gerard is involved in business, primarily—he is the owner of several night clubs—but he is also an avid private collector. Among these collections is a particularly fine selection of jewelry."

Bellatrix raised one eyebrow and traded another quick glance with Siegfried.

"Hans, please elaborate," Lucifer offered, and Hans hurried to swallow.

He made a show of clearing his throat before speaking. "My associate, Monsieur Gerard, happened upon a very fine piece of jewelry last summer—a necklace, as it were. He noticed a girl wearing this piece through the security monitors in one of his nightclubs. He had her escorted to his private office to discuss the purchase of the jewel. She refused to sell, claiming she had other, far better, offers, but Monsieur Gerard believes she was merely bluffing."

"Surely you're not going to leave out the delightful part about your niece, Hans?" Lucifer interjected, amused. Hans sent him a sharp glance, and Lucifer raised his eyebrows and smiled, waiting for him to speak.

Hans hadn't wanted any part of this—he'd had enough of Lucifer's dealings—and all he wanted now was to marry of his niece and seal their original deal. Lucifer, however, liked having Hans as a puppet, and didn't want him to get too far out grasp before the wedding to Hans's niece. Involving him in this deal was an excellent way to keep Hans close in the meantime.

"Ah—inconsequently," Hans said finally, looking unhappy, "my niece accompanied the girl to Monsieur Gerard's office. I was looking for her at the time, and Monsieur Gerard was kindly able to ascertain her whereabouts for me."

"A favor that you surely intend to repay in the future," Lucifer said bemusedly. "Please, continue."

Hans took a drink of water and shot a wary glance at Lucifer before continuing.

"The full value of the necklace is indeed unknown, and whether or not the girl possesses the exact jewel Monsieur Gerard is searching for is impossible to say. However—he is willing to pay you a considerable amount of money to retrieve it for him. Should you choose to accept his offer, I believe it will be beneficial to all parties involved."

Bellatrix narrowed her eyes. "What does this have to do with us?"

"Here is an picture of the girl who was wearing the necklace," Lucifer said, sliding a photograph across the table. "It is an image taken from one of Monsieur Gerard's security monitors."

Bellatrix picked up the photograph, and Siegfried craned his neck to see. A smiling, freckled girl with startlingly green eyes filled the picture. A simple gold chain with a pendant in the shape of a cursive letter "L" hung around her neck.

"I believe this is one of the victims you failed to kill last summer?" Lucifer said calmly.

Bellatrix's eyes widened, and she looked up at him incredulously. "How did you…?"

He grinned. "I'm afraid that is confidential, Miss Black. However, I trust this will aid you in your quest to redeem yourselves?"

"I believe it will," Siegfried replied. "I have a question for you, however."

"By all means, ask," Lucifer invited him, taking a sip of his wine.

"Why isn't Monsieur Gerard here tonight?"

Lucifer nodded and set his wine down. "Monsieur Gerard is, unfortunately, out of the country. He will be back within a fortnight, however, and he is prepared to meet with you then to discuss the details of your arrangement."

Bellatrix's eyes narrowed again. "A fortnight? Mister Malfoy, I don't mean to be rude, but—"

"I realize, Miss Black, that you are in dire straits. However, there is no point in attempting to take action within the next two weeks, as your exploits will do little good without a benefactor."

"All we want is the girl. Why should Monsieur Gerard's fetish for jewelry interest us?"

Lucifer laughed politely. "Eloquent as always." He leaned forward and laced his hands together before speaking again. "I believe, Miss Black, that it would do you a great deal of good to investigate the necklace's history before you take any rash action."

Bellatrix's gaze slid sideways at Siegfried, who seemed unaffected by Lucifer's statement. "Very well," she said finally. "I trust you can identify this girl for us?"

"Her name is Lily Evans. She's a—friend of your niece's, isn't she, Hans?"

Hans clearly hadn't expected to be involved in any more of the conversation, and he choked on his wine. "Y—yes," he responded, his face rather red.

"Hans is a bit ashamed of his niece, you see. Associating with Mudbloods and all." He shook his head, feigning sadness. "Such a pity. Brilliant girl, his niece. Pretty, too. Isn't she, Hans?" Lucifer threw at him, feeling more amused by the second.

Hans's face turned rather redder—an interesting look for someone not normally prone to a ruddy complexion. "Yes, she's lovely," he managed tightly, and Lucifer smiled winningly at Bellatrix and Siegfried, who by this point both looked rather confused.

"Well, I believe that's all we have to discuss for tonight," he said finally. "Someone should be in contact within a week to set up your meeting with Monsieur Gerard."

Bellatrix traded another glance with Siegfried, who nodded, and they both rose.

"Oh," Lucifer added, and the pair across from him froze. "If you're going to be investigating that necklace, I suggest you start with the name Delany."

"Thank you for the lovely meal, Mister Malfoy," Bellatrix said after a moment's pause, nodding. Lucifer smiled and lifted his wine glass to her in a silent toast. "Mister Cauldwell, it was nice meeting you."

Hans nodded, but appeared to still be recovering from his choking on the wine.

"Have a good evening, gentlemen," Siegfried said, nodding politely, before turning and linking his arm through Bellatrix's and leading her through the restaurant.

* * *

"Well, Lucifer Malfoy seems to be working enough angles for one person," Bellatrix said, kicking her shoes off. 

"How so?" Siegfried inquired, uncorking a bottle of wine.

"Because, he—darling, don't you think you've had enough wine for one night?" she asked despairingly.

Siegfried looked at the bottle and considered. "Just a small, glass, then," he said, and Bellatrix sighed.

"Fair enough."

"Anyway, you were saying?"

"Oh, yes. Well, clearly Cauldwell didn't need to be there."

"Didn't he? He seemed to know more about Monsieur Gerard than Lucifer did."

"Oh, tosh," Bellatrix said, stretching herself out across the sofa. Siegfried, holding his glass of wine, sat in the chair across from her. "Lucifer knew enough about Monsieur Gerard to tell us what we needed to know. He's just stringing Cauldwell along for something, though I can't imagine what."

Siegfried shrugged. "Why does it matter?"

"I don't know," Bellatrix replied, frowning. "You know what else bothers me?"

"Hm?"

"How Lucifer is making us arrange this whole deal with Monsieur Gerard, but he doesn't seem to care if Monsieur Gerard gets his end of it."

Siegfried frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well…I know he's setting us up a meeting with Monsieur Gerard and everything, but…there must be some reason he advised us to research this necklace. Do you think…do you think he knows more about it than he's letting on?"

"That's possible, but why should a piece of jewelry matter to us?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm so confused," Bellatrix said, and bit her lip, considering. "What was that name he gave us again? _Delany_?"

"Sounds right," Siegfried said, downing the last of his wine.

"We should look up something on it tomorrow."

"I'll leave you to the book work, dear. I was never very good at research," Siegfried said, smiling, and set down his wine glass.

Bellatrix pouted. "Siegfried, I really think you ought to—"

"Dear," he interrupted. "Let's not worry about that tonight." He considered Bellatrix's figure lying on the couch, and got that hungry look in his eyes again. "Let's concentrate on other things…for the moment."

He slid out of his chair and leaned over Bellatrix's figure on the couch. Bellatrix smiled as his lips came down upon hers, and then traded in her thoughts for pure animal sensation and delight.

* * *

Anthony found Lin slumped over her Transfiguration textbook. He had no way of knowing what visions were taking over her mind, but something in her posture made him worry. 

She was just…limp. Not sleeping, not even breathing, really, that he could see…she was just lying there, unfocused and unaware.

"Lin?" Anthony said, shaking her shoulder gently. "Lin, are you asleep?"

Lin's fingers twitched first, then her whole hand. Her arms and legs shifted next, then her head, and her movements were slow, groggy, like her mind was taking a long time to travel back from the subconscious.

"Hhhh!" Lin jerked upward suddenly, taking in a long, noisy breath. Her eyes snapped into focus as her mind surfaced all at once. She gasped again, then choked, tears pooling in her eyes. Lin briefly registered that Anthony was staring at her, dumbfounded, before she let out a pitiful sob that tipped her head over onto her Transfiguration book again.

Anthony blinked, feeling panicked. _What should I do?_ he wondered. He'd never dealt with a crying girl before.

"Uh…Lin?" he said again, feeling stupid.

Lin sniffed loudly and lifted her head. "You're still here," she said blankly, staring at him.

"Um…yeah," Anthony agreed.

Lin blinked, and a tear trickled from one of her eyes. "Why?"

"Why…why what? Why am I still here?"

Lin nodded.

"I—I don't know. Do you want me to leave?" he asked, gripping his books nervously.

"I…well…don't you _want_ to leave?"

Anthony considered for a moment. "No," he said, setting his books down. "Not really."

Lin blinked up at him again, and several more tears trickled down her cheeks.

"I wish you'd stop doing that," Anthony said softly.

"What?" Lin asked. _Blinking?_

"Crying."

"Oh," she said, and wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her robe. "Sorry."

"No," Anthony said, shaking his head. "I mean—don't be sorry, it's all right. I just…don't like to see people cry, that's all."

"Maybe I should leave then," Lin said, sniffing. "Because I think I'm going to."

Anthony blanched. _I'm really not very good at this, am I?_

"No—Lin—don't go," he said, racking his brain for something intelligent to say.

"I'm sorry, Anthony," Lin whispered, staring at him a moment with glossy eyes. Then she snapped into action, slamming her Transfiguration book closed and shoving all her things into her bag with surprising speed and accuracy.

Unfortunately for Lin, Anthony was standing on the side of the table nearest the exit, and he blocked her path as she tried to leave.

"Move," Lin said softly, staring at the floor.

"No," Anthony replied, just as softly, but with more resolve.

Lin didn't speak for a moment, and Anthony didn't think she was going to, until her shoulders shook erratically and he realized she was crying. He moved his hand to comfort her, but stopped before it reached her shoulder, uncertain whether he could provide any comfort.

"Please move," Lin said thickly, through her tears.

"Stay and talk to me."

Lin finally looked up at him, tears dribbling down her face pathetically. "Wh—_why_?"

"Because you need someone to talk to."

"But—but _here_?"

"Why _not_ here?"

"Do _you_ like crying in public?" Lin demanded.

"No one's around," Anthony pointed out, gesturing.

"It's the _library_!" Lin hissed. "Someone's _always_ around!"

"So?" Anthony said, feeling vaguely annoyed. "Lin, why do you _care_?"

"Why do I care if people see me burst into hysterical tears?" Lin asked, her tone bordering on shrill. "Oh, I don't know, maybe because I like a little privacy when I'm feeling emotional, or maybe because I don't like sharing my problems with the world, or—or maybe because I don't want people to think I'm a—a—_freak_, or—"

"Lin, no one thinks you're a freak."

"Yes, they do!" she cried, anger and frustration overcoming her tears. "Do you see the way people avoid me? Like they don't want to talk to me, or even—acknowledge that I _exist_, and—"

"Lin, that's ridiculous. People know that you exist."

"Yeah, but they don't _care_," she said bitterly.

"_I_ care!" Anthony blurted out, and Lin froze, staring at him.

"You're the only one," she mumbled finally, her gaze slipping to the floor. She felt a little untruthful, but who was Anthony to know that?

"Oh, stop feeling sorry for yourself," he snapped, growing a little impatient.

Lin looked up at him with wide eyes. "I beg your pardon?"

Anthony's gaze softened. "Look, Lin…I'm not saying the way people are treating you is all right. Because it's not. And I'm not saying you should forget about what happened last summer, either—not like you could anyway," he added quickly. "It's just that…you should _talk_ about it with people. Be a little more open, and…everything."

Lin felt the tears welling up again. "Who would understand, Anthony? Who in this school could _possibly_ understand what I'm going through?"

"You're not the only one in this school who's lost someone to You-Know-Who," he said, narrowing his eyes.

"_Someone_?" Lin cried, her lower lip trembling dangerously. "It wasn't just _someone_, Anthony, it was _everyone I've ever known_!"

"_Not everyone_!" Anthony yelled, grabbing her by the shoulders. Lin sobbed and dropped her bag, bringing her hands to her face. Anthony's gaze softened, and, impulsively, he pulled Lin against his chest. She sobbed, clutching at his robes with her fists.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, and Lin didn't respond. "It's just…Jesus, Lin…sometimes you don't need someone to _understand_…sometimes you just need them to _care_."

Lin continued crying and didn't speak, but Anthony's words registered strongly in her mind.

She sobbed and clung to him and tried not to let the darkness overcome her again.

* * *

"Arabella, you're completely nuts. How you even managed to _get_ us a practice this week is beyond me," Melody said, shaking her head at the temporary Quidditch Captain incredulously. 

"Well, I think you should all be grateful," Arabella said huffily. "Ravenclaw's been practicing day and night—I don't even know when the Slytherin team has _time_ to practice—and I had to beg Madam Hooch just to get us _this_ much time on the pitch, and we only have an hour, so let's not waste it!" she snapped, mounting her broom and shoving off forcefully.

"You would think since it's Ravenclaw and Slytherin playing this week she'd let up a little bit," Bridget muttered, mounting her own broomstick.

"I never thought I'd say this," Arista Appleton said, shaking her head as Bridget took off, "but I can't wait 'til Potter gets back."

"I wouldn't even mind seeing _Black_ again," Anthony Brown muttered, taking off after Arista.

"Hey, I _like_ Sirius," Mundungus protested, following Tony into the air.

Melody sighed and took off last, just behind fellow Beater Don Mullins.

Nobody but Arabella took the practice very seriously.

"So who do you think's going to win on Saturday?" Don yelled, whacking a Bludger away from Bridget.

"Ravenclaw," Melody yelled back, taking care of another Bludger.

"Really?" Don yelled back. "Even with Johnson gone?"

"Won the Cup last year, didn't they?"

"Yeah, but playing under a different Captain and everything…"

"Is that so horrible?" Arabella demanded as Arista scored a goal.

"No," Don replied quickly, taking another whack at a Bludger. "Just changes the chemistry of the team, that's all."

"I'll say," Mundungus muttered, swooping by Melody. She snorted in appreciation and smacked a Bludger out of her way.

"Besides," Melody called to Don, continuing their conversation, "Slytherin's missing their main Seeker, and they were never as solid a team as Ravenclaw."

"That could have changed since last year," Don pointed out.

"What's wrong with replacement Seekers?" Bridget demanded, swooping down to join the conversation.

"Nothing, unless you're from Slytherin," Melody replied, and Bridget laughed.

"Slytherin's got a couple of good Beaters, but that's about it," Mundungus commented, joining their circle.

"You better watch what you say about Beaters, Dung," Melody warned, brandishing her club at him. "One good stroke from this thing could change the course of the game!"

"Yeah," Arista agreed, stopping in mid-air, the Quaffle tucked neatly under her arm.

"_Arista_!" Arabella yelled in frustration.

"Oops. Sorry, Bella!" Arista called cheerily, tossing the Quaffle to her teammate and turning back to Melody. "Anyway…Slytherin's Chasers are so stupid they wouldn't know what to do with a good opportunity if their Beaters gave them one."

Everyone laughed appreciatively at this, and no one seemed to notice Arabella's howl of pain as she got hit in the arm by an unmonitored Bludger.

"I think you're overrating Ravenclaw," Tony protested, abandoning his position by the goalposts to join their conversation. "Their Chasers are decent, but their Keeper's not very good."

"Yeah, but their Seeker is _amazing_," Bridget argued. "Maybe even better than Potter."

"Or you?" Arista shot at her. "You're not so bad yourself, Bridg."

"What exactly is going on over here?" Arabella demanded, rubbing her bruised shoulder grumpily. "I turn around to pass the Quaffle back to Arista, and she's not there, so I decide to score the goal myself, and next thing I know I get hit in the arm by a Bludger and my Keeper abandons his post!"

"We're just talking Quidditch," Melody shrugged, trying to sound innocent.

"Well, isn't that lovely!" Arabella cried sarcastically, throwing her hands into the air. "D'you think at some point maybe we could _practice_ Quidditch?"

"Well, we _could_, but what's the fun in that?" Mundungus asked, grinning. Arabella glared at him, and his smile quavered.

"Aw, come off it, Arabella," Don said, whacking away a Bludger that tried to infiltrate their circle. "We're not even playing this month, and James will be back in a week, so what's the point?"

"The point is so when James _does_ come back, we'll have something to show him."

"Great," Melody said, diverting the path of the other Bludger. "Let's work on that _next_ week."

Arabella frowned at her team. "But don't you all want to—"

"Ooh, look!" Arista said suddenly, pointing as Bridget grabbed the Snitch.

"Guess that means practice is over with, huh?" Bridget asked, grinning cheekily.

"Yeah," Melody said quickly, and the rest of the team loudly voiced their agreement.

"Wait—_guys_!" Arabella called after them as they swooped toward the ground. "Don't you at least want to go over one solid play? Come on—_one play_. Hey—guys!"

"See you later, Arabella!" Melody called airily over her shoulder.

"Hey—come on, _please_? Can you just wait a second?"

Arabella paused and watched as her team landed and started to walk away.

"All right, all right," she conceded. "But—_hey_! OW! Come _on_—at least help me put the Bludgers back!"

* * *

_Remus-_

_Shut up, you big prat. It was NOT that funny_.

_-James_

* * *

_Melody-_

_Hello. How is Hogwarts? How is the weather? I hear you and Mimi are having a bit of a row. I hope you can resolve everything in due time. I also hope your midnight studies are going well._

_I am now at the Ministry, so feel free to owl me if you like. I hope the other Auror Training Students are doing well, as I haven't been able to hear from any of them for the last several weeks._

_Best wishes,_

_James_

* * *

Mimi caved. She unloaded her worries on Remus again, and he grinned the whole way through her confession. 

"…I just don't know how to set things right, that's all, and…and…oh, honestly, Remus, stop_ looking_ at me like that!"

"Can't help it," Remus replied, still grinning. "The news is too good."

Mimi smiled half-heartedly. "Yeah…I…I guess so. I'm just not sure where to go from here, that's all."

"Well," Remus said thoughtfully, considering. "There's a Quidditch game tomorrow, isn't there?"

Mimi blinked and considered this for a moment. "Well…yes, but what's that got to do with me and Melody?"

"You could ask her to sit with you," he suggested.

Mimi lifted her eyebrows at Remus and smiled. "You know something, Remus? You're really good at this."

"Thanks," he replied, looking pleased but embarrassed. "So…why don't you go ask her, then?"

"I will," Mimi said decisively. Then, impulsively, she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Remus stared at her. "What was that for?"

"For…um…being a good friend," Mimi said rather lamely, feeling a flush burn through her cheeks.

"Oh. Well…um…thanks."

"You're—you're welcome," Mimi replied, feeling dumb. For some reason her mind flashed back to the kiss they'd shared a year ago—no, it was _two_ years ago—under a sprig of mistletoe. It had been brief, but…oh, so lovely. She found herself imagining kissing him now, and wondered if it would be fair to kiss Remus so soon after her breakup with Sirius.

_Well…it wasn't _that_ recently,_ she reasoned. _It's been three weeks, after all. But then…is it fair to drag Remus into all this drama?_ She thought about this for a moment. _Well…more than he already has been…_

She noticed Remus studying her face carefully, and locked her gaze with his. She licked her lips apprehensively and swallowed, wondering if she should just go for it or not.

Remus, thankfully, made up her mind for her. He mumbled something that sounded vaguely like, "Oh, sod it," before putting his hands on either side of her face and catching his lips against hers.

Mimi leaned into him and opened her mouth eagerly, prepared for anything Remus was ready to give.

She felt like all her nerves had exploded. She'd been waiting for this moment for _so long_, and here it finally was; his hands were so warm, his kiss felt so good, and all she wanted to do was pull him against her and—

Remus stopped. Mimi gazed at him forlornly as he pulled away.

"What?" she asked. "What'd I do wrong?"

Remus's face went a rather interesting shade of red. "Nothing, Mimi. Abs—absolutely nothing. You're—um—fine. You're fine. It's just that I—I shouldn't—never mind," he said, shaking his head. "I should go."

"What? No, Remus—wait—" Mimi cried as he collected his things and stood, heading for the door.

"I'm sorry, Mimi," he said. "It's just that—well, there are some—some things that—ah—prevent me from—well, no, that's not what I mean, I just…there's something about me…um…I really shouldn't've done that, now that I think about it, and—"

"Remus!" Mimi cried, jumping over the back of the couch and trying to catch him as he attempted to leave MHQ. She caught his arm as he reached for the sliding panel, and squeezed herself between him and the doorway. "Don't go."

Remus passed a hand over his forehead. "Mimi, I…I like you. I do. You're brilliant, and—and pretty, and—erm—good at kissing, and I…um…I like you. But…I just…I can't…"

"Can't what?" Mimi asked, happiness bubbling inside her chest despite Remus's attempts to leave.

"It's too complicated," Remus said, his shoulders sagging. "What with—well—you and Sirius, and…Melody and Sirius, and…Melody and you, and then I…well, I, of course…um…"

Mimi's face fell. "What?" she asked softly. "What's bothering you?"

_I know!_ she felt like screaming. _I know and I don't care, and I wish you'd just admit it to me…I want you to trust me, Remus…please trust me…_

Remus stared at the ground. "I can't tell you," he mumbled. "I'm really sorry, Mimi…I really am…"

Mimi swallowed a rising lump in her throat. _Why don't you trust me, Remus? I care about you…I'd never turn my back on you…._

"Why?" she whispered.

"It's really…complicated. It's not something…not something most people…"

"I'm not most people, Remus," Mimi assured him, tipping his head up and looking into his eyes. "Just tell me."

Remus held her gaze for a long moment. "I _wish_ I could," he said, sounding pained. "I do…I just…I don't know how you'd…oh, Mimi, it's not just that, it's…it's Professor Dumbledore, he doesn't want me to…he thinks it would be too…_damn it_, Mimi, I really do care about you."

"Do James and Sirius know?" she asked after a long silence.

Remus thought about this, and then nodded slowly.

Mimi looked at him a long moment, and wondered if he'd told them, or if they'd just figured it out. _They probably figured it out the same way I did…he probably didn't want them to know either…_ she realized. She gazed up at Remus and made a decision.

"Well, so do I," she whispered, and pulled his mouth down to hers.

Remus didn't really respond, and she let him go, looking up at him curiously. He was staring at her in shock.

"You…you mean you _know_?" he rasped. Mimi nodded.

"No one told me or anything. I just…figured it out."

"About…about me being a…"

"Werewolf?" Mimi finished. "Yeah."

"Why didn't you _tell_ me?" he croaked.

"Why didn't you tell _me_?" Mimi countered, crossing her arms. "I'm your _friend_, Remus! I thought you'd trust me!"

"It's not that simple, Mimi. I—like I said, Professor Dumbledore doesn't want me to, he doesn't want anyone else to find out. Most wizards…well, let's just say enrollment at Hogwarts would go down if people found out there was a werewolf here."

"That's ridiculous," Mimi whispered, uncrossing her arms. She grabbed Remus's hands and laced her fingers through his. "You're not dangerous."

Remus shook his head. "I _am_, though. That's the problem. James and Sirius are…the best friends anyone could ask for, but…they don't take it seriously enough either. I could…I mean, when it's the full moon, I'm—" he cut himself off and shook his head. "I'm not really myself."

Mimi let go of his hands and wrapped her arms around his torso, resting her head against his chest. "But you're just fine now," she said. "You're just Remus. You're not dangerous at all."

Remus looked down at her, astonished, and hesitantly put his arms around her. "No, not right now," he agreed.

"I don't get it," Mimi said. "You're still a _person_. I mean, if people got to _know_ you they'd…they'd see…"

"See what?"

Mimi pulled away and looked up at his face. "What I see."

"What's that? A funny-looking, brown-haired kid with weird scratches all over his face?"

Mimi smiled. "No. They'd see…how funny you are. And how kind. And attractive…even with the scratches."

Remus grinned. "You sure are good at boosting a fellow's ego. I ought to keep you around more often."

Mimi laughed. "I want this to work, Remus," she said, more seriously. "I don't want you to think that because you're a werewolf I don't care about you."

He didn't speak for a moment, thinking. "Mimi, you're not…you're not going to tell anyone about…"

Mimi shook her head firmly. "I've known for a while, and I haven't said anything to anybody. Not even to Lily. I was just hoping…you would tell me."

"Can't you understand why I didn't?"

"Yeah," she said softly, but her gaze fell.

"And Mimi…"

"Hm?" she said, lifting her gaze again. She saw apprehension in Remus's eyes.

"I want this to work, too. I…I do. I just…with everything that's been going on with Sirius and all…and--and Sirius not being here, I don't want to…"

Mimi nodded. "I understand what you mean. I'll set everything right with Sirius, I promise. And Melody," she added.

"That's right," Remus said. "Don't you have someone to ask to a Quidditch game?"

"Oh…yeah," Mimi said, scrunching up her nose. "I guess I have to go be nice to Melody now, huh?"

"You _want_ to," Remus reminded her.

"Yeah, I guess," she said, shrugging, but she grinned at him.

She suddenly became very aware that Remus still had his arms wrapped around her waist. "And…we…?" she said, trailing off hesitantly.

"We'll be spending the next Hogsmeade weekend together," Remus decided, smiling.

"Fair enough," Mimi agreed. She stood on her toes and gave him a quick kiss. Remus's grin widened.

Mimi slipped out of his arms and backed out of MHQ, grinning like an idiot. A happy, bubbly feeling filled her chest, and she went in search of Melody with an unexpected bounce in her step.

* * *

Bright, bubbly third year Charissa Mackenzie resumed her post as Quidditch commentator, to the annoyance of most of the crowd. She wasn't a _bad_ commentator, really, she was just very…_perky_, and most of the Hogwarts students did not associate "perky" with "Quidditch." Madam Hooch, on the other hand, seemed relieved to have found a commentator who didn't make Professor McGonagall go into a spitting rage (Lily), or compare Quidditch players to violent Muggle weapons most of the students had never heard of (Eric). 

"All right, guys, it's a bright sunny day for our Quidditch match, we have a nice breeze coming from the northeast, and it looks like it's going to be a great game!" the Hufflepuff commentator gushed.

Melody and Mimi were sitting side-by-side a little awkwardly, but Mimi felt happy that Melody had agreed to sit by her, and Melody was relieved Mimi wasn't still shooting evil looks at her. The rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team turned out to sit by Melody, and squashed themselves in with the great sea of blue that was the Ravenclaw section.

"Keep an eye on Ravenclaw today," Arabella called to the team as the players finally entered the pitch. A great roar erupted from the crowd, and Arabella raised her voice to yell at them, but she wasn't quite loud enough. Melody caught something that sounded vaguely like "mushrooms," but decided not to respond.

"Ten Galleons on Ravenclaw," Melody called to Mimi as the roaring of the crowd subsided. Mimi gave her a Look.

"You want me to bet against my House team?"

Melody shrugged. "Well, yeah. I could use the money."

She heard a burst of laughter from behind her, and turned around, surprised. Remus and Peter had apparently sat down behind them, and Melody glanced around, surprised to see the number of Gryffindors who had squashed themselves in near the Ravenclaws. She thought she caught a glimpse of the Fourth Year girl, Linda, whom Lily'd asked her to keep an eye out for, and felt a slight pang in her stomach. She'd been so occupied with her own problems she hadn't had a chance to approach the girl…but really, what did Melody know about Linda anyway? Besides, it looked like she was having a fine time with the boy she'd attended the game with—another Ravenclaw, fully decked out in blue.

"I would've thought you'd given up betting, Melody," Remus said, grinning. "Don't you still owe me ten Galleons?"

"Damn it," Melody swore, turning back around. "Mimi, remind me never to bet with him again."

Mimi gave a small grin and turned her attention to the game. The Ravenclaw team certainly seemed on top of things—there were great blue blobs streaking all over the pitch—but she couldn't really keep track of the action

The bubbly girl with the commentator's megaphone, however, seemed quite on top of things. "And it's Fulley to Sawyer, Sawyer to Archer—no, it's a feint, Sawyer shoots, she scores!" she squealed. "Ravenclaw's up, ten points to nothing!"

A wild cheer erupted from the blue-clad portion of the crowd, and the green portion booed angrily.

"Oh, come on now, Slytherins, you can at least be good sports about it!" chirped the commentator. A green shoe sailed in her direction, and she frowned as it fell miserably short of its destination. "Well, that's not very nice. Professor, isn't there something you can do about—"she began, turning to Professor McGonagall, who, looking exasperated, probably told her to get back to commentating, because her next words were: "Oh, right! The game! Um…let's see…I think Slytherin has possession…yeah, right there, one of their Chasers has the Quaffle, can't tell which…they all have black hair…and—ooh, nice Bludger shot by Croaker, Slytherin loses possession of the ball! Sawyer grabs the Quaffle and—she scores again! Good job, Emma!" she cried, as Ravenclaw registered another ten points on the board.

"I don't know which is worse, the booing Slytherins or the twittering commentary," Remus called to Mimi and Melody, rubbing his ear theatrically. Both girls turned to look up at him and grinned.

"I had an alarm clock like that once," Peter interjected, and they all looked at him curiously. "Well, it was this bird alarm clock, see—and every hour it'd chirp like mad—got _really_ annoying after a while, 'specially if you were trying to sleep—"

If he had more to say, he didn't get to say it, because Mimi, Melody, and Remus dissolved into laughter, and were then distracted by a fight on the Quidditch Pitch.

"And it looks like Fallmouth and Croaker are having a bit of a row about something—come on, boys, play nicely!" she scolded.

Charissa's comment was a bit of an understatement. Melody watched with wide eyes as both boys abandoned their Beater clubs and began pummeling each other with their fists.

"D'you think there's a history there we're not aware of?" Remus said, leaning over to talk to the girls again.

"Must be," Mimi agreed, as fellow Seventh Year and dorm mate Alina Archer abandoned the Quaffle and swooped over, attempting to pry the boys off of each other. She looked rather hysterical.

"Come to think of it," Mimi said, frowning. "I think I saw Alina hanging around with Fallmouth the other day…can't imagine _why_…he looked pretty happy, though."

Melody's eyebrows shot toward her hairline. "Archer and _Fallmouth_? Ew."

"I don't think she really likes him," Mimi said, laughing at the look on Melody's face. "Actually…I think she used to go out with Croaker, and that might be part of what's going on down there…"

By this time Madam Hooch had nearly pried the two boys apart, but they were still taking swings at each other whenever they could. Alina was crying.

Charissa Mackenzie was very annoyed. "Oh, this is ridiculous! Whatever it is, it can't be important enough to stall a game of _Quidditch_! Just give it _up_ so we can get on with the penalty shots and resume the game!"

For the first time, the crowd roared in agreement.

"What's that, Madam Hooch? Oh—well—it seems there aren't going to be any penalty shots, she's just sending both Beaters back to their scoring areas for a while. _Really_, Madam Hooch? No penalty shots? Because according to official Quidditch guidelines, there ought to be…all _right_, you don't have to get all _huffy_!" Charissa pouted for a moment, but recovered amazingly quickly as play resumed. "And—ooh, here we go again!" she said as Alina seized possession of the Quaffle and zoomed into Slytherin territory. "I just love Quidditch!" Charissa bubbled.

Behind Mimi and Melody, Remus sighed dramatically. "Here we go again indeed…" he said, rubbing his ear.

On the pitch, Slytherin managed to score twice, and Alina Archer, apparently still furious about the fight, managed to score three more times by herself to tip the game in Ravenclaw's favor again. The other two Chasers didn't look very pleased about this, and Charissa looked very scandalized by a snappy, rude exchanged between Alina and Frederick Fulley. The crowd "oooh"-ed appreciatively, and play resumed again, tension growing between all the players, regardless of team.

"This game is going to have an interesting ending," Melody said, watching Archer and Fulley fight over the Quaffle, only to have it blasted out of their hands by a well-aimed Bludger shot from the Slytherin end. "Poor Madam Hooch…."

Mimi grinned at Melody's comment.

_Things are really going along rather well_, she considered. It wasn't too bad, sharing time with Melody, and the Quidditch game was proving rather interesting. _But…well…_there was just something _off_ there. The girls weren't quite _clicking_ like they used to, and a little unresolved tension hummed between them. Mimi shook her head and tried to shove off the feeling, returning her attention to the game.

"Well, the score stands at a hundred and ten to fifty, but I'm getting kind of a bad feeling about all of this. None of the players seem to be working together anymore, and the way Croaker and Fallmouth keep hitting Bludgers at each other is quite distressing…Professor, don't you think there's some way we could stop the game before it gets too violent?"

Professor McGonagall sighed and urged Charissa to return to her duties as commentator.

"It was just a _thought_," Charissa said, sighing. "Well, anyway…there's really not a lot of action going on, everything seems to have come to kind of a standstill…Sawyer and Fulley are trying to pull something together, it looks like, but—ooh, that was close—Fallmouth is just playing too well today, he's not letting Fulley near the scoring zone…and Alina could come help recover if she'd stop staring at Croaker for a second!" Charissa suggested brightly, and Alina shot her a dirty look. "Or…not…" Charissa amended lamely.

The crowd grew restless.

* * *

Several rows up, Lin and Anthony were having a bit of a scuffle with Wendy and her stupid new friends. 

Lucy had come over to make fun of Lin's tattered old scarf and make flirtatious eyes at Anthony, and Lin snapped at her to leave. She was thrown off guard when Wendy defended Lucy, and this started her in an angry verbal exchange with her former best friend.

The girls argued so loudly several people around them turned to look, and Lin, cheeks burning, silently wished she could think of some way to end it.

Anthony joined in to help Lin out, as she seemed to be losing her nerve against Wendy, and his shouts attracted the attention of several members of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, who turned around and looked upward curiously.

Melody recognized both Linda and Wendy, and sighed, thinking this was probably the kind of "looking out" Lily had wanted her to do. She bit her lip and considered a suitable course of action. She _could_ just walk over and demand to know what was going on…but sometimes Fourth Years didn't like to listen to Seventh Years, the uppity little…brats.

Before Melody could do anything, however, Bridget DeBeauvois climbed over the back of her seat and tramped up to stand next to Lin. She crossed her arms and stared imperiously at Lucy, Wendy, Gillian, and Rachel, who all glared back at her.

"Who are _you_?" Lucy sneered, and Bridget drew herself up proudly, narrowing her eyes.

"_I_ am Bridget Alanna DeBeauvois, and I don't care who _you_ are."

Lucy's eyes widened in fury. Before she had a chance to speak, however, Bridget continued.

"And what _I'd_ like to know is why you're giving _this_ poor girl such a hard time," she said, indicating Lin with a jab of her thumb.

"I don't think that's any of your business," Lucy snapped, fuming.

"I'm making it my business," Bridget informed her haughtily.

"Well aren't you just a nosy little _brat_," Lucy sneered. "Aren't you a Third Year?"

"Yes," Bridget said, sticking her chin in the air proudly. For someone so short, she really was rather intimidating, Melody noted, watching the exchange from afar. Melody couldn't actually _hear_ what the girls were saying, of course, but Bridget's body language told her just about everything she needed to know.

"I don't see how that's relevant," Bridget continued. "_And_ I think you should go away and leave my friend here alone."

Lin looked rather surprised, but she didn't protest. She knew who Bridget was, of course—they were in the same House, after all—but Lin, being a year older, had never really spoken to her before. She wondered vaguely where this display of friendship was coming from.

"Why should I?" Lucy demanded. Bridget drew herself up as high as she could and, despite Lucy being several inches taller, managed to look down her nose at her.

"Your presence _offends_ me," Bridget informed her. "Deeply."

Lin had never seen Lucy so spitting mad before. Her cheeks were red, her eyes bugged out, her nostrils were inflamed, and her mouth was sputtering intensely, as though she couldn't form words bad enough to throw at Bridget.

"Yeah? Well—well—your pathetic half-blood father offends _me_, you snot-nosed French—_cretin_!"

Bridget's eyes turned from blue to gray, and if Melody had been close enough to see them, she would've scrambled out of her seat to try to prevent what happened next.

"Take it back," Bridget said darkly, her fists tightening.

"No, I don't think I will!" Lucy shrieked, a half-crazed look in her eyes.

Bridget lifted her eyebrows and regarded Lucy for a moment. "Fine," she said calmly, and lobbed her fist at Lucy's face.

It was a clean hit, and Lucy fell backwards, smacking her head on the bleachers. Melody saw _that_, and scrambled up through the stands, along with several other concerned members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Bridget fell on top of Lucy and slapped her across the face.

"TAKE IT BACK!" she screamed, just as Arabella and Melody seized her arms and attempted to pull her off. Bridget fought, madly, and Lucy stared up at Bridget with anger blazing in her eyes. Her arms were temporarily incapacitated, so she did the only thing she could—she launched a stream of spit at Bridget's face.

Melody and Arabella doubled their efforts and managed to pull Bridget off of Lucy—but not before Bridget landed a good solid kick on Lucy's chin.

Professor McGonagall came streaking through the stands to sort out the disturbance.

* * *

Everyone around Bridget and Lucy was so preoccupied with their scuffle that they missed the fight happening on the Quidditch pitch. 

Alina received the Quaffle from Emma and streaked toward the Slytherin goalposts. Fallmouth, infuriated, launched a Bludger at her, and when she managed to dodge that, he threw his Beater club at her. It struck her on the shoulder, and she halted in midair to scream profanities at him. He started laughing at her, and Alina got so mad she threw the Quaffle at his head.

Fallmouth howled, clutching his nose, and Alina smirked, ignoring Madam Hooch as she whistled the game to a halt and ordered that penalty shots be taken.

Shortly after this incident, several things happened at once: Lucy and Bridget received detention and were escorted off the pitch as punishment for their poor behavior, Charissa MacKenzie was forced to duck behind several members of the teaching staff for protection against the Bludgers the Slytherin Beaters were launching at her because they didn't like her commentary, and the entire crowd got to its feet to yell for the game's end.

Both Seekers were hurtling frantically around the pitch, hoping for a glimpse of the tiny golden ball that would secure the win—and the end—to this horrible game. Neither team was able to pull off any decent shots, and the Beaters had given up on strategy and were now lobbing the Bludgers at each other with as much force as they could manage. The Quaffle went missing, and nobody seemed to care that it had fallen to the ground except for Charissa, who screeched that the Quaffle had to be in play in order for the game to actually be considered "on," and if one of the Seekers caught the Snitch it wouldn't mean anything.

Eventually Madam Hooch retrieved the Quaffle, and the Chasers half-heartedly passed it across the pitch, but nobody was able to score, and the crowd was yelling, screaming, stomping its feet, demanding a winner.

The Slytherins were playing desperately now—their Beaters ignored the Bludgers and started taking swipes at people's heads—Mimi and Melody cried indignantly together and hopped up and down, screaming for a fair ending to the game.

"Augh—WHY CAN'T THEY CATCH THE BLOODY SNITCH?" Melody yelled in frustration.

"I bet if Lily was here she'd know where it was!" Mimi said furiously.

"COME THE HELL ON!" Melody bellowed. "CATCH THE SNITCH!"

The crowd started chanting, "CATCH THE SNITCH!" and both Seekers zoomed around the pitch erratically, desperately, hoping maybe if they flew fast enough they'd run into the Snitch by accident, because they certainly weren't going to spot it with their eyes zipping around that quickly.

And then—suddenly—_finally_—both Seekers saw it at the same moment, hovering far below the action, and the crowd screamed bloody murder as they went into sharp dives. Mimi and Melody jumped up and down, clutching each other's hands, the screams of the fans deafening in their ears, their own voices lost among the noise, and then—

"RAVENCLAW WINS!" Charissa shrieked.

Mimi and Melody erupted into victorious shouts and jumped up and down and hugged each other, for no particular reason.

And that, right there, was the moment Mimi felt everything click back into place.

* * *

Lily sat on the edge of her bed and stared at the silver bottle in her hands. _One more night_, she thought miserably, uncorking it. She swirled around the bottle's contents, and one mere swallow's worth pooled in the corners at the bottom. 

_Oh well_, she thought, glancing around at the other sleeping Training Students. _Here's to…sleeping through the night._ She lifted the bottle in a silent toast before tipping her head back and downing the last of the potion.

Her head hit the pillow happily, and she drifted away into darkness.

* * *

_James-_

_God, you sound like such a prat. What'd they do when you got to the Ministry, shove a broom up your ass?_

_I take it you've been corresponding with Remus. (Lovely sonnet, by the way. Moony ought to be a poet, don't you think?) _

_Yes, I've heard from Lily, and no I'm not going to tell you what she said. If you want to know, why don't you just wait until you get back to Hogwarts and ask HER?_

_Midnight practices are going fine as always. I have some brilliant new hexes I'd like to try on you when you get back._

_Melody_

* * *

Lin saw Bridget lounging in the Common Room on Sunday afternoon and nervously ventured over to say hello. 

"Erm…sorry to disturb you," Lin said, and Bridget looked up from her novel, frowning.

When she saw who it was, however, her face brightened, and she grinned, setting down her book. "Oh—hullo!" Bridget said amiably. "Come on, sit down."

"Oh—thanks," Lin said, sitting down across from her. Bridget beamed. "Erm…so I wanted to—um—thank you. For yesterday."

Bridget's smile intensified. "Really? I was afraid you'd be mad."

"Mad? Oh—no, not at all. I'm not very fond of Lucy…in case you couldn't tell," Lin said, shooting a dark look at where Lucy and her friends had gathered across the common room.

"Oh, I hate her," Bridget said instantly. "I've been meaning to pummel her for ages, just never got the chance."

Lin grinned. "I think she looks better that way," she said, indicating the large, swelling bruise on Lucy's chin.

"You'd think she would've gone crying to Madam Pomfrey by now," Bridget replied, then shrugged. "Not that I'm complaining. I enjoy seeing my handiwork in action."

"It—it wasn't right, you know. What she said about your father."

Bridget's expression soured. "I know. Don't remind me."

"Oh…sorry. I wasn't trying to remind you, I just—"

Bridget looked at Lin curiously for a moment and then laughed. "It's all right, you don't have to get all flustered. I just meant that…well, I tend to brood on things, see…and it doesn't take a whole lot to get me wound up, and if I start thinking about what Lucy said about my dad…. Let's just say she'd better never bring it up again, or she's going to have more than a swollen chin to worry about."

Lin raised her eyebrows. "I see."

"But enough about that. I'm glad you decided to come over and talk to me. I was afraid you wouldn't. I mean—you seem pretty shy and all."

"Yeah. I guess…I guess I am."

"But you have that Ravenclaw friend. What's his name?"

"Um…Anthony."

"Yeah, him. He's cute. Is he in your year?"

"Yes. He's my partner for Potions class."

"Ah. So he's…just a friend?" Bridget pressed.

"Um…well…" Lin said, and her cheeks flushed involuntarily. "He did ask me to—to sit with him during the Quidditch game and all…but I guess technically we're just…just friends."

Bridget grinned. "So you fancy him! That's great. I'll bet he fancies you too."

Lin's cheeks burned crimson. "Maybe," she mumbled.

"Nah, he does," Bridget decided. "That's cute. You'll be cute together."

Lin didn't think she'd ever met someone quite so…decisive…before. "Erm…thanks," she said.

"Sure. After all, what are friends for, if not to embarrass you horribly about the boys you like?"

"Um," Lin said, considering. "So we're…um…friends?" she ventured.

"Sure we are," Bridget beamed. "I kicked the crap out of someone for you, you overcame your shyness to talk to me…we're going to be great friends," she decided.

Lin blinked and felt a smile creeping across her face. How could she argue with _that_?

"Bridg!" came a shout from across the Common Room.

"Oh, nuts," Bridget said, shoving her novel into her bag. "I forgot—I was supposed to meet Jennifer half an hour ago."

Lin turned around in her seat to see a brown-haired Third Year girl craning her neck to look for Bridget.

"Coming, Jen!" Bridget called, standing. "Well, sorry to dash out so soon. I suppose I'll be seeing you later. We should spend the next Hogsmeade weekend together. Well—if you're not spending it with your boy," she winked. "And—oh! You know what? We've never been properly introduced!" she said suddenly. "I'm Bridget," she grinned, holding out her hand. "Bridget DeBeauvois."

"Linda," Lin said, taking Bridget's hand. "Linda Sharp. But everyone calls me Lin."

"Fair enough," Bridget said, giving Lin's hand a solid shake.

"There you are!" Jen said, appearing by Bridget's side. "Where have you been?"

"Just chatting with my new friend Lin, that's all."

Jen sighed. "Well, you're half an hour late—come _on_!"

"All right, all right, I'm coming…sorry, Lin," she said, smiling apologetically. "I'll see you later!"

"Bye!" Lin called as she left. She shook her head and smiled.

"Interesting girl, isn't she?" came an unfamiliar voice, and Lin turned around to see a Seventh Year plop into the chair on the other side of her.

"Erm…yes," Lin said, wondering if she could handle another strange encounter with an unfamiliar blonde-haired Gryffindor girl.

"I'm Melody, by the way," the girl said. "I'm friends with Lily."

"Yeah…I know who you are," Lin said softly. "You hang out with James and Sirius."

"Sometimes," Melody agreed. "Hey, listen, I saw what happened yesterday. At the game."

Lin sank low into her seat. "Who didn't?" she muttered.

Melody smiled. "I'm glad Bridget did what she did…even if she got a little out of control in the end. Those girls shouldn't've been ganging up on you like that."

"I was doing all right," Lin protested.

"Of course," Melody said. "But hey…if they start giving you too much trouble, you should let me know, because I could…take them down a peg or two for you."

Lin glanced over at Melody and considered. "I dunno, I think Bridget did a pretty good job on her own."

Melody laughed, noting Lucy's bruise. "Yeah. I guess she did. But…there are other things that could be done better than a bruised chin."

Lin looked and Melody with wide eyes, confused. "What exactly are you suggesting?" she demanded.

"Nothing_ bad_," Melody assured her. "It's just…sometimes a little pranking is in order. That's all."

Lin raised her eyebrows, and Melody shrugged.

"Just a thought," she said. "Well…I'm off to write a Potions essay! Just keep my offer in mind, eh?"

Lin nodded, and watched her walk away with a strange combination of confusion and bemusement.

She wondered if maybe Lily wasn't still watching over her, and smiled at the thought.

_Maybe…maybe I'll do all right without Wendy after all._

* * *

Lily tried not to fall asleep. She sat up in bed, staring at the tent flap, trying to find something for her eyes to focus on so she wouldn't have to fall asleep, but there was little in the tent worth looking at. The darkness was so complete she could barely make out the figure of Sirius sleeping on the bed next to hers, and after an hour of sitting awake, her eyes began to droop. 

Lily had to catch her head several times as it tried to fall forward, and she shook it, blinking her eyes rapidly in an attempt to wake herself up again. She even tried slapping herself on the cheek, but all that did was make her cheeks hurt, so she decided to stop. _Wish James was here_, she thought miserably. _He'd know what to do…he'd keep me awake…_. Lily considered this for a moment and frowned. _Well, no…he'd probably fall asleep trying to keep me awake…but at least he'd be here._

Eventually Lily couldn't handle sitting up anymore and laid down, forcing her eyes open, still trying desperately to cling to her conscious. She didn't want to have the nightmares again…didn't want to see her family die again….

Her eyes fluttered closed and she saw the Dark Mark burning against the back of her eyelids. Lily gasped and forced her eyes open again, looking around wildly, blinking, trying to think of something—anything—that might keep her awake.

Lily's body, however, did not agree with her mind. It was exhausted—it wanted sleep—it wasn't going to put up with Lily's crap for much longer—and eventually, it just shut down on her. She closed her eyes for a minute, trying to shove the image of the Dark Mark out of her mind, and sleep claimed her.

* * *

Lily's eyes opened suddenly, and the world rushed at her, bright and rich and welcoming. She wasn't having the nightmare after all…instead she was having the Not-Dream. 

Laurelle's world opened before her, and Lily recognized the face of Charlotte, Laurelle's sister-in-law, sitting on a chair next to Laurelle's, and as Laurelle's head turned she saw an unfamiliar man sitting on the couch across from them. All three were enjoying tea.

"I realize, ladies, that my visit is—ah—a bit unexpected, and I do appreciate your hospitality."

"Of course, Captain Pearce," Charlotte replied pleasantly. "Our home is always welcome to members of the Court."

Captain Pearce smiled in a rather lopsided and half-hearted manner and took a sip of his tea. "I trust you do not mind the inspection my men are making of your home? I assure you they will harm nothing."

"On the contrary, Captain," Charlotte said, setting down her cup of tea, "we were rather expecting it."

"Were you?" the Captain inquired.

"Well, we knew you would be in the area soon," Charlotte reasoned. "Obviously we did not expect you today, but—you are not unwelcome. We have nothing to hide." She smiled winningly at him, and the Captain look rather struck.

Lily could feel laughter bubbling up in Laurelle's throat, and she quickly swallowed a bit of tea to suppress it. Not for the first time, Lily wished very much she knew just what Laurelle was thinking. She had so many _questions_! _Are you aware at all of my presence_? Lily wondered. _Probably not. Probably not at all._

But besides that, there were other, more important, questions to be answered. _Who is Captain Pearce? What is the Court? Why are they inspecting Charlotte and Laurelle's home? _

Lily tried to remember her last encounter with Laurelle's world. _She was sending an owl…in a hurried sort of manner…to Patrick, who isn't here! Patrick is her…husband…Charlotte is Patrick's sister, I think…and Charlotte was mad because Laurelle kept…Captain Pearce waiting! That makes much more sense. And then…they were talking about magic…how magic's a curse, and…oh. _That's_ why they're inspecting the house. Then Captain Pearce must be a…Muggle?_

Captain Pearce was reasonably aged and reasonably attractive. He was older than Charlotte, to be sure, but Lily couldn't quite peg Laurelle's age, and expected that she was closer in age to Captain Pearce than her sister-in-law. Oddly, though, Laurelle hadn't spoken, and Lily wondered why Charlotte was doing all the talking.

"I'm sure you have nothing to worry about," Captain Pearce said, trying to sound reassuring, but Lily did not believe him. Whatever Captain Pearce was, he _wasn't_ a very good liar. He obviously suspected Charlotte and Laurelle of _something_, and was cleverly—or perhaps far too obviously—keeping the girls occupied with tea as his men inspected their home.

_Perhaps it is simply Charlotte's home, and that's why she's doing all the talking…_.

But no, that didn't make a whole lot of sense. If Charlotte was younger, and…she wasn't married…why would she have a home of her own? Especially one of these proportions?

"You've hardly spoken a word, Mrs. Gryffindor," the Captain said, turning to Laurelle, and Lily felt Laurelle's hands tighten around her teacup.

"My apologies, Captain," she said, her voice soft. "I have much on my mind. And Charlotte is…well, she is a much more avid speaker than I."

"Ah," the Captain said. "I was so sorry to hear about your husband."

"Of course," Laurelle replied, giving a weak smile.

"He was—ah—killed?"

Laurelle took a long drain of her tea, swallowing intensely. "Captured," she managed finally. "There has been no other news."

"We are all mourning for him," Charlotte said gently, laying a hand on Laurelle's and carefully removing the teacup and saucer from her grasp. Both Laurelle's hands were beginning to shake, and she folded them forcefully on her lap, trying to hide her emotion from the Captain.

"Of course, Miss Gryffindor. He was your brother also. I forgot."

"We have the same surname, Captain," Charlotte said, raising her eyebrows. "How could you forget?"

The Captain looked a bit flustered. "Ah—you see—well, having—having met your brother, you see I knew him personally, and he was—well, a fine officer, surely, and he is so very different from—ah—well, yourself, I suppose, different—different features and all." Captain Pearce swallowed, wiping off his forehead nervously with a handkerchief, which he hastily stuffed back in his shirt pocket after use.

"I suppose my brother and I are a bit different," Charlotte agreed, sounding amused. Laurelle was too preoccupied with calming herself to see the humor.

Just then several unfamiliar men entered the room and saluted Captain Pearce.

The Captain stood, returning their salute.

"Nothing to report, sir!" one of them said, and the Captain nodded.

"As expected," he sighed. But Lily didn't think he'd expected it at all. The Captain turned to Charlotte and Laurelle, looking mildly—relieved? _That doesn't make any sense…_. "Well, ladies, I thank you for your time. I do apologize if I have inconvenienced you."

"Oh, not at all," Charlotte smiled, and the Captain looked rather struck again. He cleared his throat purposefully and donned his cap, nodding respectfully to the ladies before turning and leading his men out of the room. Laurelle turned to watch as they went, and Lily saw a maid leading the men to the door.

"Do you think he left anyone behind to spy?" Charlotte whispered, leaning across her sister-in-law to gather the teacups.

"Maybe," Laurelle replied. "We should have the house-elves do another inspection of the house to see if they left anything behind."

Charlotte leaned back in her chair and stared at the table thoughtfully. "I am sorry he brought up Patrick. Maybe it would have been better if I hadn't dragged you down here."

Laurelle shook her head. "He wanted to know if I knew any more than he did. And he would have been suspicious if I was not present."

Charlotte's face fell. "Laurelle…I don't think Patrick…"

Laurelle glared at her sister-in-law fiercely. "He's _alive_, Charlotte. I know it. I'd know if he was dead!"

Charlotte's gaze dropped to the floor. "I don't know what to believe," she said softly. "But all the same, I don't think Captain Pearce suspects anything about Patrick. I think he believes Patrick is dead, just like everybody else."

"Everybody else is _wrong_."

"Of course," Charlotte whispered in reply.

Both girls quieted as a maid entered the room and cleared away their dishes. Lily vaguely wondered why they had a maid if they had house-elves. _Maybe to keep up the appearance for the Muggles…_.

Laurelle ran her fingers over her necklace, and Lily felt instant comfort sweep through her system. She found herself agreeing with Laurelle. _If Patrick was dead, she would feel it. If Patrick was dead, she would know…._

The room started to fade away, and Lily began to panic. _If this dream is ending, that means…._

Nightmares were not far off.

Blackness came and Lily screwed her eyes shut, fiercely, hoping that she wouldn't have her nightmares again—hoping they at least wouldn't wake her up in the middle of the night—hoping—hoping—

* * *

Lily woke up screaming. The Dark Mark seared across her vision, her stomach heaved like it wanted to eject things, and tears spilled out of her eyes uncontrollably. She clutched her sheets and shrieked, trying to calm herself, but the room was so dark—images kept popping in front of her eyes—shutting them didn't help, she just saw the Dark Mark everywhere—wherever she looked— 

"Lily?"

Lily shuddered, choked, and sobbed, but she couldn't respond.

"Lily, what's the matter? Did you see something? Is there something in the tent?" came the voice again, more urgent.

Not Sirus. It was a girl. And…not Naomi. Not chirpy enough.

"N—n—no," Lily managed finally, wishing she could sound more composed. Sally couldn't see her, but she was sure she could hear her crying in the dark.

"What's wrong?"

"N—_nothing_," Lily lied, unsuccessfully.

A light appeared to her left, and she squinted, holding up her hand to shield her eyes from it.

"Lily?" came another voice, groggier, and this time it was Sirius. Lily buried her face into her knees, wrapping her arms around her head. "Something happen to your face?" he mumbled.

"No," was Lily's muffled reply. "I'm fine. Go back to sleep."

Sally sighed impatiently from across the tent. "We all know you're crying, Lily. There's no use trying to hide it."

"Just go back to sleep," Lily sniffed. "I'm sorry."

"Lily?" came a third voice, and Lily had to suppress a groan. What could _Naomi_ possibly have to say to her.

She felt a slight pressure on the end of her bed and lifted her head reluctantly, her eyes peeking over the top of her knees. Naomi was kneeling on her mattress, looking at her with wide, sympathetic eyes.

"Did you have a bad dream?"

Lily nodded. "It's stupid though. I don't want to talk about it."

"You woke up screaming," Sally pointed out dryly, and Naomi glanced over at her for a second before nodding in agreement.

"It had to have been pretty bad."

Lily shrugged and lifted her head, wiping her tears away hastily. "I'm sorry I woke you all up. We should get back to sleep," she suggested, and Naomi frowned at her.

"I have nightmares sometimes too," she continued. "Bad ones."

"Ones that make you wake up screaming?"

Naomi hesitated. "Sometimes."

Lily looked up at her with wide eyes. "About what?"

"Bad things," Naomi said softly. "About—about—oh, _Lily_!" she cried suddenly, throwing her arms around Lily's neck. Lily blinked and patted Naomi's arm gently. "I see the Dark Mark in my dreams, I see my poor baby cousin—he didn't live to see his f—f—first _Christmas_!" she sobbed, and tears began leaking out of Lily's own eyes.

Sally and Sirius stared first at the girls, and then at each other, in shock.

"M—my dad!" Lily sobbed back. "And my l—little brother, and—and s—s—sister!"

Sirius waited to speak until the girls' crying subsided.

"God, do I need a tissue," Lily said, sniffing loudly and wiping her tears with the back of her hand. Naomi laughed.

"I think I have some," she said, and scrambled over to her bed. She dug around underneath it and returned to Lily's cot with a box of tissues.

"Lily…how long have you been having nightmares?" Sirius asked softly, after the girls were finished blowing their noses.

"Since last summer," Lily said softly.

"But…you haven't had any this trip, have you?" Sally asked curiously.

Lily shook her head, staring downward intently. "I've…I've been taking this Dreamless Sleep Potion. I thought I'd have enough to get me through the month, but…I ran out last night. Maybe I should've said something…but I was hoping this wouldn't happen."

"You should've said something anyway," Sirius said, even more softly, and Lily finally looked at him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "There was just…so much other stuff…."

"And to think I was waffling on about _my_ problems," he replied, shaking his head. "God, I feel like such a _prat_."

"Sirius, don't say that!" Lily cried. "It's not that big a deal."

"Waking up screaming in the middle of the night isn't a big deal?" Sally snorted. "Since _when_?"

"Not if I have my Potion it isn't," Lily shot at her, and she shrugged.

"You can't rely on a Potion forever, Lily," Naomi said softly. "Sooner or later you're going to have to face it."

"The nightmare? I think I've faced that enough already."

"No. Not that. Your family's deaths."

Lily stared at her. "I beg your pardon?"

"I think that's why you keep having the nightmare. You can't admit to yourself that they're gone."

"Wh—what would _you_ know about it?" Lily sputtered angrily. "What would _you_ know about what I've gone through?"

"I told you, my baby cousin—"

"Oh, bullocks to your baby cousin! That's not your _father_, Naomi, that's not your _sister _or your _brother_ or—" Lily cut herself off, horrified. Everyone just sat and stared at her for a moment.

_Oh God_, Lily thought to herself, bringing her hand to her mouth. _I sound like Lin_. She looked back up at Naomi, who was looking rather hurt.

"I'm sorry," she said finally. "I—I shouldn't have said that."

Naomi's gaze softened. "It's all right. Now…probably isn't the best time to talk about it."

"We should all be getting back to sleep," Lily said softly. "Long day tomorrow."

Sally snorted. "What day _isn't_ a long day?"

Lily smiled weakly. Naomi gave her a small grin. "Want to keep the tissues?" she offered.

"For now."

Naomi gave her another hug and then slid off Lily's bed, returning to her own. "Night, Lily," she said. "Again."

"Night," Lily replied.

"Sweet dreams," Sally offered wryly, and Lily nodded lamely.

Both girls settled into their beds, and Sirius extinguished the light at the end of his wand.

"Lily?" he whispered across the space between their beds. "You going to be all right?"

Lily briefly wished James was there, but smushed the thought out of her mind. _That isn't going to help_, she chastised herself. "Yeah," she said softly, settling her head onto her pillow. "I'll be all right."

"Going to be able to sleep?"

"Probably not," she admitted.

"Want me to stay awake with you?"

"No. Go back to sleep."

"You sure?"

Lily smiled a little. "Yeah. It's all right, Sirius. Go back to sleep."

"All right, but if you change your mind—"

"Oh, good _grief_!" came Sally's voice from across the tent, exasperated. "_Honestly_, you two, I know you're whispering, but we're in a _tent_! We can still _hear_ you."

"Sorry," Sirius mumbled grumpily, but he fell silent after that.

"Night, Sirius," Lily whispered after a few minutes, and he grunted sleepily at her.

Lily slept uneasily for the rest of the night.

* * *

_Melody-_

_Fat lot of help YOU'VE been._

_-James_

* * *

_Remus-_

_I'M GOING TO TURN YOU INTO A CHAMBER POT, YOU POMPOUS ASS!_

_-James_

* * *

James's friends were complete prats. All he wanted was a little news about Lily, and nobody was being even remotely helpful. _Maybe I should owl Mimi, _he thought briefly, and then shook his head. _She won't care either_. Nobody cared about him missing Lily, they were all prats, and he hated them all. 

Of course…they probably didn't appreciate him owling them just to ask about Lily…that probably wasn't fair…but oh, sod it, he'd never actually _mentioned_ Lily, he'd just kind of…_implied_ he wanted to know about her, and he cared about his friends, too, he really did, it was just that…his friends didn't quite make him feel the way Lily did. _That's probably for the best, _he considered wryly.

He sighed and got back to his work, which was very boring and involved him stapling and filing a lot of papers in chronological order. He expected the work might've been slightly more interesting if he could_ read_ the papers, but they'd been enchanted so the words crawled all over the page, caterpillar-like, and it was impossible to make sense of them. _If only I knew the counterspell_, he thought glumly, shoving another several papers into the filing cabinet. _Then I might have something_.

Life was pretty dull here, really, and although Fletcher Hawkes insisted they were still doing Auror Training, it didn't _feel_ like it. Compared to the things they'd done with Moody, this bit of training was completely…well, lame. And it didn't give James any real sense of _accomplishment_, just a lot of time to sit around and mope about how he couldn't see Lily.

And reply to owls from his prat-ish friends, of course.

"…well, maybe if you knew what the hell you were doing, I wouldn't have to keep shoving you out of my way all the time!"

James sighed. A familiar female voice was shouting down the hall, and James didn't even have to get out of his seat to know that Adam and Vivian were fighting again.

_Do they ever let up_? he wondered, as Adam launched into a stream of rather impressive verbal abuse. _Maybe I should be taking notes,_ he mused, _to use on Snivellus when I get back._

Although, really, he hadn't seen Snape much this year, and he'd found he had better things to do with his time than hex stupid Slytherins, even if they were the most disagreeable people he'd ever met.

"Well, I don't know why you think you're so clever, since your stupid girlfriend left you!"

"Is that the _only_ good insult you have?" Adam demanded, sounding exasperated.

James found himself agreeing with Adam. _She does mention that an awful lot…._

"Well, I could call you a bloated, stupid, barmy codger, but I don't think that's quite specific or demeaning enough, do you?"

"Oh, you care about my opinion now?"

"No, but I know how you like to hear yourself talk—"

"And you're giving me an opportunity to do so? Isn't that sweet of you!"

"Don't you _dare_ call me sweet, you—you pompous ass!" Vivian snarled.

"Wouldn't _dream_ of it," Adam replied airily, but this only seemed to infuriate Vivian further.

"Ooh—I don't know why I even _bother_ with you—you're such a _git, _I don't even _like_ you—"

"Oh, you don't like me?" Adam laughed. "Well, that's just great, because I could've sworn you—"

"NEVER MIND THAT!"

James was beginning to feel rather confused. Had he missed something…?

"Oh, so it _didn't_ mean anything?" Adam demanded.

"No, no it didn't, and now if you'll excuse me I'm going to—"

"So you're just stringing me along, is that what you're saying?"

"I didn't _say_ anything of the sort, and I'm really going to le—"

"What, do you pull this on everybody? Just—"

"I SAID I'M GOING TO LEAVE NOW, THANKS, SO WOULD YOU PLEASE MOVE?" Vivian bellowed.

"AND I'M NOT FINISHED TALKING TO YOU!"

"I don't care—I'm done talking to _you_—"

"Are you really?" Adam asked.

"I—yes, I _am_ done talking to you and—what are you _doing_? Let me _go_!"

"You said you were done talking."

"_So_? That doesn't mean I want to—"

And then, suddenly, silence. James stared down the hall curiously. Abandoning his files, he stood, craning his neck for a sight of Adam and Vivian. He heard a large BANG! on one of the filing cabinets and frowned, wondering if they'd somehow knocked each other out. Intensely curious, he hurried down the hallway and rounded the corner, then froze, wondering if he should feel disgusted or not.

Adam had Vivian pinned against one of the filing cabinets, his mouth glued to hers. Vivian's arms were wrapped around him in a manner that suggested she didn't really want to go anywhere.

James pulled a face and backed around the corner again, turning away from the sight. _I hope Lily and I don't look that gross when we snog_, he thought first, and then shook his head. _Bother,_ he thought angrily, thinking of Adam and Vivian again. _It was bad enough when I thought they hated each other…but if they really _like_ each other…that's much worse. No _wonder_ they're fighting all the time._

James couldn't imagine _any_ Slytherin admitting they were attracted to a Ravenclaw…true, it was more likely they'd admit to liking a Ravenclaw than a Gryffindor or—God forbid—a Hufflepuff, but _still_. Vivian was clearly under the delusion that she was not going to have to admit to _anything_, and James didn't see Adam going along with this very agreeably.

_Plus it'll just be gross if I catch them snogging all the time_, James reasoned. _We do all share a flat together…._

James wondered, not for the first time, exactly how they'd picked the groupings for Auror Training. His group had three boys and one girl, and the other group had three girls and one boy. _Poor Sirius_, James thought, and then grinned. _The lucky dog…._

Of course, one of those three girls was Lily, so perhaps it wasn't such a great thing that Sirius was alone with her for four straight weeks. _Well…better Sirius than Adam_, James thought darkly. But then, Adam wouldn't have gone with Lily's group anyway, since they were both in the same House, and the Training groups only had one member from each House.

_That makes sense_, James thought. _But…why not two girls and two boys to each group? Or one group all boys and the other all girls? _

It didn't make any sense.

_Ah, well, _James shrugged. _At least I have Frank to keep me company…he's mostly sane…._

He wasn't Lily, of course…but then, who was?

* * *

Lily's eyes popped open. She tried to gasp but couldn't, tried to whirl around in confusion but couldn't, and then—then— 

She was having the Not-Dream again.

"Charlotte!" Laurelle yelled, and Lily focused her attention to the world around her.

Time must have passed since the last dream, because she was no longer having tea—her dress was different—she passed a window and saw snow fluttering outside—

_How long has it _been Lily wondered. The last time she remembered seeing the outside, it had been summer…so four months, at least…but it could have been years later, for all she knew. _Why, why, WHY can't I tell what Laurelle is thinking?_

"Charlotte, where are you? You're going to miss the toast—it's your own _birthday_, for heaven's sake!" Laurelle called, hurrying through the hallways.

_Some of this looks familiar…_. Lily thought curiously. _It kind of looks like...HOLY POO ON TOAST._

If Lily had been in control of her own body, she would have halted. Her mouth would have dropped open in shock. She would have stood staring at the wall for a good five minutes before she was able to move again.

But Lily wasn't in control of her own body, so she had to deal with her revelation while hurrying down a long, narrow corridor, her eyes maneuvering wildly about in search of Charlotte.

_She was in Gryffindor's Castle_. And not just Gryffindor's Castle, either—it was part of Gryffindor's Castle that was connected to Potter's Cottage—the part that led to the ballroom, to be more specific, and—

_Good Lord, I think James and I have snogged behind that tapestry, _Lily thought with a sudden jolt as Laurelle breezed by it, still looking around wildly.

A loud scuffling noise came from behind the tapestry and Laurelle halted, whirling around. Lily thought she heard whispers and suppressed giggling, and Laurelle marched back down the hallway. As they neared the tapestry again, the noises became louder, and Laurelle halted in front of it, glaring.

"Charlotte, this is no time for silly—" she said accusingly, pulling aside the tapestry, but she froze when she saw just who was behind it.

Charlotte was behind there, certainly, but the man in whose arms she was entwined—the man whom she was kissing, in fact—was the _last_ person Lily would have imagined discovering behind the tapestry. Mostly this was because she only recognized the faces of four people in Laurelle's world, and the man behind the tapestry belonged to one of them.

"C—Captain _Pearce_?" Laurelle sputtered, shocked.

Charlotte gasped and shoved the Captain away from her, which didn't do much good, because the space behind the tapestry wasn't very large, and although she'd shoved the Captain away, their bodies were still touching in many places.

"Laurelle!" Charlotte cried, extricating herself from the Captain's grasp and scrambling out of the alcove.

"Charlotte—what are you _doing_?" Laurelle shrieked.

"Laurelle—I can explain—" Charlotte said desperately, as Laurelle began backing away.

"Explain what? Bringing him into our home? Running the risk of revealing everything? Risking _persecution_?"

"No, Laurelle—it's not like that—"

"How long has this been going on?" Laurelle demanded, disgusted. "You make me _sick_, Charlotte. That man is our _enemy_ and you've been—you've been—"

"Laurelle, _please_, just stop and _listen_ to me! Captain Pearce is—"

"NO! I don't need to hear it!" Laurelle screeched, and Lily rather agreed with her. What was Charlotte playing at, anyway? Just because Captain Pearce _looked_ nice was no reason to go putting her family in jeopardy—

"But Captain Pearce is a—"

"Stop it! Whatever he told you, it's a lie!"

"LISTEN TO ME!" Charlotte bellowed.

"See if I try to throw a birthday party for you again, you ungrateful—deceitful—"

"SHUT UP AND LISTEN!" bellowed another voice, and Lily was shocked to see that Captain Pearce had appeared from behind the tapestry and drawn his wand on Laurelle.

Wait—his _wand_?

"What are you doing with _that_?" Laurelle sputtered.

"I'm going to hex you with it if you don't shut up and listen," he growled.

"But—but _you're_—you're a—a—"

"Muggle?" Charlotte suggested, and then shook her head. "That's what I've been trying to _tell_ you, Laurelle. Captain Pearce is a wizard."

Laurelle blinked slowly and stared at them for a moment, dumbfounded. "Why didn't you tell me _sooner_?" she exploded. "For Merlin's sake, Charlotte, you didn't have to sneak around with him—not in your own _house_—and you could've picked a better time to have a secret rendezvous with him than during your own _birthday party_—honestly—and it would've saved me a lot of trouble, you know, if I'd known you fancied _him_—I wouldn't have had to invite all these unmarried blokes to your party—and—"

Charlotte looked so happy Lily thought she might cry. "So you're not—you're not mad at me then?"

"Oh, goodness, Charlotte, of _course_ I am—I'm positively furious, you great bloated idiot, you're missing your own birthday toast! But—but I'm _relieved,_ anyway. To know that Captain Pearce is—on our side, at least."

She glanced at Pearce suspiciously. "You _are_ on our side?" she inquired.

"Oh, Ellie—of course he is!" Charlotte said defensively, slipping an arm around his waist. "He's been using his position as a Muggle to _save_ wizards from hangings…and…he wants to help us find Patrick."

Now Lily thought Laurelle might cry. "You mean—you _believe_ me?"

Charlotte nodded. "Jonathan's explained everything…oh, Laurelle, there's so much we didn't know—so much I've been dying to tell you—"

"Why didn't you?" Laurelle cried.

"Well…" Charlotte said, a little uncertainly, and glanced up at Jonathan.

"I wasn't sure I could trust you," he admitted. "I made her wait until I'd gotten everything sorted about you. I came to tell her tonight…."

"We got a little sidetracked," Charlotte said quickly, blushing. "I didn't mean to leave the party for more than a few minutes, but—oh, Ellie, we haven't seen in each other in a month, you must understand—"

Lily thought Laurelle was processing all of this with a great amount of poise and intelligence. Lily herself would still have been sputtering and protesting. "Of course I understand," Laurelle said, a little sadly. "Patrick's been—well, it's been a year, anyway."

"I _know_, Ellie," Charlotte said, her eyes shining. She walked forward and clasped her sister-in-law's hands. "We'll find him, though. I _promise_."

"_I'll_ find him," Jonathan corrected. "I can't let you two come with me."

"Why not?" Laurelle cried. "I have to see him—I have to find him—"

"It's too dangerous," Jonathan said roughly. "And we don't have time to talk about it now. They'll be expecting you at the party," he finished, directing this last statement at Charlotte, who nodded sadly. "I'll be in touch," he assured Laurelle.

"I'll—I'll go back and tell them you're coming," Laurelle offered. "Go ahead and say good-bye, but…don't be long."

Charlotte nodded, and the last thing Lily saw before Laurelle turned away was Jonathan wrapping Charlotte into his arms. Lily felt a pang of longing in her stomach, and wondered if it was Laurelle's or her own. Tears slipped freely down her cheeks, and Laurelle stopped and leaned against a wall for support, covering her face in her hands.

Lily knew how she felt…in small part, anyway. She couldn't imagine a _year_ of being separated from James…she was having a hard enough time with a _month_…and to think that Laurelle's husband might be in danger of dying….

Lily shuddered mentally.

If James ever died…

She'd already lost most of her family…and James was…was…

_I'm not going to think about that_, she decided. _I _can't_ think about that. If I start thinking about James like that, then that means I…I…_

_Well, I just can't feel about him that way. If I don't feel about him that way, then…it won't hurt as much if I have to lose him._

Lily got the very distinct impression, before Laurelle's world swirled away again, that she was full of shit.

* * *

_James-_

_So looking forward to our next meeting._

_I must remind you, however, that you forbid me only to never show that poem to Lily, and said nothing about showing it to Melody, so by rights you should not be allowed to turn me into a chamber pot, not even a very nice shiny black one with gold filigree laid into it. (I imagine if I were ever a chamber pot, this is the kind of chamber pot I'd like to be. Not that I'd actually like being a chamber pot, mind you…but so long as no one ever actually USED it…)_

_-The Poet Moony_

* * *

Lily's dreams persisted. Her nightmares varied from night to night, some worse than others, but the Not-Dreams, which she was starting to think of as the Necklace Dreams, remained constant. 

Lily surfaced in Laurelle's world with her hands working feverishly. Laurelle snatched things off of her dresser—a comb, a small silver mirror, a handful of candles, and a box of matches—and shoved them hastily into a small brown bag. She hurried across the room and drew out a few things from her closet, shoving those in the bag as well.

She dropped to the floor and crawled under her bed, searching for something. Dust bunnies swirled across the wooden floor, and Laurelle's eyes watered viciously. Lily could barely see the small wood box by the time Laurelle's hands found it, but Laurelle knew what she was doing, and dragged it out from under her bed efficiently. Lily briefly glanced an ornate letter "G" carved into the lid of the box before Laurelle opened it and began digging through its contents hastily.

Lily glanced a few interesting-looking jewels, a piece of unimpressive-looking rope, several broken watches and some dried-out tea leaves before Laurelle's hands closed around the object she was seeking. _A compass? _Lily wondered, getting only a brief look at the spinning silver needle before Laurelle shoved that into her bag as well. Laurelle shoved the box back under her bed, and Lily wondered at the rest of its contents.

"Laurelle, what are you doing?"

Laurelle jerked and looked up, her heart racing. "Oh, God," she said, placing a hand over her chest, her heartbeat slowing. "It's just you. I thought it might've been…someone else."

Charlotte Gryffindor pursed her lips and looked down at Laurelle disapprovingly. "Well, if you don't change and get back into bed you're going to _wish _I were someone else."

Laurelle paled slightly, climbing to her feet. "Charlotte—please—you can't—"

"I know he's your husband, Laurelle, but don't forget that he's my brother as well, and if I thought there was any way to save him I'd be going with you."

"How can you say that?" Laurelle whispered, shaking her head. "How can you just condemn your brother to death, when maybe there's something we can do to help him—if we could just find him, we—"

"Oh, Laurelle, _listen to yourself_! You sound like a madwoman! What could we possibly do to save Patrick? _What_?"

"I don't know! _Something_!" Laurelle shrieked, tears brimming in her eyes.

"How do you even intend to find him?" Charlotte demanded, setting her candle down and staring at her sister-in-law. "What makes you think you even _could_ find him?

Laurelle clutched her necklace instinctively and shook her head. "I don't know—I—I just _know_ that if I go out and try to find him right now I'll be able to—somehow—"

Suddenly Lily was aware of a dull tugging in her abdomen. The necklace felt soft and warm and reassuring beneath her hand, and she found herself agreeing with Laurelle. _They could find Patrick. If Charlotte would just let them leave, it would be all right_.

"Come with me," Laurelle said suddenly, impulsively. "I _know_ we could find him together, I just _know_ it—"

"And who will look after the house? Who will look after your son?" Charlotte wanted to know. "Laurelle, stop and think for a moment. You're being ridiculous."

"I don't care," Laurelle replied stubbornly, staring at the ground.

"And what about Jonathan?" Charlotte prompted. "He went looking, didn't he? For all you know he's on his way back to England _right now_—with Patrick, and—"

"He's _not,_" Laurelle said fiercely, clutching the necklace. "He's in _trouble,_ Charlotte—they're both in trouble—_we have to help them—_"

"Stop it!" Charlotte yelled. "Just—just _stop it_!"

But she didn't sound so convinced anymore. Laurelle looked up to see two shiny streams of tears running down her sister-in-law's face.

"You're worried about him too, aren't you?" Laurelle said softly. "You don't think Jonathan is coming back, do you?"

Charlotte sniffed, loudly, and shook her head. Laurelle wrapped her into a hug, and Charlotte wiped her tears away on the sleeve of her night gown.

"Get ready," she said quietly, pulling away. She picked up her candle and held her hand in front of the flame protectively. "I'll be coming back."

Laurelle nodded and picked up her bag, clutching it hopefully. "Pack something for yourself. I've got—candles, and—my looking glass. If you've got yours, bring it with you."

Charlotte nodded. "Go get some food from the house-elves. I'll meet you in the kitchens."

"All right," Laurelle agreed. "And Charlotte?" she called, as her sister-in-law turned to leave. Charlotte looked back at her, her large brown eyes shining in the candlelight.

"Yes?"

"Thank you," Laurelle whispered, and Charlotte's eyes shimmered more intensely, this time with tears.

"You're welcome," she whispered back, and left.

* * *

_Peter-_

_I hope this letter finds you well._

_Hit Moony over the head for me, would you?_

_-James_

* * *

"OW!" Remus said, rubbing the back of his head. He turned to see Peter Pettigrew standing behind him, looking rather nervous. "What'd you do that for?" 

"James told me to," Peter said, holding out the letter.

Remus grabbed it and scanned it before groaning and shoving it back at Peter. "I don't think he actually _meant_ it, Wormtail."

"Well—I—I know that, but you can't ever really be sure with James, and—"

"Never mind," Remus sighed. "Come sit down and we can work through the Dark Arts homework if you like."

Peter looked immensely relieved. "So—so you're not mad about me hitting you?" he asked, plopping down in the chair across from Remus's. The boys were in MHQ, sitting on either side of a newly instated chess table. Neither James nor Sirius were particularly fond of chess, but it turned out Remus and Peter both enjoyed it, which was surprising, as Remus had never considered Peter much of a chess player. The board was empty at the moment, so Peter emptied the contents of his book bag onto it.

"I think I'll live," Remus assured him. "And you might not want to put so many books onto the chess board. It's not that sturdy."

"Oh—right," Peter agreed, and shoved some of his books onto the floor.

Peter and Remus didn't get far in the Dark Arts homework, however, before the entrance to MHQ slid open and Melody and Mimi entered, their heads bent over a notebook. Melody glanced up and halted abruptly, groaning.

"Oh, _drat_," she said, and Mimi glanced up from the notebook as well.

"Oh, poo," Mimi agreed, frowning at the boys. "What are you two doing here?"

"Homework," Remus replied. "Care to join us?"

Mimi wrinkled up her nose. "No, not particularly."

"Can't you do your homework in the library?" Melody asked.

"I dunno, why?" Remus asked.

"We need to use MHQ," Melody informed him.

"So use MHQ," Remus said, gesturing to the area of the room he and Peter were not occupying.

"_Alone_," Mimi stressed.

Remus sighed. "Now, girls," he began, in a patronizing tone, and the girls exchanged glances, "I don't want to cause you undue grief, but the _M _in MHQ doesn't stand for Mimi _or_ Melody, and as much as I'd like to turn my private headquarters over to you, it doesn't fit with Marauder guidelines, and I'm afraid you're going to have to learn how to share your space like good little children, or I will be forced to hex you."

Melody whipped out her wand. "Care to run that by me again, Moony?"

"Moony?" Mimi asked curiously, and pink spots appeared in Melody's cheeks.

"Nice job there, Melody," Remus said, grinning. Melody glared at him.

"Just a nickname," she said quickly. "Not important."

Mimi glanced back and forth between Melody and Remus curiously, but she didn't say anything.

"Anyway," Remus continued, clearing his throat. "We're not going to leave. If you want to do something in MHQ, you can do it with us here."

"But it's supposed to be a _surprise_," Mimi whined.

"For who? Me or Peter?" Remus wanted to know. "Say it's me, Peter's not that important."

He ignored Peter's indignant cries of protest.

"Neither," Melody said, and stared at Peter until he shut up. "It's for Sirius. Now shoo so we can work on it."

Remus thought about this for a moment. "Melody, that doesn't make any sense. Sirius is in—in—_Tibet_ for all we know. D'you really think we're going to get a chance to tell him about it?"

"That's not the point."

"What _is_ the point?"

"Complete and total confidentiality, that's what," Melody snapped. "Now leave or suffer the consequences," she threatened, lifting her wand again.

"What're you going to do, turn us into donkeys?" Remus asked dryly. "In case you've forgotten, Professor Dumbledore forbid that, and if you do—"

"_Please_, Remus. I think I've learned better things to do with my magic than turn people into donkeys."

"Such as…?"

"Well, for example, I can now quite successfully turn people into newts. Care to see a demonstration?"

"Not on myself, thanks."

"How about on Peter?" Melody suggested, flicking her wand in his direction. Peter squeaked.

"That's n—not fair!" he protested. "I haven't said _anything_!"

"He has a point," Mimi admitted.

"Oh, come now, Peter, don't tell me you wouldn't like to experience life as a newt!" Remus said encouragingly. "Just imagine—scurrying around on the floor, your tail swinging behind you, searching about for the nearest water source…it'd be a blast!"

"If I wanted to scurry around on the floor, I could just turn into a r—"

"I DON'T THINK WE NEED A DEMONSTRATION, THANKS," Remus said loudly, muddling Peter's last word. Melody glanced over at Mimi quickly before turning her attentions back to Remus, trying to look confused.

Mimi glanced around the room, utterly confused, as Remus, Peter, and Melody tried to pretend like they didn't know what word Peter had been about to say.

"Well," Mimi said finally, "I don't think you're being fair about this, Remus. After all, it's not as though there's any _other_ place we could go to work on this in private."

"What's wrong with a deserted classroom?"

"Any idiot first year can break into a deserted classroom. We need _security_."

"Security for _what_?"

Mimi and Melody traded a glance. "Well…maybe it's not _that_ secret," Mimi conceded. "But we would like to work on it alone," she said, looking at Remus with big, hopeful eyes.

"_It_ being…?" Remus tried hopefully, trying to ignore Mimi's puppy-dog look.

"_It_ being something we don't intend to tell you about right now, and if you keep annoying us we may just…" Mimi trailed off.

"Throw ourselves into an absolute fit and start shooting hexes everywhere, and then we'll end up fighting with each other again and you'll have to hear about it for the next three weeks before we finally make up," Melody finished. "And you don't want that again, do you Remus?"

Remus stared at Mimi's puppy-dog eyes for a long moment before sighing, and Melody grinned as she saw him caving in. "I'm going to ignore for a moment how illogical that statement was, gather up my books, and run for the hills," Remus informed them, trying to pretend it was Melody's threat and not Mimi's eyes that convinced him to leave. "Now play nice, kiddies—don't do anything mean to MHQ—no more duels—"

"Are you serious? We're really leaving?" Peter said, staring at Remus as he gathered up his things.

"You bet we are, Peter!" Remus said. "Don't want to get in the middle of one of their fights again—no, we sure don't—"

Peter blinked and stared at him for a moment before snapping into action and shoving all of his books back into his bag hastily.

"Have a lovely time, ladies," Remus said, pausing on his way out of the room to look at Mimi for a moment. She'd dropped her puppy-dog gaze and was now smiling at him flirtatiously.

"Thanks, Remus," she said, a slight flush appearing in her cheeks. "We'll leave MHQ good as new, I promise."

Remus winked and then waved at them as he dashed out.

"Hey—Remus—wait for me!" Peter called, still trying to shove some of his books into his bag as he hurried after Remus. He didn't seem to notice that several pieces of parchment fell out of his bag as he went.

* * *

As soon as the boys were out of the room, Melody shoved Mimi playfully in the shoulder. "You little flirt!" she said, grinning, and Mimi giggled, her cheeks turning pink. 

"Well, we needed MHQ…."

"Hey, I'm not complaining, I just—ooh, what's that?" Melody exclaimed, spotting the pieces of parchment Peter dropped on his way out.

"It just looks like some blank parchment, Melody," Mimi sighed.

"Yes, but with the Marauders anything's possible," Melody reasoned, shuffling through the papers. "And besides, not all of it's blank…see, here, _Practical Dark Arts for the Average Wizard_ essay—pff, well that's useless," she muttered, tossing it over her shoulder. "Letter from James…ha!" she laughed, shoving it in Mimi's direction. Mimi read it and rolled her eyes.

"Come on, Melody, we need to get started."

"What for?" Melody asked, scrutinizing the blank bit of parchment.

"Well, we kicked the boys out of MHQ so we could use it, didn't we? Not so we could go through Peter's stuff."

"Yeah, and your point is…?"

"Well…we could go through Peter's stuff in the _library_ or something, it's a waste of time to be doing it here."

"Oh, Mimi, would you _relax_?" Melody sighed, lifting her gaze from the parchment.

Mimi pouted for a moment. "I'm sorry, it's just…I think we should use MHQ for what we came here to use it for. Who cares about Peter's parchment?"

"I do," Melody replied, flipping the parchment over and scrutinizing it. "Besides, you don't _really_ care if we get started on Sirius's thing right now, you just feel bad about batting your eyes at Remus to make him leave."

Mimi's cheeks flushed a bit. "Well—I—you know, it's not _just _that, and—"

Melody waved her hand dismissively, not looking up from the parchment. "I don't really care. We got MHQ like we wanted, and besides—" she cut herself off, turning the parchment over again and running her fingers across it excitedly. "Besides, I think this might be it!"

Mimi blinked, confused, as Melody dashed over to the table and placed the piece of parchment on it. "You think this might be _what_?" Mimi asked, following Melody over to the table.

"_It_! This piece of parchment. I think this might be what the Marauders have been working on."

"The Marauders have been working on something?" Mimi asked curiously, leaning over to see the parchment better.

"It's the Marauders. They're _always_ working on something."

"Good point."

"Okay, so…I don't _think_ there are any hexes on it…" Melody muttered, tapping the parchment several times with her wand. _Acclaro_, she thought, touching it hesitantly. Nothing happened, and Melody sighed in relief. "Nope, looks like it's all right…hm…" she stood over the parchment for a moment, considering. "_Ostento_."

Lines of ink curled out over the page to form words, and Melody grinned viciously.

"What is it?" Mimi asked, cocking her head to try and read it, as apparently Melody had placed it on the table upside-down.

"Well, let's see," Melody said, snatching it up. "Maybe it's a new prank they're going to try—or—a list of passwords to some secret passageways…or…" she trailed off, frowning in confusion as she read. "Or a very weird sort of love letter to Peter from a Hufflepuff girl named Sophie Fullcox." Melody's eyebrows furrowed so closely together they were almost touching, and she stared at Mimi for a moment before returning her gaze to the parchment. "Oh—oh—bullocks!" she cried, chucking the parchment across the table and throwing herself into a chair.

Mimi walked around the table and picked the parchment up, scanning it briefly. "Wonder why Peter would bother making it invisible?"

"Maybe he didn't," Melody said, fuming. "Maybe _she_ did, and he's just too daft to figure out how to reveal it."

Mimi raised her eyebrows at Melody. "I know he's a bit of a—well, an airhead—but he _is_ a Seventh Year. I think he knows how to uncover invisible writing by now."

Melody shrugged but didn't say anything.

"Oh, come now Melody, don't be so put-out. We still have Sirius's surprise to work on."

Melody shrugged again, but a small smile appeared in the corner of her mouth.

"Just imagine the look on Remus's face when he sees what we kicked him out of MHQ for," Mimi said, grinning viciously.

Melody snorted and smiled. "D'you think he'll be mad?"

"Nah," Mimi said, shaking her head. "He'll be furious."

* * *

Lily fell into the Not-Dream for the fourth night in a row. 

_I enter in the oddest places_, Lily grumbled to herself as Laurelle pushed aside the leaves of a large bush and glanced around, looking at what appeared to be a large military camp.

_This is a horrible hiding place, _Lily thought disdainfully. _We are SO going to get caught_.

"What do you see?" came a faint whisper from her right, and Laurelle's eyes shifted over slightly to take in the form of her half-sister, crouching in the bush beside her.

"Looks mostly deserted," Laurelle replied, scanning the campsite again. "Campfires are still smoking…like they've just been extinguished…."

"You think now's a good time to go in?"

Lily felt a strong lurch in her stomach, and Laurelle clutched her necklace instinctively. "As good a time as any," she said, shrugging helplessly. "I'm not really sure."

"Well…we might as well go then," Charlotte said, after a moment's hesitation. She gripped her wand tightly. "Some kind of…Illusionment Charm, d'you think?"

Laurelle shook her head slowly. "No. They might have Charm Detectors set up. I think we'd better just go in."

"All right," Charlotte agreed, a bit reluctantly, slipping her wand back into her pocket. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Me too," Laurelle replied, rubbing her thumb over the necklace one more time before letting it drop and shoving her way out of the bush.

The girls crept around camp quietly, but after a few minutes it became clear that no one was around to hear them. They relaxed, slightly, and Laurelle followed the insistent tugging in her stomach through the camp to a very small, unimpressive looking tent in the middle. The tugging feeling now was almost unbearable.

"You think they're in there?" Charlotte whispered, glancing around suspiciously.

"I don't know. Let's find out," Laurelle said, pushing open the tent flap and practically stumbling inside as her stomach gave one last, mighty tug.

The sensation stopped as soon as the flap closed behind her, and Laurelle's eyes fell almost immediately on the two bound and gagged figures on the other side of the tent. The tent was far roomier than she'd anticipated, and it took a fair few steps to cross the distance between herself and her husband, but to Laurelle it felt like no time at all.

She fell to her knees, crying, hands shaking, and slowly, clumsily, untied his gag—his blindfold—his hands—

"_Laurelle_," Patrick croaked, once he could see, and once his arms were free he wrapped them around her tightly.

Laurelle didn't quite know what to do with herself. Her hands quivered as she ran them through his hair, across his back, down his arms—around every part of him she could touch with his arms still wrapped around her, like she was trying to make sure he was actually real—that she wasn't just dreaming it again—

Lily felt like an unwelcome intruder as Laurelle buried her face into her husband's neck, drinking in his scent, and then began kissing him madly, all over his neck—his face—until finally he sealed his mouth onto hers, and she relaxed into his arms happily.

_I shouldn't be doing this,_ Lily thought, feeling flustered, but Laurelle paid her no attention. It felt so _weird_, having her eyes closed—her mouth locked onto another man's—a man who obviously _wasn't_ James—and to be kissing him with a mouth that obviously wasn't _hers_, either—a mouth far more experienced than her own, hungering for things that Lily had never—well, things that she'd only ever wondered at, and never actually _felt_—

Lily wished she could blush. She wished she could pull out of Laurelle's body…or that at least she knew what Laurelle was _thinking_—what was going _on_—where they _were_—

Patrick pulled away, and Laurelle looked at him in disappointment. He stared at her face, looking mesmerized, before shaking his head and glancing around the tent frantically.

"How did you get here? Why weren't you found? Laurelle, you shouldn't have come."

Laurelle's lip trembled dangerously. "I _had _to come—Patrick, everyone thinks you've been killed—and I knew—I _knew_ you hadn't been, I had to see you, I had to find you…to save you…."

Patrick cursed under his breath. "Laurelle, leave. _Now_."

"Just let me finish untying you and then we—"

"No, just you. _Leave_."

"But—Charlotte and I—"

"_Charlotte_?" Patrick said, eyes flashing. "You brought my sister with you? Damn it, Laurelle—"

"Don't curse at her," Charlotte said fiercely, and Patrick turned around to look at her. His shoulder moved out of Laurelle's view, and Lily could now see Charlotte and Jonathan sitting on the floor, holding each other. "You have no idea what we went through to find you."

"It was a mistake, coming here," Patrick said, shaking his head. "_Please_—both of you—leave now, while you can."

"We came here to save you," Charlotte said fiercely, "and we're not leaving without you. _Both _of you."

"Patrick," Jonathan said finally, "let's just go. The camp's been deserted—we have a chance—"

"Shut up, you fool!" Patrick growled. "If you care about her at all you'll make her tie you back up and leave without you."

"Patrick—please, I don't understand," Laurelle said, tears stinging her eyes.

"There's no time to explain," Patrick said hoarsely, his gaze softening. "And it'll be safer for you if you don't know anything." He gathered her face into his hands. "I love you," he said, with a tone of finality, and Laurelle shook her head, blubbering intensely.

"Patrick—_no_—I'm not leaving without you!"

"You're running out of time. _Please_—I couldn't bear it if they killed you, too—"

"But they haven't killed _you_, Patrick, I don't understand—please—please tell me—"

"You're wasting time! Tie me back up!"

"Do it, Ellie, or I will," Charlotte said softly, crouching beside her sister-in-law. Laurelle looked over at Jonathan to discover that he'd been tied up again, and she stared at Charlotte in shock. "You should know enough to listen to Patrick when he's being serious," she reasoned, and seized her brother's hands and bound them swiftly.

Laurelle sobbed as Charlotte bound her husband, unable to see the tears running down Charlotte's own cheeks. She wrapped her arms around Patrick once he was fully bound, blindfolded, and gagged, and he buried his face in her neck, his breath catching unevenly. "I love you," she whispered into his ear before she and Charlotte lowered him gently to the ground.

"Come on," Charlotte said, grasping Laurelle's hand. "We'll find out what they're talking about…and then come back to save them."

The girls heard muffled cries of protest from both the men lying on the ground, and Charlotte shook her head at them, although they couldn't see it. "What, d'you expect us to go home and pretend like you're _dead_?" she hissed, and then pulled Laurelle out of the tent angrily. "Stupid asses," she muttered, hurrying through the campsite with her sister-in-law in tow.

Despite all of Patrick and Jonathan's efforts to make the girls leave quickly, however, it appeared quickness wasn't enough. For the girls had no way of seeing the two invisible men laying in wait for them in the bushes, and so neither woman was prepared for the violent blow that was delivered to her head just before she fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

"Siegfried, you are positively useless." 

Siegfried pouted at Bellatrix and crossed his arms. "I _told_ you I wasn't any good at research."

"You're not even _trying_," Bellatrix snapped, dropping a heavy, leather-bound volume onto the table. "Is it so hard to look through the index for the name _Delany_?"

"Well…no, but…some of these books don't have _anything_, and others of them have dozens of pages…d'you really expect me to look through _all_ of them?"

"_Yes_, Siegfried," Bellatrix said, exasperated. "I gave you an Insta-Copy Quill…it's not as though you actually have to do a lot of _work_…just open it to the right page and the quill will do all the work for you. _Honestly_."

Siegfried sighed and reluctantly opened another book. "Delbit…Delbine…"

"You've gone too far. Delany's earlier in the alphabet."

He narrowed his eyes and flipped backward a page. "Dabbott…Dabinge…"

"Too far back. Find the 'e's again."

"_You _do it!" Siegfried cried in frustration, shoving the book at her.

"Are you _that_ slow a reader? Honestly, Siegfried, how _did_ you make it through school?"

"I seem to remember having a lot of help from you," he shot back, and Bellatrix frowned, thinking maybe she'd coddled him too much on their way through Durmstrang…despite him being a year older. _He is such a baby sometimes, _she thought to herself, skimming the index for _Delany_. "There it is!" she said triumphantly. "Several of them, actually…Delany, Evan…Delany, Kruger…Delany, Livana…Delany, Steven…look those up," she said, shoving the book back at Siegfried.

He muttered something under his breath but flipped to each of the appropriate pages in turn, allowing his Quill to do all the work and not paying any attention to the text it copied down.

"Well?" Bellatrix prompted when he'd finished. "Anything?"

Siegfried shrugged. "I dunno, I didn't read it."

"You really _are_ useless," she snarled, snatching up his papers and reading through them quickly. Evan and Kruger were useless, but when she got to Livana her eyes widened interestedly.

"What?" Siegfried asked. "Find something?"

"Shush so I can read," Bellatrix snapped.

_DELANY, Livana._

_Livana Piermont Delany (1856-1882) is best known for her work on lycanthropy. Her interest in this field stemmed from her own experiences as a werewolf, an affliction from which she suffered since childhood. Her experiments focused primarily on methods of reversing or subduing the effects of her monthly transformations, but progress in this area was cut short by her untimely death. _

_Her research spanned many other fields, including alchemy, dark arts defense, ancient magic, and a particularly in-depth set of reports on enchanted necklaces, but little of this research is considered credible. The distrust of werewolves in wizarding society hurt her reputation as a scientist and historian during her lifetime, and the stigma continues posthumously. _

"Sodding hell…Siegfried, read this!" Bellatrix cried, shoving the paper at him. Siegfried scanned it and raised his eyebrows at her, looking up.

"So?"

"So we have to track down those papers on enchanted necklaces, that's what!"

"And how do we do that?"

"Hell if I know," Bellatrix grinned, too excited to care. "But we _found_ something."

Siegfried tried to feel excited about this, but it didn't work. "Great. Can we get supper now?"

Bellatrix sighed and grabbed the parchment from Siegfried, shoving it into her pocket hastily. "If we must," she agreed, reluctantly abandoning her books. "But tomorrow, we're going to track down those papers, and then we'll know what Lucifer was talking about."

"Of course, dear," Siegfried agreed, kissing her absently on the forehead.

Bellatrix sighed, but followed Siegfried out of the library obediently. _Well…at least _one_ of us cares…._

* * *

Lily's fifth necklace dream was unlike the others. The world materialized around her slowly, as Laurelle fought her way back to consciousness, and vision was the last thing to arrive. 

She felt the tingling in her fingers first. Her head throbbed, and she felt like every part of her body had fallen asleep and was now beginning to tingle awake. The ache swept through her system so ferociously that she almost missed the _smell_ in the room. It smelled like dirt, filth, and ale, and filled Lily's nose so violently it made her eyes water. She thought she might vomit.

She didn't, however, and slowly registered, besides the tingling and the nausea, that there were other people in the room, speaking.

"_Auf wie lang, bis sie wecken_?"

"_Ich weiß nicht_. _Vielleicht sollen Sie sie treten, und sie werden schneller aufwachen_."

"Ha ha! _Vielleicht, wenn sie zu lang ich werde nehmen._"

"_Wie lang ist zu lang? Drei Stunden sind an schon vorbeigegangen._"

"_Bis ich an Karten verliere_."

_Yeah…too bad I don't speak German…_ Lily thought grumpily as the other voice laughed now.

Laurelle's eyes opened slowly, groggily, to focus on two men in military uniform sitting at a table playing cards. Her view was sideways, however, because she was lying on the floor, bound by the hands and feet.

_I wonder why not my eyes and mouth also_, Lily thought vaguely, and then one of the men noticed she was awake.

"Ah! _Sie erweckt_."

"S_chließlich,_" the other man said, setting down his cards. "Are you slept well?" he asked, his accent thick, and Laurelle frowned at him.

"I wouldn't call it _slept_," she said groggily. "Not when someone hits me over the head and knocks me out."

He looked slightly puzzled for a moment, and then grinned at her. "I am sorry. Commands are…no changing?" he said, questioningly.

"That's good enough," Laurelle said, struggling to sit up as the first man untied her feet.

The guard looked slightly more confused, but then shrugged. Apparently learning proper English was not high on his list of concerns.

Laurelle noted that her hands were still bound, and sighed. She looked over at Charlotte, who was still lying on the ground. She watched as her sister-in-law stirred, and then her eyes fluttered open, too, and her feet were untied as well. She pushed herself upright and looked at Laurelle with disappointment and alarm in her eyes.

_What's going on?_ she mouthed, and Laurelle just shrugged helplessly.

"You wait here," the man with the thick accent said, leaving the tent, and the other guard remained to watch them.

"Do you…speak English?" Laurelle asked, and he glared at her. "Guess not."

"Maybe he does, he just doesn't want to talk to us," Charlotte suggested.

"Or he's not allowed to," Laurelle reasoned.

"_Schweigen_!" the guard barked, and the girls stopped talking. He smiled and sat back in his chair, looking satisfied.

Laurelle and Charlotte stared at each other intensely, and Lily wondered if they were Legilimens. _Damn it, WHY can't I tell what Laurelle's thinking?_

Another man entered the tent then, and Charlotte and Laurelle snapped their gazes away from each other.

He was clearly higher up in the army than the men who'd been left to guard them. His coat was adorned with more shiny badges than Lily could count, and he had a very commanding smirk and swagger. His thick dark hair was brushed across the top of his head neatly, not so much as a spare strand falling across his forehead. His eyebrows were thin and flat, lying in a very orderly, boring manner across the top of his brown, steady eyes. A small, neat mustache adorned the skin above his lip. Even the muscles in his jaw were straight and even. _Did God draw out his face with a ruler?_ Lily wondered, somewhat inappropriately.

"Ah, there you are," he said, directing his attention to Charlotte and Laurelle. He had an accent as well, but it was much lighter than the guard's, and his English was very clear. "Awake at last?"

Charlotte and Laurelle exchanged a glance but didn't speak.

"I would have provided more comfortable quarters, but…it is war, you know…"

"Notagainst England," Charlotte spat."Let us go."

"Theenemy has many spies."

"And all of them are female English nobility, are they?" Charlotte asked, raising her eyebrows.

He laughed. "You're a cheeky little thing, aren't you?"

Charlotte just glared at him.

"I seem to have forgotten my manners. I am General Klaus Reidenbach," he said, bowing mockingly at the two women on the floor. "And you are…?"

Charlotte struggled to her feet, her balance thrown off by the pair of hands bound behind her back. She drew herself as best she could and gave the General her fiercest look. "_I _am Lady Charlotte Gryffindor, and I demand a chair."

The General laughed. "Pleased to make your acquaintance." He turned and barked something at the guards, and they scrambled to get Charlotte a chair, which she settled herself into with dignity. Laurelle stood also, and the General looked at her expectantly.

"Laurelle Gryffindor."

"Ah, the lovely Lady Gryffindor's sister-in-law!" the General cried happily, and snapped something at the guards, who brought Laurelle her own chair. Laurelle's eyes narrowed and she sat, looking at the General suspiciously.

"Well it's clear that our formalities were wasted on you, since you seem to know exactly who we are," Charlotte snapped. "Now kindly take a seat and explain yourself."

"No, I don't think I'll care to take a seat," the General replied, looking a bit less amused. "You see I'm quite anxious, now that I've got what I've been looking for." He stared quite pointedly at Laurelle, his gaze slipping to her neck. Laurelle's heartbeat picked up.

"And what is that, General?" Laurelle asked calmly.

"That magnificent piece of jewelry around your neck," the General replied, grinning crookedly. He snapped his finger and pointed at Laurelle, and his guards moved toward her. "A painless procedure, I assure you."

"What do you want it for?" she demanded, looking at the guards in alarm.

The General laughed. "Dear girl—don't tell me you don't know?"

"Know what?" she asked desperately, as the guards fiddled with the necklace. Lily knew what they were looking for. _The clasp,_ she thought. _But…there is no clasp._ At least on Lily's necklace, there wasn't. Would Laurelle's be the same? It was the same piece of jewelry, after all—of that much, Lily was certain.

The General dissolved into laughter. The guards pulled and tugged at Laurelle's necklace, but the chain refused to break. The General stopped laughing and frowned at Laurelle.

"Try slipping it over her head," he suggested. "_Über ihren Kopf, Dummköpfe!_"

The necklace shrunk instantly. The guards tried to lift it, but it got caught under her chin. The more they tugged the smaller it got, until Laurelle was gasping for breath.

"You're not trying hard enough!" the General growled, shoving his guards away and attempting to remove the necklace himself. It wouldn't budge for him, either. He pulled out a wand and began firing spells at it. The necklace tingled softly as it absorbed the General's magic, and he eventually threw down his wand, infuriated.

"Fine—then I'll break it off with my bare hands!" he said, and tried tugging it again. It just caught against Laurelle's neck, rubbing her skin unpleasantly, and refused to be removed.

"Stop it!" Charlotte said finally. "It's not going to come off."

The General barked a stream of German at his guards, and they hurried to gag Charlotte.

Laurelle winced as the General gave a particularly vicious tug, and watched helplessly as the guards tossed her sister-in-law to the ground.

Hands shaking from effort, the General tried breaking the chain apart, and the necklace decided it had had enough.

The slinky gold chain suddenly contracted, pinning the General's hands against Laurelle's neck, and its surface suddenly became razor-sharp. The General howled in pain as Laurelle's necklace cut through his skin, contracting slowly to grind through the bones in his fingers.

The guards scrambled to help their General, and tugged at his hands, trying to pull them away from Laurelle's neck.

Laurelle gasped as they jerked the necklace and it cut into her own skin, creating a perfect ring of blood around her neck.

Charlotte screamed behind her gag and watched in horror as the General's fingers were severed off, and all three men fell to the ground from the sudden release.

Blood gushed from Laurelle's neck where the necklace cut into a vein, and she shuddered in agony, tears spilling involuntarily from her eyes.

The guards took in the scene in front of them in horror and dashed from the tent.

The General writhed on the floor, his face ruddy from screaming, six severed fingers lying near his quaking feet.

Charlotte writhed against her bindings, trying to free her hands so she could aid her sister-in law.

Blood pooled around Laurelle's neck, trickling down her chest and back in uneven spurts, except where the opened vein throbbed, dumping out spurts of the vital fluid at regular intervals.

Lily felt dizzy already. Laurelle's head tipped forward, and her eyes fluttered weakly.

A muffled cry of protest came from the floor where Charlotte was still trying to work her way out of her bandages.

But Laurelle couldn't do anything…darkness was coming for her…her eyes fluttered closed and then…

Lily's world went dark.

* * *

Lily, by some miracle, got back to the campfire first the day after she had her strangling dream. Normally Sirius was the first one back, and Lily one of the last, but today she was more focused than usual. She thought maybe this was because she was trying very hard to forget last night's dream, but a part of her liked to think that maybe she was just getting better at all of this. 

She waited impatiently for Sirius, sure he'd be the second one to get back. She was not disappointed. As soon as she heard footsteps coming from behind her, she jumped up and turned around. Sirius looked rather surprised to see her.

"Lily! Good job today, then, eh?" he grinned.

"Sirius, I need to talk to you," Lily said quickly, and her face must have looked awfully pale, because Sirius's expression changed swiftly into one of deep concern.

"What's wrong?"

"You know those dreams I've been having? The nightmares?"

"Yeah."

"Well, those aren't the only dreams I've been having."

Sirius frowned. "What other dreams are you having? Are they bad?"

Lily shook her head. "No. Well…not until last night anyway." The dream flashed into her mind, and she clutched her neck instinctively, squeezing her eyes shut as though this would help her squeeze the images out of her head.

"Lily, maybe we should sit down," Sirius said gently, removing Lily's hands from her neck. She opened her eyes and nodded, sitting down slowly on one of the logs positioned around the fire. "So?" Sirius prompted when she didn't speak. "Your dreams?"

"I've been having dreams about my necklace," Lily said, picking it up and fiddling with it. She looked down at the chain in her hands, then thought about what it could do and shuddered. She let the pendant fall back against her chest. "I didn't know they were about my necklace until recently…and even then…until last night…."

"Lily, I don't mean to rush you, but you'd better hurry if you're going to get it all out before Sally or Naomi get back.

Lily nodded and composed herself, then explained everything in a rush. "I've been having these dreams, off and on, for a couple months. They stopped when I was taking the Dreamless Sleep Potion, of course—but ever since I ran out of potion, I've had one every night. They're about this woman name Laurelle, who has this exact necklace. It's…she lived a long time ago, a hundred years ago, maybe two hundred…I'm not really sure...and she's married to one of the Gryffindors."

Sirius's eyes widened considerably.

"Patrick Gryffindor, actually, but I don't know if that means anything to you. And…something happened to Patrick, he was captured by the German army…Laurelle and Charlotte—"

"Who's Charlotte?"

"Oh. Sorry. Patrick's sister. Charlotte Gryffindor."

"All right…keep going."

"So Laurelle and Charlotte went to save Patrick—well, and Jonathan, but don't worry about him, I'm not really sure how he figures in—and they had to go to this German military camp or something…and they were captured, too, and this General—Klaus something—came in and ordered two of his men to take Laurelle's necklace…he wanted it, but I don't know why, and neither did Laurelle…but…the thing is, it wouldn't come off, there wasn't any clasp, the chain wouldn't break, if they tried to take it off over her head it would shrink, and then they tugged at like mad and…and it got all sharp and started contracting, it took off the general's fingers, and…it cut into Laurelle too, she started bleeding like crazy and—then I don't know, Sirius, I don't know—I think she died." Lily's eyes pooled with tears and Sirius blinked at her, dumbfounded.

"Lily…it was just a dream."

Lily burst into tears. "That's the thing, Sirius, it's _not_, it's not j—just a dream! I'm her! I'm Laurelle, in the dreams, I'm …well, except that I'm not, I…I'm in her body, but I'm not controlling it…I have to look where she looks and walk where she walks, but I can't hear what she's thinking, I can't say anything to anybody, I'm just kind of…stuck in her body, and I feel like…I'm seeing things as they actually happened, bit by bit, and I don't know…if it's the necklace that's making it happen, or…I don't know. I don't know anything."

Sirius patted her rather awkwardly on the back, and she sniffed and wiped away her tears.

"But…we've _got_ to figure out what's so special about my necklace, Sirius…we have to…I _wish_ we could ask that Frenchman from the night club what he wants it for…what its value is…what's so special about it…."

"What's so special about what?"

Sirius and Lily turned around to see Sally entering the campsite.

"Me, of course," Sirius replied cheekily, and Sally rolled her eyes.

"_Please_. The only thing special about you is the size of your ego."

"Nah, that's not special. That just comes with the 'y' chromosome," Lily joked, and Sally laughed. She grinned at Sirius, who feigned offense.

Inwardly, however, Lily sighed.

_Am I ever going to know what's going on with my stupid necklace?_

* * *

Lily didn't have any necklace dreams that night, which puzzled her considerably, and she spent much of the next day's hike wondering why. 

The Auror Training group practically collapsed around the fire that night, exhausted, but after filling up on water and sandwiches, they livened up a little.

Sirius spent several hours regaling the girls with tales of some of his favorite pranks, and they laughed so hard tears ran down their cheeks.

"Oh, come on, Sirius, one more," Naomi begged.

"I don't know if I can handle it," Lily moaned, clutching her side. "That one aboutthe dancing badgersalmost killed me."

"I think we can handle _one_ more," Sally said, and Sirius sighed thoughtfully.

"All right…let me think…" he said, stroking his chin theatrically. "Ah, I've got a good one." He straightened up, clearing his throat.

"I must set the scene for you ladies," he began. "Filch had just given James and I a particularly nasty set of detentions. Cleaning out the bathrooms, you see—without magic—and we were trying to think of a way to…repay him for his kindness. And good old Mrs. Norris, wouldn't you know it…she just happened to stroll by the library as we were brainstorming, and James had the brilliant idea that we should kidnap her."

"You _kidnapped _Mrs. Norris?" Naomi said appreciatively. "Why on earth would you give her _back_?"

"Oh, we had to eventually. She destroyed our dormitory. Anyway—"

He stopped and waited for the girls to stop giggling.

"But we decided just kidnapping her wouldn't be good enough. Oh no…we decided we'd give Filch back a new, improved version of Mrs. Norris.

"After about three hours of trying to tie bows, ribbons, and sparkly green pipe cleaners in her fur, however, we decided that it wasn't worth our time. Instead, we decided we'd to hold onto Mrs. Norris a bit longer and instead just…drive Filch crazy."

"Uh-oh," Naomi said. "That couldn't have ended pretty."

"Oh, it was brilliant," Sirius said, grinning at the memory. "But anyway—I haven't gotten to the best part yet. So we stashed Mrs. Norris away in our dormitory and strolled out of the common room like the innocent little blokes we were, and as we walked down the hallways we sort of…reconfigured things a bit."

The girls exchanged amused glances.

"Do we _want_ to know where this is going?" Lily ventured.

"I do," Sally grinned.

"Oh, it's brilliant, I assure you," Sirius said before continuing. "James and I have always been quite talented at Transfiguration, as you know…so we decided, why bother sprucing up the _real_ Mrs. Norris when we could practice on several dozen…_fake_ Mrs. Norrises?"

"Wait…are you saying you transfigured random things in the hallway to look like Mrs. Norris so you could dress Mrs. Norris up like a…whatever?"

Sirius grinned. "The first few didn't turn out so well, of course…it takes practice, you know…so we just Stupefied those and hung them up in various places as…decoration. Once we got the hang of it, however…Mrs. Norris really does look wonderful with a five-foot long tail and neon green fur."

The girls laughed appreciatively.

"I wish I'd been there to see the look on Filch's face!" Sally cried.

"I can't believe I didn't _notice_ that," Lily said, shaking her head.

"Well, this was around Christmas, you see, so you mightnot have been there...I thinkthere were about eight of her running around at one time—drove Filch absolutely up the wall. Then when we let the _real_ Mrs. Norris go free, he didn't quite know what to do with himself. You see…we'd left a couple of the duplicates normal-looking…so there were three cats running around that looked very much like Mrs. Norris, and he couldn't exactly tell which was which."

"How could _you_ tell which was which?" Naomi asked.

Sirius considered this for a moment. "Nah, we couldn't either."

"How many detentions did you get for _that_?" Lily asked.

"Eh…about a week and a half's worth. But oh, it was _worth _it."

"Glad to know you've spent your time at Hogwarts on such noble ventures," she said wryly.

Sirius just grinned. "You have no idea, Lily-bean. You have no idea."

* * *

Lily's dreams returned.

She surfaced that night in Laurelle's world with immense relief.

_So she didn't die,_ Lily thought to herself. _That's good_.

Unfortunately, the room Lily currently occupied was unfamiliar to her, so she could not immediately tell where she was or what was happening. She was sitting at a desk, surrounded by piles of books, her hand scribbling away on a piece of parchment. Her hands had scratches on them, and they were somewhat…thinner than Lily remembered.

_Maybe the blood loss_? Lily ventured. _That doesn't really make sense though…._

Lily got an uneasy feeling in her stomach. _This is…Laurelle's world…isn't it?_

Laurelle—or was it?--let out a long sigh and turned her gaze to the large grandfather clock standing beside her. Lily saw her reflection in the glass and thought she might keel over.

_It wasn't Laurelle_.

This girl had long brown hair, tired eyes, and a weary expression on her face…but a very familiar-looking gold chain hung around her neck.

* * *

James had a very long train ride home. He wondered why the Ministry was bothering with the train, when they'd taken a Portkey to their first Training location, but he didn't suppose there was anything he could do about it.

All in all he wasn't sorry training was over. The Ministry bit had been too boring for his tastes, and the entire time he wished he'd been out in the wilderness with Moody again. The first couple days had been all right, of course—the relative dullness of the Ministry was somewhat of a relief after all the hard work they'd done with Moody.

Still, though, he'd had far too much time to himself…far too much time to think…mostly about Lily….

His leg jiggled nervously, and he stared out the window impatiently.

_How many more hours to Hogwarts?_ he wondered, checking his wristwatch. They'd left London late the previous night and were due in Hogsmeade station by ten o'clock this morning.

_Only eight-thirty_, he thought glumly, _and there's nothing to do_.

Adam and Vivian were snogging again, almost certainly, and Frank was probably asleep in his compartment still, or James would have gone and bothered him for a game of Exploding Snap.

James thought of something, and dug in his bag for the little mirror he often used to communicate with Sirius when they were in separate detentions. It hadn't worked all week, but maybe today…maybe now that he was out of Ministry territory…

"Sirius," he said, looking into the mirror. The mirror fogged up for a moment, then became clear. James could see into…_something_…but it was very dark, and there appeared to be something fuzzy blocking his view.

_Must be seeing the inside of Sirius's bag_, he thought glumly, and tossed the mirror back into his own bag. _No point trying to talk to him now, if he's all packed. Must be getting on his way back to Hogwarts, too…wonder when the other training group's getting back…._

_Hope Lily's there before me, then I won't have to wait around to see her…_

James sighed and stared out of the train window again.

It was going to be a very long hour and a half.

* * *

Half the school turned out to greet the Auror Training Students. Professor Dumbledore posted a notice that some of the students who'd left for training would be appearing on the front lawn via a Portkey at nine o'clock in the morning, and the rest of the training students would be pulling into Hogsmeade station at ten. Mimi and Melody came down carrying their Very Secret Project for Sirius, and proudly unrolled it to display for the other students. 

Remus was one of the first to see it, and he just gaped at them for a moment.

"That's it? _That's_ your big surprise?" he demanded finally, staring at the "Welcome Back, Sirius!" sign in disbelief.

"Yep," Melody replied, beaming. "Isn't it _wonderful_?"

Remus blinked at her. "You mean to tell me that you and Mimi kicked me out of MHQ _three nights in a row_ so you could write 'Welcome Back, Sirius' on a banner in sparkly gold letters?"

"For your information," Melody said haughtily, placing one hand on her hip, "creating this poster required an enormous amount of skill, and we never would have gotten it done in time if you'd been around to distract us! …and by us, I mean Mimi."

Mimi glared at Melody but didn't say anything. Remus looked as though he wanted to chuck something at her.

"I ought to—to—wring your neck!" Remus sputtered. "You made it sound _so important_—made me and Peter study in the _library_, for goodness' sakes, and—and—"

"Quick, Mimi, bat your eyes at him again before he hexes us!"

Mimi considered hitting her, but decided it would be better to go along with her suggestion than start another fight, no matter how minimal.

"Oh, come on, Remus," Mimi said, twisting her hands together behind her back and looking up at him with big, innocent-looking eyes.

Remus tried and failed to ignore her gaze. He sighed deeply and shot a glare at Melody, who just shrugged and grinned, feeling very pleased with herself.

"You have to admit, Remus," Mimi said, attracting his attention away from Melody, "it'll sure shock the hell out of Sirius."

* * *

"They're going to skin me alive," Sirius said, gulping. 

"Don't be ridiculous," Lily said. "You're going to be fine. For all you know they've made up by now."

"Yeah right," Sally snorted, plopping her bags down next to Sirius's. "Doesn't sound like they're going to make up any time soon, if you ask me."

"Oh, you never know," Naomi reasoned. "They could've."

Last night the girls managed to extricate all of Sirius's Girl Drama from both Sirius and Lily, and were now intensely curious as to how Mimi and Melody would react to Sirius's returning to Hogwarts.

Sirius glanced around at the girls and then gulped again. "I'm gonna die," he concluded, to which Lily and Naomi groaned loudly.

"You're not going to _die_, no matter _what_ happens," Lily insisted, and Sirius looked at her doubtfully.

"And if they try to kill you…we can take care of them," Sally added, grinning, and Naomi, surprisingly, nodded in agreement.

Sirius smiled. "It's nice to know I have your backup, ladies."

"And it's time for you to get going," Moody growled. "Grab your bags and grab the Portkey…you have about ten seconds."

Sirius gripped his bag nervously and touched the Portkey, a charred log from one of their campfires (that had cooled a bit, obviously).

He closed his eyes and felt the familiar tugging sensation around his navel, before swirling away in a dizzy haze, and then—

Next thing he knew, there was cheering, and he opened his eyes to see that he was home, and an unexpectedly large crowd had turned out to greet them. He glanced around nervously to see if Mimi and Melody were there, and—

Froze in shock.

There they were, bloody both of them, holding a sign that said _Welcome Back, Sirius! _in sparkly gold letters. Mimi jumped up and down and waved at him, but Melody just stared, trying to smile, but looking as though she had many other things on her mind than smiling.

Sirius ignored Mimi's squeal as she ran across the lawn and attacked Lily, who was standing right next to him. He ignored Remus and Peter greeting him heartily, and further ignored the slap Remus gave him on his back. He ignored his fellow Marauders when they shrugged and turned to Lily to greet her, ignored the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team as they came over to say hello…in fact, he ignored everybody and everything else but Melody, who was still staring at him. She was still holding her half of the _Welcome Back, Sirius! _sign as well, even though Mimi had long abandoned her post on the other side and now half of it was laying on the ground pathetically, so that all he could see was _ack, Sirius!_, which, under the present circumstances, seemed slightly more appropriate.

Sirius moved finally, and walked over to her. She let the sign flutter out of her hands once he reached her and continued staring at him, though now her gaze was directed upward.

"Hi," she said softly, looking unsure.

"Hi," he said back. "I thought…you'd both be mad at me."

Melody shook her head. "I thought…maybe you'd be mad at me."

"What for?"

"Wrecking everything with Mimi."

"Oh. Well…yeah, there is that."

"But you're not, though?"

Sirius shook his head. "It was my fault, really."

"If I hadn't turned you down though—"

Sirius shook his head again. "Still my fault. I was being an ass."

"So was I."

"Yeah, but I was an ass longer."

Melody took this in and grinned. "Have you…talked to Mimi yet?"

Sirius shook his head. "I will in a minute." _Just as soon as I can stop staring at you_, he thought to himself.

Melody nodded. "I missed you," she said after a minute.

"I would've missed you…except I thought you might both be lying in wait to hex me when I got back."

Melody grinned again. "I guess things turned out better than you anticipated…eh?"

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, "a bit."

"I—" Melody began, then cut herself. "I _really_ missed you," she said, her words spilling out all at once, and, impulsively, she wrapped her arms around his waist.

Sirius returned her hug, an immense wave of relief passing through his system. He didn't realize how tense he'd been until all his muscles began to relax, and he dropped his head onto Melody's shoulder, burying his face in her hair.

"So Mimi's not going to skin me alive for hugging you?" he asked, his voice rather muffled.

Melody smiled. "Nah," she said. "I think she and Remus are…finally getting around to things."

"Oh, really?" Sirius said, pulling away so he could see Melody's face. She grinned up at him.

"Yeah. _But_—you still have to talk to Mimi. Just…make sure everything's _really_ all right…you know?"

Sirius nodded, his expression more somber. He leaned over and kissed Melody's forehead. _There are other places I'd rather be kissing_, he thought grumpily, and when he pulled away again he saw that Melody looked rather disappointed as well. _I'd better go talk to Mimi soon, before I do anything with Melody that might make her mad again_, he decided, and stepped completely out of Melody's embrace.

His mission to talk to Mimi, however, was interrupted by the rather loud train whistle coming from Hogsmeade station.

* * *

Lily whirled around and looked down at Hogsmeade. "Is that…?" she asked curiously. 

"That's the other Auror Training group!" Mimi said excitedly. "They're early!" she squealed, glancing at her watch. "They're not supposed to be here until ten—come on, let's go down and meet them!"

She grabbed Lily's hand and together the girls ran down to Hogsmeade, along with the rest of the crowd.

The platform was more crowded than Lily anticipated, and she shoved people aside impatiently, searching for James. Then—a glimpse of messy black hair—a familiar-looking nose—there he _was_, it was _James_—

Lily didn't pay attention to how many people she bumped into, none of them mattered as much as the one she was running toward—none of them were making her heart beat that fast—none of them were turning to see her running toward them with that _grin_ on their face—

"JAMES!" Lily yelled, feeling a bit stupid, because she'd yelled it right next to his face, but that didn't matter—the next second she'd jumped into his arms, James's arms were wrapped around her, and—

_God, I've missed this_, Lily thought as James's lips connected with hers. She slid her arms around his neck, bringing his mouth against hers more fully, and James wasted no more time trying to be polite—Lily forgot they were in public—she vaguely thought she heard hooting and whistling noises, but ignored them—what did it matter—what _did_ matter, except for kissing James?

James did things with his mouth that made her moan…her heart pumped so hard inside her chest she thought it might come out…goose bumps erupted all over her skin, the butterflies in her stomach were doing acrobatic flying tricks, and Lily thought it might all be too much—she thought she might go limp, and then just ooze out of James's arms to become a contented little Lily-puddle on the ground.

But no, the next time she checked she was still intact, James's mouth was still anchored to hers, solid and warm and _real_…so wonderfully _real_…not like her dreams…

Lily didn't want to move, she didn't want to think, she didn't want to open her eyes ever again because that might mean she had to stop doing this, and that was the last thing in the world she wanted to do.

James, however, eventually had to pull away, because the embarrassing noises the Marauders were making behind him were starting to annoy him.

Lily resisted intensely. She pulled his lips back to hers once—twice—three times, and even after he'd set her down nicely, loosened his grip slightly, and attempted to speak twice, she still resisted, stubbornly, and it took a lot of effort on James's part to finally push her away.

"Lily," he managed finally, sounding rather dazed. "There are other people here."

"Tell them to sod off," Lily mumbled, burying her face in his neck.

"Don't think I can. There's too many of them."

"Then we ought to sod off. Where's the nearest hidden passageway?"

"Up in the castle somewhere, I expect."

"Oh, bother," Lily said, remembering where they were.

"It would be nice if we said 'hi' to some of the other people here, don't you think?"

"I've already said 'hi,'" she mumbled.

"We can continue this later, you know."

Lily grunted, stubbornly.

James grinned. "I missed you, Lily."

Lily reached up to kiss him one more time. "I missed you, too," she said finally, and let him go.

James, with a dopey grin on his face, turned around to greet the world he'd left behind.

* * *

A/N: Yay, happy ending! 

I'm posting this just before I leave for college, so you all had better be grateful.

If you really want to know what the German in this chapter says…it's not that important…I used Free Translations DOT com to get it, so it's probably horribly inaccurate…I think the conversation the soldiers are having when Laurelle wakes up goes something like:

"When are they going to wake up?"

"I don't know, why don't you kick one of them, then maybe they'll wake up faster."

"Ha ha! Maybe I will if they sleep too long."

"How long is too long?"

"Until I lose at cards."

Yeah…something like that. I don't know, just in case you were curious. Like I said, it's not important, and I'm sorry if the German got totally butchered by the online translator, I don't speak a word of it.

All thank-yous for the last chapter have been posted at the "Eyes Database," a Yahoo! group committed to inflating my ego and providing up-to-date Eyes news to my wonderful reviewers. I would post a link to it here but I know that ff DOT net is not going to let me, so I won't. There is, however, a link in my profile that you should click, if you're interested in joining.

That said, I love you, I adore you, I hope you liked the chapter, and I owe you a great, mouldy, stinky, crusty, orange-y THANK YOU (no, not a piece of cheese that's been left out too long, but a THANK YOU) for reading this chapter and for (hopefully) reviewing!

Cheers,

Sierra Charm


	19. Mucking About With Hormones

A/N: Finished! Can you believe it? I can't. I think it's quite astounding myself. Of course I'm rather disappointed I didn't manage to get it up over Thanksgiving, but ah well…I did make extraordinary progress over Thanksgiving, and that helped immensely. (Twenty pages in one day! Ack! ) So, as always, I grovel at your feet for forgiveness for the disastrously long time it's taken me to update.

This chapter is fifty-four pages in Word. Isn't that disgusting? These chapters need to get shorter, let me tell you what. I sincerely hope the next one will be. The next chapter is exceedingly important. If I can just limit it to specific and important plot points (and stop mucking about with all these darned teenage hormones), it should work out beautifully. Plus it'll be CHRISTMAS! And I love writing Christmas! Expect the next update…sometime around CHRISTMAS!

As usual, absolutely nothing happens in this chapter. It's all a big set-up for next chapter. Except, you know, there's a bit at the end of this chapter that you might find interesting, but who really wants to learn about Lily's necklace at this point anyway?

ahem Well, anyway, a million thanks to my beta-reader, Smile At the Sun, for going over this chapter for me twice. Fourty-four point four thanks go to Stardust for trying to help me figure out what the world's tiniest violin would sound like. And to Robin if you're reading this…we should really look into getting those hats. (Nice big feathers and all.)

So without further ado…here is a summary of the last chapter:

Lily and her Auror Training Group leave the Ministry and embark with Moody to the middle of a rainforest to complete their practical part of the training, which Lily is not exceptionally good at. Lily runs out of Dreamless Sleep Potion, and has a series of dreams about Laurelle, during which Laurelle and her sister-in-law Charlotte travel to a German army camp to save their husbands from imprisonment. A German general attempts to take Laurelle's necklace, with disastrous and fatal results, and Lily begins having dreams about another woman. James and his training group go to the Ministry, where James is bored out of his wits by pointless busy work, although he does exchange a rather amusing batch of letters with Remus. During this exchange, Remus writes a "sonnet" about Lily-bean, which he also shows to Melody. Melody and Mimi are still fighting, but Mimi is ready to make up, and Remus convinces Mimi to ask Melody to go to the Quidditch game with her. During the Quidditch game, there are several fights, on and off the pitch—the most important fight being the one Lin, Lily's fourth-year friend, gets into with Wendy and Lucy, her fellow (snobbish) fourth-years. Bridget DeBeauvois, a third-year and temporary member of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, sticks up for Lin and ends up kicking her in the chin. Mimi and Remus slowly begin to advance their relationship, and Melody and Mimi make up, and even make a banner that says "Welcome Back, Sirius!" to greet the Auror Training Students when they return. All the Auror Training Students return to Hogwarts, and Lily and James are happily reunited. (Ta-da! Wow, that was a long summary.)

Don't mind the fluff in the first bit of this chapter…I got a little carried away.

Cheers and happy reading!

Chapter Nineteen

Mucking About With Hormones

Lily and James sodded off. They retreated to the fourth-floor room behind the dragon tapestry—the one in which Lily had her first necklace dream—and spent several hours making up for lost time. Lily couldn't remember ever feeling so warm or happy or dizzy or…so thoroughly kissed. And there were no interruptions—absolutely none—no one barging in on them, no homework assignments hanging over their heads, no obligations whatsoever except for maybe eating or sleeping eventually, but really, what did eating and sleeping matter when James had his arms wrapped around her?

She lost track of time. She lost track of thoughts. Had she been with him an hour? A day? Did it matter, even, and why was she trying to figure this out when there were so many other pleasant things she could be doing?

Lily shifted closer to James and leaned into his kiss, circling both her arms around his neck. He tugged her still closer—could she _be_ any closer?—and just held her there, letting his lips do all the work. Lily didn't mind this very much at all, but the way her heart was skipping—the way her breath was catching—suggested that she might have to pull away soon, or some part of her just might burst, for some reason other than pure happiness.

Lily came up for air. She buried her face in the crook of James's neck, gasping a bit, and noted with satisfaction the way James's breath was catching in his throat. She loved having that effect on him. Lily had never imagined she'd be important enough to someone to _have_ that effect on them, but she seemed to make James's breath catch quite often, and happiness bubbled inside her chest when she thought of this.

James rested his head on Lily's shoulder, and she ran a hand through his hair, leaning in to kiss him on the neck. He made a funny noise when she did this, and she grinned, leaning in to kiss him there again. The noise he made this time was so, _so_ adorable Lily just couldn't stop herself from kissing him there again—and again—and again—until James was having a very hard time breathing.

"_Lily_," he said finally, taking her face in his hands.

"Mm?" Lily replied, slightly disappointed. She'd been rather enjoying herself.

"D'you think I could get a second to—you know—_breathe_?"

Lily grinned evilly and leaned in to kiss him once—no, once wasn't enough—she brought his lips to hers a second time—and then sighed and relented. "All right," she agreed, still feeling a bit winded herself.

James stretched his legs out and scooted down so he was half-laying, half-sitting on the couch, his head propped up by several fluffy pillows. Lily kicked her shoes off and swung her legs onto the couch as well, resting her head on his chest.

She loved this. Loved feeling the warm length of his body nestled against hers, the sound of his heart under her hear, the rise and fall of his chest under her head…she could just stay like this, she thought, warm and happy and heady with the after-effects of kissing…forever. _Maybe this is just a precursor to forever_, she thought sleepily. _Maybe this is what heaven's like. A thousand moments just like this, going over and over again_.

Or maybe this was heaven. This, right here, with James, was the closest to heaven she was ever going to get on Earth.

She was beginning to think so.

She felt so…so….

She resisted putting a name on it…resisted labeling it what she was very afraid it was. _It can't be_, the voices in her head whispered. _It just can't be_.

One more to love, one more to lose.

And she _wouldn't _lose James. Wouldn't.

"What are you thinking about?" James asked softly, his thumb spinning in soft circles across her back.

Lily hadn't realized how lost in thought she'd been, how close to sleep she'd been, until James's voice jerked her back. It took a moment for her to process her surroundings.

"You," she said finally, wiggling so she could wrap an arm across him.

"I can't say I blame you," he joked, and Lily, whose eyes were closed, heard the grin in his voice and couldn't suppress a grin of her own.

She pinched him lightly. "Bigheaded prat," she mumbled.

"Mm," James agreed, kissing the top of her head.

Lily sighed happily as James wrapped his arms around her, and tried to think about how happy she was, but she found that her thoughts interfered with the actual feeling of happiness, so she let them go. Not thinking, not thinking…just drifting…to sleep, maybe? To heaven? Did it matter? Did she care? Was she even really awake anymore? Surely moments this pleasant didn't come except in dreams.

Lily didn't know how long she laid there with James. She felt herself slipping in and out of sleep several times, but didn't dream. Or if she did dream, it was about her and James, lying here, content and peaceful and so completely in…

In…

Harmony?

Lily's eyes flew open. She stared at the fireplace for a minute, thinking.

_Harmony_, she decided fiercely. _Not the other word. I'm too…too…_

_I'm too young for that_, she finished lamely.

Once she thought it was true. What did people her age know about…about _love_…anyway?

Now she thought she was just scared.

If she didn't feel _that way_ about him, then it wouldn't hurt so much if she ever…if he ever…if…

_What a way to ruin a perfectly good paradise, Lily_, she scolded herself. _Thinking about things like that_.

_I won't lose him_, she thought stubbornly, clutching him. _I won't_.

"Lily?" James mumbled, sounding very sleepy. "Whassamatter?"

Lily hadn't realized how tightly she'd been holding him. She loosened her grip. "Sorry," she whispered, her cheeks tingeing pink. "Go back to sleep."

"Was I asleep?" he asked, just as sleepily.

"Yes," Lily said, smiling a little. "Don't mind me. Go back to sleep."

"No, I'm awake…really…"

"I'll go back to sleep, too," she offered.

"We shouldn't be sleeping," James reasoned, his words slurring a bit now.

"Shh," Lily said gently. "It's all right. It's nice, lying here with you."

James let out a little murmur of agreement, but he'd already begun drifting off to sleep again. Lily drifted with him, and now she did dream.

* * *

She burst into her Not-Dream, the new one, with the brown-haired woman she didn't recognize, and spent a moment mourning the loss of Laurelle. But she didn't have much time to dwell on it, because the woman—whoever she was—was in a hurry, and Lily got distracted by her urgency. She clutched a stack of books against her chest and hurried past a row of bookshelves to a table where books, quills, and pieces of parchment were strewn everywhere. The woman dropped her books onto the table eagerly and seized a quill, scribbling something onto a piece of parchment so quickly and eagerly Lily honestly could not read what she was writing. The brown-haired woman didn't seem concerned, however, and kept writing with such eagerness Lily could feel a cramp forming in her hand.

She picked up a large green book and flipped through it, ignoring the puffs of dust she elicited with the turning of its pages. The writing in the book was also small, scrawling, and barely decipherable, but the brown-haired woman seemed to have no trouble reading that, either, and scribbled down a few more incomprehensible notes. She made a few more references to her textbooks, and then sat down in a chair, grabbing a new quill and tossing the old one over her shoulder excitedly. She shoved all of the used bits of parchment out of the way so eagerly some of them fluttered to the ground, but she didn't bother to pick them up. Instead, she grabbed a fresh sheet of parchment and a new ink bottle and began scribbling away at length, just as merrily and incomprehensibly as ever.

Lily was beginning to wonder how long she would have to sit here, hunched over, cramping her hand up writing words she couldn't read, when a voice sounded from somewhere in the library, and the woman jerked up, searching for its source.

"Livana! Where are you? Liv—ah, there you are."

A tall, brown-haired, pinch-faced man popped out from behind a bookshelf and walked over to Livana's table frowning. "Isn't it a little late for research?" he asked, and Livana's cheeks flushed as she hurried to gather up her things.

"I'm sorry, sir—I'll have this cleaned up right away," she said, and Lily was surprised at how grainy her voice was. Laurelle's had been so melodic. Livana's movements, too, were hastier and stiffer than Laurelle's, and, Lily thought, as Livana gathered up her things and ran to put books back, that she was much clumsier.

"It is past six, Miss Delany," the brown-haired man noted, checking his pocket watch pointedly.

"I know, sir, I know—I'm really very sorry—"

"I cannot have you lurking around on nights when I have to entertain my men's club. You know that, Livana."

"Yes, sir, I do—I apologize, once again, for my rudeness. I just lost track of time, you see, but I was nearly finished, and—"

"You seem to lose track of time quite often, Miss Delany," sniffed the man, who apparently could not decide how he wanted to address her. "You might consider investing in a watch."

"Oh, I—I have one, sir," Livana said, holding up her wrist rather lamely, but the man had already turned away and begun walking out of the library. Livana scowled at him as he rounded the corner, and shoved all her things into a large brown bag angrily. "Stupid men's club won't be here until eight…don't see why he lets me use his library at all if he's going to keep quibbling over how long I'm here…bad enough I have to tutor his simple children…."

She muttered a few more unkind words before setting her now-full bag down and wrapping herself in a heavy winter cloak and scarf. Lily noted the scratches on her hands as she pulled her gloves on, and remembered them from the first dream. _Where did she get them?_ Lily wondered vaguely as Livana gathered up her bag and walked briskly out of the library.

As Livana navigated her way through a series of corridors and staircases, Lily searched as best she could for something familiar. But these halls were completely foreign to her, and she didn't believe they were in Potter's Cottage, as Laurelle had been, or that the brown-haired, pinch-faced man—who appeared to be the owner of this rather illustrious home—was in any way an owner of Potter's Cottage, and therefore not in any way related to James, as Laurelle had been. _But is Livana related to James?_ she wondered. Would Livana being going home now? _Does she live in Potter's Cottage, perhaps?_

But Lily didn't get to find out where Livana lived, for no sooner had Livana stepped out the front door than Lily was pulled abruptly out of her dream by a shake of the shoulder from James.

* * *

"Wha-?" Lily muttered, still half-asleep.

"I'm sorry," James whispered. "I didn't mean to wake you. I was just getting up to go to the bathroom. I guess I tugged on your shoulder—sorry."

Lily sighed and blinked her eyes open. "It's all right. That's what I get for falling asleep on your chest."

James grinned and kissed her on the forehead. "I'll be back."

While he was gone, Lily mulled over her dream. Sadly, there wasn't a lot to mull over, except maybe the scratches on Livana's hands, which looked oddly familiar for some reason. She rolled this around in her mind for a while, and decided they were only familiar because she'd seen the same scratches on the same hands the first time she'd had a dream about Livana.

James came back and interrupted her train of thought by sitting on the couch wrapping his arms around her. "What are you thinking about?"

"My dreams," Lily sighed, staring at the fireplace.

James tensed. "Bad dreams?"

Lily shook her head. "No, not this time. Just…confusing."

He frowned. "Were they like…the ones you had before you left? About…Laurelle?"

Lily nodded. "Laurelle's…gone," she said slowly, and told James about the development of her dreams during Auror Training. "And this new girl I've been dreaming about," Lily continued, fiddling with the chain around her neck, "she's got the necklace, too. I don't understand, James…_why_ am I having these dreams?"

"I'll be damned if I know," he replied. He tried to sound nonchalant, but Lily could tell that her description of Laurelle's death had jarred him. "Lily," he said after a few minutes, "are you _sure_ there's no way to take the necklace off?"

"I've _tried_, James. There isn't any clasp—see for yourself."

James, who had fastened the necklace onto Lily in the first place, frowned as he slid the chain through his hands and didn't discover any clasp. "And—you're _sure_ it won't fit over your neck?"

"_Yes_," Lily replied, exasperated. "And anyway—after what happened to Laurelle, I don't know that I'm brave enough to try again."

James fidgeted uncomfortably and stared at the floor, thinking.

"What?" Lily asked.

James hesitated. "Lily…how can you be sure that these dreams of yours are…accurate? I mean, how sure are you that any of this even happened?"

"I'm _positive_, James," she said impatiently. "I've never had such…lucid dreams before. And besides, these people are related to you. When we go back to Potter's Cottage for Christmas, I can prove it to you."

"Are you sure about that?" James asked, for the first time wishing he'd paid more attention to the family tree hanging in the library.

"Well…I'm sure Laurelle's related to you, anyway. She was married to Patrick Gryffindor. He has to be related to Godric in some way, doesn't he? And since you're related to Godric…"

"I guess," James agreed, but he still sounded unsure. "Lily, are you sure…the necklace…it hasn't…bothered you, has it?"

"No," Lily said softly, fingering the pendant. "It just feels like a regular necklace."

"You can't stop fiddling with it," James noted.

"I always fiddle with jewelry," Lily said, shrugging, but she let the pendant drop. She couldn't help fiddling with it when she was talking about it.

"Lily…if…if it ever starts acting…um…funny, I…well…would you let me know right away?" he asked anxiously. "I mean, if I'd known it was enchanted I never would have—"

"James," Lily said gently, interrupting him. "I don't think anything bad is going to happen. And I don't think the necklace has been enchanted maliciously, either. I agree with what Dumbledore said when I asked him about it—I think it's been enchanted to protect the wearer. That's why it won't come off. And with Laurelle—well, she was being strangled. I guess it was just trying to stop her attacker."

James frowned. "Lily, I don't like the thought of this necklace having a mind of its own."

"I don't…I don't really think it does. It's just been enchanted, that's all. I couldn't think of a better way to describe it."

"Well…but who enchanted it? And how long has it been enchanted? Magic can get warped over time, you know, and if Laurelle lived long enough ago that she was still living in Gryffindor's Castle and not Potter's Cottage…well…let's just say anything could have happened during that time."

"Something did happen," Lily agreed. "Livana Delany got hold of it. Now that I'm back at Hogwarts, I intend to research both women as heavily as I can. And Dumbledore suggested that on our next Hogsmeade trip, I visit Mr. Zorcoran and ask him about it."

"That sounds like a good idea. And…you're sure it's all right?" James asked, eyeing the necklace warily.

"_Yes_," Lily insisted, taking his face between her hands. "I'm positive. All right?"

James looked at her for a minute. "All right," he agreed.

Lily pulled him toward her and laced his lips with hers, and they forgot about talking for a while.

* * *

Melody thought of Sirius. She wrapped her brain around her thoughts like a sponge, until it soaked up so many it couldn't hold any more. She couldn't get out of her head the way Sirius had looked at her the day he came back. He'd just…_stared_ at her, longer and better than he had in ages, and she wished he'd look at her like that all of the time.

Since that day, he'd hardly looked at her at all, and she felt like she was shriveling up from it. After all, it was one thing to know that Sirius was hundreds of miles away, hating her, but it was a completely different and somewhat crushing experience to know that he was practically in the next room, wanting her, and she couldn't have him. She couldn't have him until he made sure it was all right with Mimi, and Sirius had been avoiding talking with Mimi. Subsequently, he'd been avoiding Melody, partly because he didn't want to stir up unnecessary trouble with Mimi if she saw them hanging out together innocently, but partly because both of them knew that if they did try to hang out together innocently…it probably wouldn't stay innocent for very long.

Melody rolled over in bed, stared at her curtains, and sighed. She'd always wanted Sirius, for about as long as she'd known him, but it had never been this bad. She really needed to talk to Lily about this. No…no, _really_ she needed to talk to Sirius about this, but that wasn't exactly a viable option at the moment. For one, she couldn't trust herself to talk to him for very long without ending up putting her mouth to his, and for another…well, was it still full moon out?

She pushed her curtains aside and slid out of her four-poster, padding over to the window in the girls' dormitory. The moon hung in a silvery, whole orb in the sky, accompanied by a few thin clouds. Melody's heart sank a bit. Sirius would be out there with Remus, then, so there was no chance of talking to him even if she dared.

Melody thought it was reasonably unfair and agonizing that she still had to wait around for Sirius—she'd been waiting around for him for _years_—but she supposed this was what she got for rejecting him. _I hope I never have to hurt him again_, she thought miserably. _I hope this all works out in the end. I can be with Siirus and repay my uncle and save my family and everything will be all right. _

She swallowed the growing lump in her throat and wrapped her arms around herself, knowing very well that things just might not turn out all right. But she didn't want to think about that—_couldn't_ think about that, or the guilt might overwhelm her and she'd ruin things with Sirius again.

And she couldn't lose him again. She _wouldn't_. No more of this stupidity. No more games, no more lies, no more flirting with boys she didn't really like or messing with her stupid hair to try and make Sirius want her. Just…no more. She had to be with him, had to tell him how she felt about him, _now_, soon, or…or…it would never happen. It would be too late. Her heart would rip itself into tiny pieces, and she'd spend the rest of her life thinking _what if, what if?_ and _if only, if only…. _She couldn't afford to have any more _what if?_s in her life—she'd screwed it up too badly already.

And she had a feeling that, whether she wanted it or not, her innocence was about to be stripped from her. She was still innocent about so many things—she'd just failed to notice how many until her uncle started peeling all the facets of her innocence away, one by one.

Trust, for example. She thought her heart had hardened against quick and easy trust long ago when Voldemort took her father from her, but she was still vulnerable in one huge area, which Hans had managed to exploit to its fullest potential: Her family. She'd trusted Hans because he was family, and he would never understand how much it hurt that he'd betrayed her. She'd never been anything more to him than an asset…a trophy…Hans' own little prize. A prize that he could parade around to his friends in the hopes that one of them would snatch her up and then, by association, help relieve him of his iniquities.

And Melody, stupid Melody, had put her complete faith in the old fat bastard because he was _family_. He was her father's brother, and for a long time she thought that meant something. That _she_ meant something. Who could she trust, if not her family?

Who did Hans trust? Anyone?

Certainly he didn't trust Melody, especially not now, after her hustling fake watches, sneaking around to meet with Paolo, hopping an illegal Portkey to New York City…. Certainly he didn't trust her. Certainly not. And certainly Melody was no longer foolish enough to trust him.

Catalina, perhaps? Did Hans trust her? Could Melody trust her? She'd never been quite able to figure Catalina out. Was she there because of Hans? Or because of his money? _Love or greed_? And was she still with him, now that he appeared to be going belly-up? Or was Hans trying to prostitute her off, too?

Catalina spent as much as Melody when they shopped, and had never expressed to Melody any intent to repay Hans. _Does Catalina know about any of this_?_ Does she know what Hans is trying to make me do_? Melody wondered, and didn't know what to think.

Catalina always seemed remarkably on top of things, and handled Hans's moods with an amount of subtlety and grace Melody would never possess. But she did not seem like the kind of person who would allow another woman to be treated in the manner Melody was being treated, and it hurt to think she might know of Melody's plight and had not yet owled to offer any advice or guidance, or seemed to have swayed Hans's opinion in any way.

Perhaps she knew and she _was_ trying to aid Melody, and Melody was simply unaware of it.

But this seemed like too much to hope for, so she didn't waste her time thinking about it.

Melody could not, however, get her mind off of Sirius, and she sighed as her thoughts came full-circle. _Oh, Sirius_, she sighed inwardly. _I'm going to explode if you don't get it over with and talk to Mimi already…._

But there was no point urging him to do so tonight; Mimi was unreachable and undoubtedly asleep, and anyway Sirius wasn't here. Melody crawled back into bed and tried to empty her mind of thoughts, but when she finally fell asleep Sirius was there in her dreams, waiting for her.

* * *

When Melody awoke to discover that Sirius's arms weren't wrapped around her after all, she was just tangled up in blankets, she got a pang of loneliness so intense she thought she might cry.

_Dreams are like torture,_ she thought bitterly.

Perhaps she was being melodramatic, but she didn't care. She couldn't stand it anymore.

Melody rolled out of bed, too impatient to sleep any longer, and groaned at the window as she saw that the sun had only just risen. It would be hours yet before Sirius would drag himself out of bed, and hours more before she could convince him to talk to Mimi…and yet more hours after that until she could finally lean against him and claim his lips with hers.

Melody slouched down the stairs, feeling rather put out, and dumped herself in the armchair nearest the fireplace. _I really ought to talk to Lily about all this_, she considered. She needed a chance to catch up with her best friend, and it would be a welcome distraction from thinking about Sirius.

All right, so maybe that was a lie. Maybe she really didn't want to stop thinking about Sirius. Maybe she loved thinking about Sirius—loved the way her stomach did somersaults when she thought about him, loved the goose bumps that erupted on her skin when someone said his name, loved the heart palpitations she got when he looked at her and said _her _name—loved everything about him. His voice, his hair, his eyes, the way she felt when he hugged her—when he kissed her—

_Oh, Melody_, she sighed to herself, shaking her head. _You've got it BAD._ Her stomach fluttered oddly when she thought of this, and her hands shook a little. _I know_, she replied to herself, not sure whether the shakiness in her hands was a good thing.

_Hence why I need to talk to Lily,_ she reasoned. She needed to tell someone her predicament, and Lily would certainly understand, especially considering she'd just spent a month with Sirius. Maybe she'd even know something about Sirius that Melody didn't. Or about how he felt, rather.

At any rate, it would be good to talk to Lily. Melody had missed her. And it would be better than talking to Remus—poor Remus—who'd soaked up too much of her agony already. And Mimi definitely wasn't an option. The girls were talking now, of course, but…not about this. Maybe in a month when things were all settled between Mimi and Sirius, Melody and Sirius, Mimi and Remus…maybe then. But certainly not now.

Melody burned away the earlier hours of the morning sitting in front of the fireplace, thinking, and didn't show signs of life until the younger students began trickling down the stairs for breakfast.

Melody shifted in her chair impatiently and stared across the common room. She had a good view of the Seventh Year boys' dormitory staircase from here, and focused on it intently, looking for a sign of the Marauders. She figured they would be a bit late for breakfast, if they came down for breakfast at all, and tried to make herself wait patiently using this logic, but it didn't work. She waited for Sirius feeling as high-strung as ever, wanting to pounce on him the first moment she could and beg him to talk to Mimi, _now_—_today_, at least—but he didn't come quickly.

In fact, Melody could have sworn she saw all of Gryffindor House trickle down the staircases and file out the portrait hole before the Marauders made an appearance. Melody's stomach was grumbling and the common room was half-full with students returning from breakfast before Melody saw the familiar forms of the Marauders on the stairs.

Peter first, then Remus—then James—Holy Mother of Merlin, did the boy have to make _everything_ torturous? But finally Sirius emerged as well, and Melody's throat promptly dried up. God, he looked handsome, even like that, with a sleepy, dull sort of look in his eyes, and the back of his hair sticking up in little tufts because he'd forgotten to run a comb through it. Melody briefly imagined him waking up in her bed looking like that, and then shook her head to clear her thoughts.

_You are NOT helping_, she informed her hormones, but they ignored her, sending her pulse jumping as Sirius spotted her from across the common room and gave her a small grin of hello. She stood as he neared her, and her hormones yelled at her to hug him—kiss him—do _something_—but all she could do was smile tentatively and ask if he was going to breakfast.

"Yeah," he replied, and Melody joined him as he and the Marauders walked down to the Great Hall.

The whole way there, Melody ached to reach out and grab his hand, to lace his fingers with hers, but she forced herself to resist, and instead focused intently on her fingernails. Sirius glanced over at her several times, but neither of them said anything, and they were nearly to the Great Hall before Melody managed to find words. She put a hand on his arm, stopping him, and he turned to look at her.

"Sirius," she said softly, withdrawing her hand, "are you going to talk to Mimi soon?"

She expected him to look impatient or annoyed, but instead he just looked pained.

"Yes," he said finally. "I just…have to find the right time…the right place…."

"So ask her if you can meet her somewhere to talk!" Melody said, practically exploding with impatience. "_Soon_, Sirius, _please_—today, if you can manage it."

Sirius frowned. "Look, Melody, I…um…don't want to rush into things."

"Rush into things!" Melody cried. "For Merlin's sake, Sirius, we've been putting this off for three years! How much slower do you want to take it?"

Sirius grimaced. "Fair point."

"I mean…don't you _want_ this to work?" she continued, losing her resolve and gathering his hands in hers. "Don't you want us to—"

"_Yes_," Sirius said firmly, withdrawing his hands. "What I mean is—look, I know I have to talk to Mimi. And I will. But Melody, I—" he cut himself off and sighed. "As stupid as it sounds…after everything that's happened…I don't want her to feel like I'm just tossing her aside to be with you. I have to make sure she's all right—_really_ all right—with this before it can work."

Melody hugged her arms against her chest and frowned at Sirius's feet, considering. "You're right," she agreed. "That is stupid."

Sirius blinked at her, his eyes widening in surprise. "Well, if you'd rather I not speak to her at all—if you'd rather she hate both of us forever—"

"Damn it, Sirius, you know that's not what I meant. It's just—you said it was stupid yourself. You can't act like she's not going to see through you."

"Then what am I supposed to talk to her for? Aren't I supposed to be setting things right?"

"I—well—yes. You are."

"So let me do it, then, and stop criticizing me!"

"I—oh, for goodness' sake, Sirius, you criticized yourself first," Melody snapped, frowning.

"So?"

"So—so—" Melody glared at him. "Just—if you're going to do it, would you do it soon, please? This is all very—you know—agonizing and stuff."

Sirius grinned, and Melody's hormones flared again. She considered wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his mouth down to hers as he said "All right" in agreement and pushed his hair back from his face in that careless, sexy way of his.

She thought about doing this—saw it happening in her mind—

And then ignored the way her heart was beating inside her chest and how the goose bumps were rippling across her skin, and turned away from him. She watched him walk to the Great Hall and swallowed forcefully, forcing her heart form her throat and back into her chest where it belonged.

Waiting, waiting…

_If I have to wait much longer, it's going to kill me._

* * *

"Er…hello, Mimi," Sirius said awkwardly, clearing his throat, and Mimi interrupted her conversation with Lily to look up at him curiously.

"Hi," she said back, and then stared at him.

"Um…what are you doing today?" Sirius inquired, shifting uneasily.

"Oh, you know…classes, homework, and…stuff." Mimi shrugged and tucked a bit of her shoulder-length brown hair behind her ear.

"Ah. That makes sense."

It was, after all, Tuesday.

"Yeah," Mimi replied, and frowned at him curiously. "Sirius, did you want to ask me something?"

Sirius cleared his throat again. "Well—yes, actually. I, um—yeah."

Mimi raised her eyebrows inquisitively.

"I think," Sirius said finally, trying to ignore all the curious eyes at the Ravenclaw table that were now turned in his direction, "there are some things we should talk about. D'you think maybe…some time today…."

"Yeah," Mimi said, nodding, finally catching Sirius's drift. "We should do that. Why don't we meet…" she trailed off, noting the curious pairs of eyes around her. "Um…outside the Great Hall. Around…three? And find someplace to talk."

Sirius nodded, then grinned. "Thanks, Mimi. See you then."

She nodded and turned back to the table. The Ravenclaw students around her tried to act as though they hadn't been listening to her conversation. Lily waved briefly at Sirius before he turned away.

Across the Great Hall, Melody grinned so widely she thought her face might split in two.

* * *

"So," Mimi said, looking over at Sirius.

They'd wandered around the castle for at least half an hour, pretending to look for a suitable place to have this conversation. Mimi had finally gotten tired of procrastinating and led Sirius to a classroom in one of the towers. These classrooms were excellent to hide in because no one ever used them and most students forgot they were there. The desks were a bit old and creaky, but still sturdy enough for Mimi to perch on one of them and look curiously across the room at Sirius.

He was leaning against the instructor's desk in the front of the room, arms crossed, frowning at the floor. His hair looked newly washed, and fell into his face with its usual sexy elegance. Mimi wondered if he'd washed it just for her, and then shook her head slightly, letting her eyes fall to the ground in embarrassment.

_Stupid_, she chastised herself. _He doesn't care about you anymore._

_But you don't care about him either…right?_

Of course she didn't. But that didn't explain why she'd spent half an hour in front of her mirror today trying to get her hair to cooperate with her. Mimi's hair was brown and naturally curly, and looked rather mousy if she didn't take the pains to style it with expensive hair care products. She wore it short, an inch or so above her shoulders, and that made it easier to take care of, but sometimes the way her curls framed her face just wasn't flattering, and she had to wrestle with it, as she'd had to today.

She glanced back up at Sirius, whose mouth opened and closed several times as though he was going to speak.

"Just say it, Sirius," Mimi prodded.

He looked at her for the first time since they'd entered the classroom and studied her face carefully. "You say that as if I only have one thing to say."

Mimi considered. "I know there's one thing you're _going_ to say."

Sirius's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Yes," she replied softly. "Really."

"Care to elaborate?"

"No. We'll get there soon enough."

"Well, why don't you start then, since you seem to know where we're going?"

Mimi glared at him. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't pretend. You know what you're going to say. You know why we're here."

Sirius looked at her for a moment. His eyes were dark today, expressive, but muddled all the same, and Mimi thought they looked a little bit like muddy puddles.

He considered. "Yes," he agreed finally, "but that doesn't mean I know where to begin."

Mimi sighed and dropped her gaze. Was she going to have this conversation by herself?

"Begin at…the beginning," she suggested, and lifted her gaze to his. "You asked me out. Why?"

Sirius winced. His eyes probed hers, hesitating.

"Tell me the truth," Mimi said. "There's no point lying again."

Sirius frowned. "I never lied to you, Mimi."

"Oh, but you asked me out when you were really interested in another girl."

Sirius blinked.

"Misleading, anyway. I'd say that counts as a lie," Mimi reasoned, crossing her arms.

"But you said yes," Sirius reminded her. "Were you really interested in me? Or just…trying to forget about somebody else?"

Mimi faltered. "I'm…not sure."

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her. Mimi pursed her lips in annoyance.

"Fine," she snapped. "So maybe I was trying to forget about Remus. That didn't mean I wasn't attracted to you."

"I think we had this conversation already."

"Oh, we did. It sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it?" Mimi spat, her poorly-buried anger bubbling up. "I suppose now you're going to tell me you were really attracted to me all that time, weren't you? That you weren't just kissing me and wishing I was Melody? That you cared about me all along, but oh, your love for Melody is just too _great_, and you just couldn't _help_ yourself when she cornered you in a deserted classroom, it wasn't your fault, really, you _never_ meant to hurt me—but oh, you just didn't think I'd ever find out about it! And _conveniently_ it happened the day before you left—_conveniently_ Melody and I managed to patch up our friendship in your absence—to clean up your damn mess for you—"

Mimi hopped off the desk now and stomped over to him. She stared up at him, eyes sparking in anger. "That's really _lucky_ for you, Sirius. Do you appreciate how lucky you are?" She paused for a moment, fuming, and when he didn't speak she continued. "I bet now you expect me to _forgive_ you—to bless you and Melody and whatever little _thing_ it is you have going—to just forget like any of this ever happened and trot off with Remus like you never hurt me—like you never meant anything to me—like—like—"

Mimi spun away from Sirius quickly so he couldn't see the way her face was crumpling up. She wiped her tears away angrily, hastily, and jerked away from him when he tried to touch her.

"Don't you dare," she spat, whirling to face him and backing away. "I don't want your comfort."

Sirius stared at her, shocked, his eyes even more muddled, and Mimi stared back, her face screwed up with emotion.

"Mimi, I…" he began, then trailed off, looking baffled.

Mimi had never put anyone at a loss for words before. She kind of liked the feeling.

Sirius regained his composure eventually. "I don't know what to say to make you believe me. _Yes—_I was trying to make Melody jealous when I asked you out. You know that. But I _did_—and I don't expect you to believe me—I _did_ care about you. I _do_ care about you, I mean, just…"

"Not like that," Mimi finished for him. She circled her arms around herself protectively and stared at a dusty window across the room. "I know."

"Mimi, I expected you and Melody to be laying in wait with—I don't know—the Draught of Living Death when I got back. Not that I expected you to be working together, really—but I thought maybe considering what a _git_ I've been—" he shrugged and shook his head. "I deserved something worse. Much worse than what you gave me. When I saw you and Melody with that sign, I…I didn't know what to think. I was—_shocked_, and relieved, and…grateful…"

"You might've said something."

"Well…I _did_, I just…"

"Just not to me," Mimi finished for him, and turned around slowly. "You just ignored me." She stared up at him finally, her eyes boring in to his. "You do that a lot when Melody's around."

Sirius was silent for a long moment. "I can't think of anything to say that you won't…scoff at," he said finally. "I…I'm sorry," was all he managed. "I know that doesn't mean much, and it doesn't fix anything, but…I don't know what else to say."

Mimi sighed and buried her face in her hands. "I don't want you to be unhappy, Sirius," she said, her voice muffled. "And I know that's what I'm doing to you right now. I'm making you unhappy."

Mimi was beginning to regret her outburst. She was just supposed to be talking with Sirius about how he wanted to be with Melody, and how she wanted to be with Remus, and how that was all right with everybody, and how they were going to move on with their lives and forget there'd ever been anything more between them than friendship.

She lifted her face from her hands. "But you see why, don't you?" she asked. "Why I'm being so horrible?"

Sirius gazed at her, his eyes glossy in the candlelight. Flames reflected against his eyes, making it hard for Mimi to see the emotions playing out in them. But she thought he was beginning to understand. She hoped so. She was still trying to work it all out herself, really. Why was she being so ridiculous and difficult when she knew that anything she said at this point wasn't going to do anything more than delay the inevitable? Why did she still feel so angry? So hurt? So…wronged?

She'd forgiven Melody. She thought she'd forgiven Sirius.

But…Sirius hadn't been here for a month. It was harder to work out your fury on someone who wasn't there. Melody had taken the brunt of it, and she and Mimi had both suffered for it. But what had Sirius suffered? What had he gone through?

Lily said he felt horrible. That he'd brooded on it for a month and didn't know what he was going to do to set things right. And now…well, he didn't have to worry about that. Everything was working out just as Mimi had feared. Sirius came back and everything was fixed. Patched up for him, conveniently, and now he didn't give a rat's ass about Mimi; he was just here to alleviate what was left of his guilty conscience so he could go off with Melody. And how lucky for him that Mimi was going to let him.

Or she thought she was, anyway. Wasn't that why she was here? Wasn't that why they were both here?

She was going in circles now.

Mimi wished Sirius would say something.

"I do," Sirius managed finally, and Mimi wasn't sure she could remember what he was referring to. "Mimi…I don't know how to say this so you'll believe me. I'm not…I'm not here just because I want to be with Melody."

Mimi ignored the rest of his sentence. The last six words bore into her mind fiercely, and her eyelids fell like protective curtains over her eyes. _Why is that painful? WHY? _

He was telling her things she already knew. She was being ridiculous.

Sirius continued, and the sincerity in his voice almost tore her apart. Why did she feel on the verge of tears? _Why? WHY?_

"I'm here because I need everything all right between us," he said. "Not because I want to move on."

Mimi managed to compose herself enough to glare up at him distrustfully.

"Mimi, you _know_ how I feel about Melody. And I know that I want to be with her. But right now that's not as important as you and me," he continued, sounding desperate.

"There is no you and me, Sirius," Mimi said, shaking her head. She couldn't stand looking at him anymore. She felt like he was tearing her apart from the inside…and it just didn't make any sense.

Mimi thought of Remus. She thought about how she felt about him, tried to conjure up her feelings for him, but all she could feel was the way Sirius was shredding up her heart. _Stupid Mimi_, she told herself, and turned away from Sirius. She walked over to the dusty window and looked out. The view was clear from here, except for the dust; they were far above tree level and the sky was only cloudy in patches. Blue seemed to stretch on for miles.

She breathed in heavily, trying to compose herself, and sneezed out dust instead. She didn't feel any more composed, but the sneeze did scramble up her thoughts for a minute, and when they settled she thought she caught a glimpse of insight. _Maybe it just hurts to think about being betrayed_, she considered. _Maybe it's not really Sirius that's making you feel this way_.

But this faded after a minute, and stopped making sense, and that achy feeling in her heart returned, and Mimi found herself wondering if it really was possible to be in love with two people at once.

_Would you really call it love?_ she wondered silently, and tried to examine her feelings for Sirius. They were too muddled, she thought finally, muddled and confused and too angry to be worth it. But still…there _were_ feelings. Just as there'd been a month ago, when Sirius convinced her that their relationship was more than just a ruse.

What would he convince her of this time? That the sky was purple and Fizzing Whizbees grew on trees?

Mimi reached out a hand and touched the glass, wiping away the thick layer of dust to see the clouds better. Her hand was filthy, and covered in more than just dust when she was done, and she frowned at it and wiped it on her robes.

Outside, the sky was still blue.

Mimi became aware of Sirius watching her, and realized with a vague kind of shock that she thought he'd be gone by now. Didn't he have better things to do than watch a silly girl stare out the window wondering if the sky would turn purple?

She turned around slowly, her thoughts still muddled, and gazed back at him, feeling not quite as achy but still not quite right. Sirius shifted back and forth uneasily, and an awkward silence hung between them that Mimi made no move to break. In its own way the awkwardness was comforting. It was comforting to know that Sirius still cared enough about her for the silence between them to be emotionally charged in some way. That the silence felt awkward didn't mean quite as much as that it _felt_.

"I'm not going to try and hold you back," she said finally, and her stomach sank disappointedly. Was she disappointed in herself? "I know that you and Melody belong together. I've seen the way you look at each other. And I've heard her talk about you. I wouldn't…it wouldn't be right if I got in the way. Or tried to get in the way," she mumbled, examining the floor.

_Not like it would matter if I did try to get in the way_, she thought bitterly. _You made up your mind about what was going to happen before we even got here. Probably why you were avoiding it. You just didn't want to feel like the bad guy again._

_Well guess what, Sirius? You are the bad guy._

Mimi thought a lot of things that she wasn't sure she meant. She was glad Sirius wasn't a Legilimens. That would've ruined things. It was hard to be an effective liar when the person standing across from you could read your mind.

"Don't lie to me, Mimi," Sirius said harshly.

_Damn. I'm so transparent he doesn't even have to be a sodding Legilimens to know that I'm full of crap._

"It's not all right with you and I know it. And I'm not going to do this to you."

"Oh, stop it, Sirius! Just—stop it!" Mimi cried finally, looking up at him again, not caring this time that he could see the tears flooding her eyes. "We both know it's what you want! You want Melody, and you can have her! _I don't care_!"

"I told you not to lie to me," Sirius snapped.

"What do you want me to say, then? That I forgive you? Fine, I forgive you! Now go be happy with your—true love or—_whatever_!" Mimi spat, and Sirius narrowed his eyes at her.

"I don't _care_ what you say to me!" he yelled in frustration. "I just care that you _mean_ what you say."

Mimi took in a great shuddering breath and ignored the tears dribbling down her cheeks. "Well…I do mean it. I want you to go and be with Melody, and I forgive you and everything, so you can stop trying to feel guilty about it and go off and be happy." She gulped in air and tried to suppress her sobs.

"_Damn it, Mimi_!" Sirius bellowed. He looked like he wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her.

Mimi couldn't hold it in anymore. Her resolve broke, and her tears burst forth, flooding the sides of her face with dampness.

Sirius looked like he didn't quite know what to do with her. He tried to move forward to comfort her, but she backed away and shook her head at him. _I must look awful_, Mimi thought, and wondered again why she cared. Her face got pinched when she cried, and her eyes puffed up ridiculously. _I must look like a frog,_ she thought miserably, and buried her face in her robes. She cried softly for a few moments, and then wiped her face off slowly.

She had to finish this thing with Sirius. She didn't want to, but there was no point being stupid about it anymore. Sirius and Melody were going to happen, whether Mimi liked it or not, and the best thing would just be for her to figure out how to be an effective liar so they could get on with it and Mimi could get over her stupid little lingering crush on Sirius.

Mimi didn't notice Sirius inching his way toward her, so when she finally lifted her face from her robes she was surprised at how close he was. "I'm sorry," she whispered, shaking her head. "I'm being so stupid."

"Not stupid," Sirius mumbled. He looked like he wanted to reach out and wipe away the last tear trickling down her face. Mimi held his gaze and let the tear fall down her cheek. She didn't flinch away this time when Sirius raised his hand, and let her eyes flutter closed as his thumb caressed her skin. His hand moved back to tuck her hair behind her ear, and Mimi opened her eyes, which were still shimmering with tears.

She found herself wanting him, acutely, and considered slapping his hand away, but oddly—twistedly, she thought—she was enjoying the feel of his skin against hers, and of his eyes on her face. She wondered if he would kiss her, and forgot for a moment how mad she was at him. It was so easy to fall in love with Sirius.

Was that what she was doing? Falling in love with him? Or just…falling in lust with him?

Remus was a better match for her, in every way. But Sirius…with Sirius there was a fierce animal attraction that Remus, despite his own animalistic tendencies, did not bring out in Mimi.

And this confused her. Terribly.

Sirius withdrew his hand, and Mimi tried to reorganize her thoughts.

Who had spoken last? What had they been speaking about? Could Sirius remember? Because Mimi certainly couldn't.

"I…I can't remember what I was going to say," Mimi said finally, laughing at herself. Sirius allowed himself a small grin. "I just…honestly, Sirius. Really. I don't want you to be unhappy," she managed, with a tone of decisiveness. "And I think you and Melody should be together."

Sirius studied her carefully. "But it still bothers you."

Mimi hesitated. "Yes. But—oh, Sirius, I know there's nothing I can do to stop it. You and Melody should have been together a long time ago."

Sirius stared over Mimi's head and out the window. "Maybe," he agreed. "But still. It's not all right if it's not all right with you."

Mimi sighed. "It's as all right with me as it's ever going to be," she conceded, feeling a pang in her chest as she did so. "And it's not fair to Melody for me to be so selfish. It's not—it's not fair to either of you."

He frowned at her. "Mimi, I really need you to understand that I care about you."

She stared at the ground. He _did_ care about her, and she knew it. _Just…not as much as you care about Melody._

"I know," she whispered.

Sirius tipped her chin up with his finger. He searched her eyes for a long time. Mimi wondered briefly if he really _was_ a Legilimens, but shoved the thought aside.

Sirius nodded at her, finally, and released her chin. "Mimi…however long you want me to wait…"

But Mimi shook her head. "That's stupid, Sirius. We both know how you feel about Melody, and…I'm sure Melody's probably busy torturing herself right now thinking about you, so…just get on with it, will you?"

Sirius blinked at her. "You…you sure?"

Mimi could see, now that she'd alleviated him of his guilt, that he just wanted to get out of here and go find Melody.

_Ouch_.

"Yeah, I'm sure, Sirius," she said.

He looked at her and smiled. "You're more than I deserve, Mimi."

Mimi grinned, briefly and emotionlessly. _I guess that's why you're not going to have me, then_.

"Go on, Sirius," she said. "She's waiting for you."

"She can keep waiting," Sirius informed her. "I'm giving it a day for all of this to settle."

"Don't be stupid, Sirius," Mimi said, shaking her head. "We both know you aren't going to change your mind."

"No," Sirius agreed, and tipped up her chin. "But you might."

Mimi had to swallow very hard to keep her bottom lip from trembling. Sirius stared at her for a long time—too long—and Mimi was afraid she would burst into tears again, and that wouldn't help things at all.

She also found herself wishing—stupidly, irrationally—that he would kiss her.

Sirius was so close to her—his hand was still cupping her chin—and Mimi could feel her heart beginning to pick up speed. It made no sense—after the conversation they'd just had—after the way he'd admitted his feelings about Melody—after the way she'd been acting toward Remus—for her to want this, but she did. She briefly imagined herself wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing his mouth down to hers, but Sirius moved closer to her and saved her the trouble.

He kissed her softly, once…

…on the cheek.

_Well…well…shit,_ Mimi thought, and could not return Sirius's grin as he backed away from her.

"Thanks, Mimi," he said, now apparently oblivious to her pain.

"You're welcome," she mumbled, and forced a grin before he turned and walked out of the classroom.

_Damn him, _she thought, uncharitably. _Stupid ass. Stupid…horrible, sodding, selfish, pompous…blooming…ASS. _

_Bloody…sodding…GIT!_ she yelled, internally, before her knees gave out under her and she collapsed on the floor.

"Damn it!" she shrieked, and screwed up her face, thinking she would burst into tears. But, for once, her tears wouldn't come, and she just sat on the floor of the classroom for a while, growing sick and depressed and dusty with emotion.

* * *

Wendy was beginning not to miss Lin anymore. At first she'd felt guilty; Lin was so miserable and Wendy was deserting her. But it wasn't as though she hadn't _tried_ to get through to Lin. She had. She'd discussed this with Lucy, many times, and the girls had come up with this conclusion: Lin just wasn't interested in being got through to. If she wanted to suffer in misery, then she could suffer in misery. Wendy wasn't going to beat her head against the wall trying to drag Lin from her depression.

And the _people_ Lin was associating with now…what kind of girl did you have to be to want to hang out with Bridget DeBeauvois, for goodness' sake? Not that Wendy agreed with Lucy about her being a "French cretin" (she didn't think being French had much to do with); she just thought Bridget was exceptionally rude. If that was the kind of company Lin wanted to keep these days…then Wendy wasn't sure she wanted to spend any time with her, that was all. Any girl crude enough to attack Lucy in the stands during A Quidditch game…well, suffice it to say that Bridget was exactly the sort of girl Wendy's mother had forbidden her to hang out with when she was younger. Wendy's mother tended to look down her nose at _those_ sort of people.

Wendy's thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of Lucy, who sat down across from her, beaming intensely. Wendy was curled up in a large armchair near the back of the Gryffindor Common Room, pretending to read her Divination book. Lucy had deep circles under her eyes, and her dark brown hair was in disarray, but she looked happier than Wendy had seen her in ages. The swelling in her chin was nearly gone, and she looked deeply excited about something.

"What's in the bag?" Wendy asked, noticing a small red satchel on Lucy's lap.

"My new project," Lucy announced, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "I've been working on it all morning. Here—take one."

She pulled something small and shiny out of the bag and tossed it to Wendy, who examined it curiously. It was a silver pin that vaguely resembled a Prefect badge, emblazoned with the letters "FPC."

"What—what's FPC?" Wendy frowned.

"It stands for 'Future Prefect Candidate.'"

Wendy stared at her blankly. "Please tell me you're joking."

Lucy grinned. "Only partly."

Wendy raised one eyebrow quizzically, and Lucy continued.

"That's what you're going to _tell_ people it stands for. Go ahead, put it on."

Wendy hesitated. "Where's yours?"

"I haven't put one on yet. Come on—we'll put ours on together."

"All right," Wendy said, but hesitated again. "What does it _really_ stand for?"

"What it stands for," Lucy replied, pinning one of the badges to her robes, "is the _Fully Pure Club_. It's for us pure-bloods who support the pure-blood cause. Well—aren't you going to put yours on?"

"Oh…yeah," Wendy said, fumbling with the pin. She wondered what exactly Lucy thought the "pure-blood cause" was.

Lucy beamed at her. "Wonderful. I knew you'd like it."

"Um," Wendy replied. "What do Gillian and Rachel think of it?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen them yet. I think they're working on some big Ancient Runes project together." She shrugged. "Who knows? I'm just glad I found you—I'm so _excited _about this. I just _had_ to talk about it with somebody!"

Wendy nodded, and waited for Lucy to start talking about it, but Lucy just beamed and examined her shiny new badge proudly.

"So. What's the purpose of the club?"

"Well, it's for pure-bloods only, obviously," Lucy began, squirming in excitement, "but it's going to be _more_ than just that. I think it'll be a great way to get back at Bridget for what she did to my chin." She scowled. "People like _her_ won't be allowed in. Oh, she's a pure-blood of course, but she's not like us. We're going to have regular meetings, and get to know everyone of _our_ kind from the other houses. Well—maybe not Slytherin." Lucy pulled a face. "I don't think _they _have the right idea about things."

"Our kind?" Wendy echoed.

"Yeah. I think it'll be helpful, don't you? I mean, to have a whole group of people we can really trust. It's getting hard to trust people anymore, you know." Lucy glanced around the common room suspiciously, and then leaned forward, whispering, "You never know who might be a spy." She leaned back in her chair and clutched her bag of pins. "That's why I figure we ought to start building trust now—that way once we're out of Hogwarts, we'll know exactly who to turn to if we need help."

"Help? What…what do you mean?"

"Oh, _honestly_ Wendy. Don't you pay attention to _anything_?"

Wendy blinked. "Are you talking about…You-Know-Who?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Well, of _course_ I'm talking about You-Know-Who! The way things are going now, by the time we get out of Hogwarts the world will be a completely different place. Daddy says the Minister of Magic's started running investigations on people at the Ministry—trying to figure out if they're spies, you see. He says the Minister's targeting pure-bloods," she added darkly. "I don't think that's acceptable. _He's_ a pure-blood, too—shouldn't someone be investigating _him_?"

Wendy didn't think the Minister was in league with You-Know-Who, but Lucy did have a point. "Yeah," she said softly, fiddling with her pin. "You don't—you don't think Dumbledore will mind?" she asked suddenly, thinking of the club.

"Of course not," Lucy replied, grinning wickedly. "Why should Dumbledore mind if a bunch of the younger students decide they want to be Prefects?"

* * *

Mimi slumped into the Ravenclaw Common Room, feeling morose and dejected, and sank onto the couch in defeat. Several third years looked at her oddly, but no one said anything, so she just sat there for a while feeling unusually depressed until Lily tramped into the Common Room, her arms full of large, thick books, looking equally dejected.

"Hullo, Mimi," Lily said rather dully as she passed by the couch.

Mimi mumbled something in response and Lily stopped, turning to frown at her friend. "What's the matter? You feeling all right?"

Mimi tried to shrug dismissively, but she ended up just looking miserable.

"Aw, Mimi, what happened?"

Lily dropped her books by the end of the couch and sat down next to Mimi, who just shrugged again, and began picking at her nails.

"Come on," Lily urged. "Tell me."

"It's stupid," Mimi mumbled.

"No, it's not," Lily said, and narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "It's about Sirius. Isn't it?"

Mimi was a terrible liar. She'd managed to fool Sirius, but she didn't think she could handle more than one deception in a day—especially not if she was trying to fool Lily.

"Yeah," Mimi agreed quietly. "It is."

"What happened? Did your talk with him go badly?"

Mimi fidgeted. "Yes. Well…no. I mean…kind of."

Lily sighed. "Mimi, just tell me."

"All right," she said, after a moment's hesitation. "Sirius…said everything I thought he'd say. Basically. It wasn't a surprise, really…I mean, I knew he wanted to be with Melody, I just…." Mimi swallowed the lump forming in her throat. "I didn't think I'd react to it the way I did."

Lily frowned. "Mimi, I thought…I thought you wanted to be with Remus."

"I do," Mimi whispered. "Lily, I do, I really do, but…but I don't know. I…." She fiddled with the sleeves of her robes violently, wrapping and un-wrapping them around her finger. "Sirius still makes me feel things," she said, so softly Lily almost couldn't hear. "Things that I…I thought you were only supposed to feel for one person at a time. And…I don't know why. I mean, it doesn't even make sense, does it?" Her voice was getting louder now. "I mean, he's been gone for a month, it's completely stupid, and I knew that he was going to…well, it's obvious what's going to happen. Don't you think? He's going to be with Melody and I'm going to be with Remus and it's going to be…um…very lovely. Won't it?" she asked, looking desperate.

Lily reached over and took one of Mimi's hands. "Mimi, what did you say to Sirius?"

Mimi's gaze slid away. "I said a lot of things to Sirius."

Lily squeezed her hand. "_Mimi_. You know what I mean."

Mimi stared very hard at the floor. "I told him I wanted him to be happy."

"_And_?"

"And…and nothing. _I'm_ not what's going to make him happy, Lily. I just told him what he wanted to hear."

"Oh, Mimi," Lily murmured, shaking her head. "You're just making yourself miserable."

Mimi stuck her chin out stubbornly. "So?" she demanded. "Would you rather I make Remus miserable? Or Sirius? Or Melody? How about all three?"

"I would _rather_ you told Sirius the truth."

"The truth? Do you think that's what he wanted to hear? He didn't want the truth from me, Lily, he wanted my blessing! So I gave it to him, and now—well, I just hope he's happy now!"

"Mimi, you're never going to be friends with Sirius again if you sit here holding a silent grudge against him for dating Melody."

"Well, maybe I don't _want_ to be friends with Sirius again!" Mimi spat. "Maybe friendship's not enough anymore!"

"Mimi…what about Remus?"

"Oh, what _about _Remus?" she snapped.

Lily blinked. "You don't mean that."

Mimi sighed, deflating again. "No," she agreed. "Not really."

"Mimi…this is stupid. It's not fair to either of you for him to go on thinking everything's all right when it's really not. You should tell him," she urged.

"Teenagers are stupid," Mimi muttered. "And it doesn't matter, Lily. If he cared—I mean, _really _cared—he would know that everything was not _all right_. If he cared about me the way I want him to care about me…he'd know that. But he doesn't. So it doesn't matter. I mean…if he cared about me the way I wanted him to…." Mimi looked up and shrugged. "Well, you'd be having this conversation with Melody instead of me, wouldn't you?"

"Nah," Lily said, grinning wryly. "Melody would be sobbing too hard to speak. She's far more theatrical than you are."

Mimi looked away from Lily. She hadn't been here to see Mimi's performance right after Sirius left.

"I'm sorry," Lily said, misreading her expression. "That was rude of me."

"No, it's all right. Lily…I know I'm being stupid about all of this. I really am. I honestly don't understand why I feel this way, because I thought…I thought it had all blown over and everything was all right and I just wanted to be with Remus now, and…talking to Sirius would just be a formality, you know? The last part of our breakup, I guess. Where we both admitted it was a ruse and that we liked other people all along and it was finally going to be all right.

"But…I don't know. It just didn't feel like a ruse anymore. It really…hurt."

Mimi's face crumpled and Lily wrapped her into a hug. "I'm sorry, Meems. I thought everything was starting to go right for you."

Mimi gave a great sniff and leaned back, wiping away her shallow tears. "Me too," she said, and smiled wryly. "And I…I don't know what I'm going to say to Remus." She looked rather ill at the prospect.

"Don't worry about that yet, Mimi," Lily advised. "Remus is patient. He'll wait. Sirius, on the other hand," she frowned, "won't."

"He's waiting a day, he said. I told him not to, but…he insisted. He said he wanted all this to settle first. And…make sure it was all right with me, or some such nonsense."

Lily's gaze softened. "Oh, Mimi, don't you see? He really does care about you. I think you should go talk to him again."

"Not a chance, Lily. I don't think I could handle that more than once in a day."

"Mimi, you _have _to."

"No I don't."

"Fine. Let me talk to him, then."

Mimi's eyes widened in alarm. "Lily—_no_. You can't. Promise me you won't."

Lily's mouth hardened into a thin, annoyed line. "I can't promise not to talk to him, Mimi."

"Then promise you won't tell him anything I said. _Promise _me."

Lily hesitated. "I promise," she mumbled finally. "But Mimi—I really think you need to get this straightened out."

"It is straightened out," Mimi insisted. "Sirius has what he wants. He'll be happy. And I have what I want," she continued quickly, before Lily could interrupt her. "I just…have to wait for my hormones to catch up with my brain, that's all. I'm sure they'll get it right soon enough."

Mimi stared pointedly at the floor, and Lily gave her a very reproachful glare.

* * *

"Sirius, I need to talk to you."

Sirius was standing in the Potions section of the library, whistling cheerfully as he selected several large, odious Potions books from the shelves. "Fire away, Lily," he said, grinning, and resumed his whistling.

"Sirius, I'm worried about Mimi."

Sirius's whistling trailed off slowly. "Oh. Er…is something the matter?"

Lily glared at him. "You know perfectly well there's something the matter, don't you?"

Sirius avoided her gaze as he heaved one more book off the shelf and carried his stack over to a remote study table, where a stack of parchment and several other opened books were waiting for him. "Um…perhaps," he admitted. "But I don't see why it matters."

"Oh, so it doesn't matter that Mimi's practically…_wretched_ over the thought of you going out with Melody? You're just going to stand around and whistle because you're happy you're getting what _you_ want, with no thought to how _Mimi_ feels?"

"It's her own damn fault," Sirius snapped. "If she insists on lying to me, then I'm going to insist on taking her for her word."

Lily's glare intensified. "Sirius Black, that is disgustingly selfish of you."

"You know what, Lily?" Sirius said, slamming his books onto the table. "_I don't care_. I've had just about enough of girls lying to me about their feelings. Melody lied to me first, and that's what got me into this mess, and now Mimi insists on lying to me, too, because for some reason she—I don't know, enjoys torturing herself or something. Like I bloody know what's going on in her mind."

"Oh, so the whole mess with Mimi was completely _her_ fault? Like you never lied to her by going out with her?"

Sirius hesitated. "I never actually _told_ her I felt anything about her. Not until—not until I really did, anyway."

"You don't always have to _speak_ lies, Sirius. Just going out with her was enough of a lie."

"It was a mutual lie!" Sirius snapped, and Lily fell silent.

"I guess it was…for a while," she agreed.

"Yeah, for a while, and then we thought we might try to make it _not_ a lie, and then I screwed things up—_I know_. I'm not saying I don't feel horrible about it. I'm just saying if Mimi wants to lie about how she feels now, she can damn well lie, and then see how _she_ feels when she receives the consequences for it."

Sirius carefully avoided Lily's gaze when he said this, and she set her jaw angrily.

"Sirius, that's _horrible_. Don't you care about your friendship with her at _all_?"

"Of course I do!" Sirius roared, losing his temper. "Why do you think I bothered talking to her about it? I spent half an hour trying to convince her that what I wanted was the truth, and for us to be all right again. But apparently she didn't want either of those, so…." He shrugged. "It's no more than she deserves," he said, but mumbled it.

"You should talk to her," Lily said, "since she doesn't want to approach you again."

"And what's that going to solve? She's just going to lie to me again."

"Not if you call her out," Lily insisted. "If you _know_ she's lying she won't have a choice."

"Tried that already," Sirius said. "She lied anyway. Pretty convincing, too. I suspect some of it had to be the truth, but—still. I'm not stupid. I could tell she wasn't really all right with everything."

"I wish I had a tape of this conversation," Lily muttered, and shook her head. She sighed and thought for a moment. "Well—all right. I guess I can see your point. If she lied the first time, what's going to stop her from doing it the second, or the third, right? And…Sirius, I really think she does want you to be happy, she just…wants that happiness to include her."

"It does, though," Sirius insisted. "She's a good friend."

Lily gave him a look. "Sirius. You know what I mean."

Sirius's cheeks flushed slightly. "Yeah," he mumbled. "But still. What do you want me to do about it?"

Lily mulled this over for a moment. "Just…wait. Please. Not forever—a few more days, at least. Until this weekend, perhaps? I know it'll be torture for Melody, but…it'll be good for Mimi. If you give it more than a day, I mean. She needs a while to get her head on straight, and I have a feeling she's just dreading seeing you and Melody walking around like a couple of turtledoves…please, Sirius? Can you do that? For her?"

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, nodding, his voice a little rough. "But…I don't know quite how to explain this to Melody."

"Don't worry about it," Lily advised. "She's the root of this mess. I think she can stand to wait a couple more days. Don't get me wrong," she said quickly, noting the look on Sirius's face, "it's not that I don't know she's agonizing over it. Believe me—I know. But still…I think she's being a tad melodramatic. And it's not going to kill her to wait until the weekend. Maybe she'll even focus on her homework for once, to get her mind off it."

Sirius gave a little half-grin. "All right, Lily. We have a deal. But don't forget—if Melody asks, this is all your fault. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Lily affirmed, grinning, hoping her plan would be enough to set Mimi's head straight.

* * *

"_There_ you are!" Lucy said, as Gillian and Rachel entered the Common Room. "You missed dinner," she accused.

"We know. We're sorry," Gillian sighed, plopping down in the chair next to Lucy's. "The Ancient Runes project took a lot longer than we thought."

"We had to steal food from the kitchens," Rachel added, shoving the last bit of a muffin in her mouth. Some crumbs fell into her light brown hair, and she wiped them off in annoyance.

"Did we miss anything exciting?" Gillian leaned back in her chair, her eyes drooping tiredly.

"Well, you missed me being _brilliant_," Lucy announced, and pulled out her bag.

Gillian perked a bit. "Oh? What've you come up with now?"

"These," Lucy replied, tossing both Gillian and Rachel badges.

"What are these?" Rachel asked, turning the badge over and considering it amusedly. "FPS? What's that stand for—Fun and Pretty Students?"

Lucy laughed. "Even _better_," she announced.

"There's something better than being fun and pretty?" Gillian joked.

"For us there is," Lucy said, and Gillian and Rachel exchanged a glance.

"Oh, just tell them already," Wendy said, rolling her eyes.

Gillian's gaze slid to Wendy, and she noticed that Wendy was already wearing one of the shiny "FPS" badges. She pursed her lips and turned her attention back to Lucy, who was offering an explanation, but her mind was bubbling with annoyance. Since when did Lucy tell _Wendy_ things before she told Gillian?

Once Lucy had finished outlining the basics of the Fully Pure Club, Gillian fastened her pin on proudly. Lucy beamed at her and looked over at Rachel expectantly.

But Rachel did not fasten her pin on proudly. She held it in her hands and stared at it, frowning.

"What's the matter?" Lucy asked. "Is there something wrong with the pin?"

"No," Rachel said softly, and looked at her. "It's just…my mum's a Muggle, Lucy. You know that."

Gillian frowned. "I thought your mum was a witch…wasn't she?"

"Mother was," Rachel corrected, "but my mum isn't."

"Your _step-_mum isn't, you mean," Lucy said.

"She's still my _mum_," Rachel whispered, staring down at the badge again. "I can't wear this."

Lucy glanced at Gillian worriedly. "Well—well you don't have to _wear_ it of course. It's just—sort of a good _idea_, that's all."

"Here." Rachel held out her hand. "I don't want it."

Lucy stared at her for a minute, and the other two girls stared at Lucy, anxiously. Gillian saw Wendy fiddling nervously with her pin, and rolled her eyes and flipped her hair haughtily over one shoulder. Gillian wasn't going to give up her badge just because Rachel didn't like the idea. _She_ thought Lucy's plan was _brilliant_.

"You're—you're still going to come to the meetings with us, though…right?" Lucy asked, slowly reaching out to take the pin from Rachel.

Rachel shrugged and stared at the floor. "Maybe."

"It…it won't be the same without you," Lucy urged. "And…it's not really so much a pure-blood thing as it is just a…a trust kind of thing…."

Rachel shrugged again, briefly. "I guess so."

"I just thought…pure-bloods and all…the Muggle-borns probably don't trust us anyway…."

"I think it's a _great_ plan," Gillian interjected. "I think it'll be lots of fun—and it's not like we're saying anything _against_ Muggle-borns, Rach. It's just a good way to get to know people…right, Lucy?"

"Right," Lucy agreed, looking relieved.

Rachel lifted her gaze and looked around at their expectant faces. She shrugged again. "All right," she said softly. "Just as long as I don't have to wear the pin."

"No, not if you don't want to," Lucy said quickly, reassuringly, and Rachel smiled timidly.

But Gillian felt a twist in the pit of her stomach. There was an uneasy sense of disunity, suddenly, and she didn't like it. Since when did Rachel protest their brilliant plans?

But Lucy went on, excitedly. "This is going to be awesome, ladies. Let's start spreading the word."

* * *

Lily was starting to get a crick in her neck. She'd been hunched over textbooks for the last several hours, and she didn't feel like she was getting anywhere. She'd found "Gryffindor" in various indexes dozens of times, but none of them ever focused on Laurelle—or even Patrick, really, though she had found one small snippet that discussed his somewhat untimely death at the hands of German soldiers during the early Napoleonic Wars.

But…nothing on Laurelle. And, for all its apparent value and power, absolutely _nothing_ on the necklace.

She looked up "Delany," too, and found some things on the brothers Kruger and Steven Delany, but nothing on…

"Jumping toadstools," Lily breathed, as she thumbed through the index of _Little-Known Wizards of the Nineteenth Century_. There she was: _Delany, Livana_. Lily's heart skipped excitedly, and she flipped through the pages eagerly, hoping for something—_anything_—informative, something _substantial_—finally, after almost a year of searching, maybe she'd find something that would—

"Two paragraphs?" Lily said, staring at the book dumbly. "That's _it_? This could be the most important passage I've ever read in a book in my entire life, and all they have is _two paragraphs_?"

She briefly considered throwing the book across the room. She also envisioned herself stomping into the office of whatever poncey-tart editor decided that Livana Delany was only worth two bloody paragraphs and hexing him until his head came out his rear end.

But then she composed herself, and read the small, two-paragraph entry on Livana.

_DELANY, Livana._

_Livana Piermont Delany (1856-1882) is best known for her work on lycanthropy. Her interest in this field stemmed from her own experiences as a werewolf, an affliction from which she suffered since childhood. Her experiments focused primarily on methods of reversing or subduing the effects of her monthly transformations, but progress in this area was cut short by her untimely death. _

_Her research spanned many other fields, including alchemy, dark arts defense, ancient magic, and a particularly in-depth set of reports on enchanted necklaces, but little of this research is considered credible. The distrust of werewolves in wizarding society hurt her reputation as a scientist and historian during her lifetime, and the stigma continues posthumously._

Lily breathed out slowly.

Perhaps she didn't hate the editor so much anymore.

"A werewolf," Lily murmured, and looked down at her hands. "That would explain the scratches."

_If only I could read Livana's damn writing_, Lily cursed silently. _Then maybe I'd be able to see some of her research..._

But now, at least, she had something to work with. She needed to find Livana's reports on enchanted necklaces, and now that she knew that they _existed_, she hoped the search would be somewhat easier. Lily also now had clues as to where to look for other things on Livana. Anything on notable werewolves--or other things on nineteenth-century wizards--would be a good place to start. Maybe Remus knew something helpful about werewolf literature.

Lily bit her lip and considered this. She _could_ talk to Remus about it…but she wasn't sure he knew that _she_ knew about him being a werewolf yet, and she wasn't exactly sure this was the right time to bring it up. Maybe she could ask James to ask Remus for her or something. That might work better.

In the meantime, however, Lily was tired of looking through textbooks, and besides she had to have a talk about a few things with Melody before the girl went completely insane about Sirius. Lily groaned. Much as she hated the textbooks, she wasn't much looking forward to the conversation with Melody, either.

But...ah, well. These things had to be done.

* * *

Melody was buried deep in her Transfiguration homework, and it wasn't helping a bit. She practically had spells coming out of her ass, and it still wasn't enough to get her mind off of Sirius.

_Why?_ she moaned internally, and imagined Lily rolling her eyes and calling her melodramatic. Melody slapped this imaginary Lily upside the head and continued her moping. She couldn't _help_ it. And what did Lily know about it, anyway? What did _she_ know about waiting in agony for the boy you love? The boy _Lily_ loved followed her around like a slightly deranged Niffler who thought Lily was a large pot of gold.

And Melody…well, Melody had nothing. Except her stupid Transfiguration book. Like she cared about Level 7 Solidifying Spells when true love was on the line. _Honestly_. She grinned mildly at her internal commentary, but the smile faded quickly. Underneath the sarcasm and the melodrama, she was beginning to feel a little hurt.

It had been four days since Sirius's talk with Mimi. _Four days_. Lily had attempted to explain the situation to her, but as far as Melody could tell, Mimi and Sirius were getting along fine. Mimi wasn't lobbing things at Sirius's head, anyway. So _what_, exactly, was Melody still waiting around for? Was Sirius awaiting a sign from the gods? A big fancy present to give to Melody when they finally got together? The coming of the Apocalypse? _What_?

Melody hunched over a piece of parchment and tried to shove her thoughts away, scribbling furiously. Maybe if she wrote long enough…and hard enough…maybe if she concentrated until her eyeballs popped out and her brain imploded…maybe then she'd be able to stop thinking about him. Maybe then she wouldn't see his face every time she closed her eyes.

Maybe.

Or maybe she'd just go insane. They'd lock her up in an insane asylum, where she'd have dreams about him every night, and rave insanely about the sexy-haired boy whose name she could not remember but who she saw every night in her sleep, and whose presence in her dreams she could not quite explain. Except that he really did look very sexy and kiss very nicely and…

_Damn it. This train of thought isn't helping any. _

She tried, desperately, to slip her brain back into study mode. Sometimes, if she concentrated hard enough, read long enough, and actually focused on writing worthwhile essays, her brain switched off its 24-hour "I Miss Sirius" network (or at least muted it), and she was able to get some decent work done. If she was lucky.

Today was not shaping up to be a lucky day.

She scribbled out several sentences of her essay in frustration after realizing she'd written the exact same thing three times in a row.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered, crumpling up the piece of parchment and tossing it into the fire. She shoved her Transfiguration book off the couch and noted with satisfaction the aggravating _thump_ it made when it landed. She shoved all of her parchment and quills off the couch as well, and plopped back onto the pillows in defeat. If she couldn't keep her mind off Sirius, she might as well just give in…for now. Daydreaming about Sirius wasn't so bad. It was the part when she stopped daydreaming and realized how unfulfilling daydreams were that sucked.

But she wasn't going to dwell on that.

Melody snuggled up against a few pillows and sighed, imagining Sirius…he'd come through the sliding panel in MHQ, she imagined, and discover her poring over her homework, frustrated beyond all reason. He'd gently take the book from her hands and remind her that it was Saturday, and there was no point doing homework on Saturdays, not with all of Sunday still stretched out before her. This speech, of course, was all really just a pretense, because Sirius wasn't really interested in Melody's study habits. He really just wanted her to abandon her homework to snog with him—which they began to do, at great length. Melody was beginning to reflect on just how unsatisfying fantasy snogs were when a noise from the other side of the room jerked her out of her reverie.

The panel to MHQ was sliding open, and Melody sighed, thinking of how long it would take to gather up all the parchment she'd just scattered across the floor, so she could vacate for whichever Marauder had come up to put MHQ to better use than she. It would be James, she imagined, preparing for some covert operation or another the Marauders were planning (because when weren't the Marauders planning a covert operation?), and she sat up, prepared to greet him and get out of his way.

But when she sat up, she didn't say anything. The sight of Sirius in the doorway shocked the words right out of her.

Melody blinked and shook her head, convinced her evil subconscious was just playing tricks on her. She'd fallen asleep. Surely that was it. Melody pinched herself. _Ow,_ she thought, and her heart gave a little hopeful jolt. So she wasn't asleep, then. _But still…what are the odds we'll end up snogging?_ she reasoned, and her stomach sank a bit.

For now, though, she was going to take the opportunity to stare good and long at Sirius, before he inevitably turned around and ran away. He'd become remarkably good at avoiding her lately…or at least at walking away from her with surprising speed and agility when she looked like she wanted to talk to him.

He wasn't walking away now, and Melody blinked at him in surprise. He wasn't looking at her like he usually did these days—shifty and nervous and like he wanted to get away. He was looking at her like he'd been looking _for _her, and now that he'd found her he just wanted to stand there looking at her for a while, so she let him. She thought about getting up, or saying hi to him, or some combination of the above, but she was afraid this would somehow ruin the moment, and she didn't want him to jerk out of whatever state he was in and have him run away again. So they just stared at each other for a while.

She didn't know quite what to make of Sirius. He just looked—how did he look?—_relieved,_ maybe? She didn't know. She didn't care. _He is so sodding gorgeous_, she thought, drinking in the sight of him. She could hardly remember the last time she'd been able to look at him like this. With so much…_want. _He had to see how badly she wanted him.

But maybe Sirius was too busy looking back at her to notice. His eyes, which up until now had held on her face with a sure and steady gaze, were all over her, memorizing her details, appreciating the way her hair glowed golden in the firelight, and…various other things, Melody suspected. She got an achy, shivery feeling in her legs, and her head spun dizzily in anticipation.

Sirius had made up his mind about something. She wasn't sure what he'd been struggling with, or entirely why he'd been avoiding her, but the look on his face told her that he'd decided enough was enough. Enough waiting.

_Praise the Lord_, Melody thought, and slid off the couch, finally, afraid that if she didn't kiss Sirius right now she might never get the chance again.

Melody's movement snapped Sirius back to reality, and he blinked, as though realizing he'd just been staring at her for the last five minutes.

"Melody," he said finally, dropping his book bag on the floor.

That was all Melody needed to hear. She shortened the distance between them in a few short steps, and stared up at him earnestly. There was no point trying to hide her feelings anymore.

She felt shuddery, breathless, like she was either on the verge of some great fulfillment or a spectacular nervous breakdown. The feelings swarming inside her chest became so potent Melody wondered that they didn't siphon themselves into a sharp point, and shoot out of her chest and into Sirius's, tugging against his heart like some great emotional grappling hook.

But maybe she was already doing that, she thought, seeing the way Sirius was looking at her now. Maybe her eyes said it all.

And Sirius didn't say anything. He'd had enough.

He snapped.

His lips came crashing down on Melody's, delicious and hard and fiery with wanting. It was like being smacked in the mouth with a warm piece of pie, she thought—hard and sloppy and odd at first, but after the initial shock, so sweet and soothing it was impossible to pull away.

Sirius gathered her against him and explored her mouth with his. Their lips were familiar with one another, but they'd never quite been given the liberty to go on as they pleased, and Melody thought that hers rather ran away with her. But—oh, _God_, who _cared_ how shameless her mouth was being, if Sirius would just never ever stop doing that?

Her knees shook pathetically. She had to wrap her arms around Sirius's neck to hold herself up, and even that wasn't entirely effective. She couldn't help the goose bumps or the shaky knees or the fluttering stomach, it seemed, and frankly she didn't want to. Even Paolo had never made her feel like this. And even if it made her feel helpless and unstable and halfway like she was going to explode, she didn't want it to stop. Better to explode with happiness than implode with misery.

Because that's what Melody was, more than anything. On top of the shivering and the butterflies and the little bumps along her skin…she was _happy_. Her insides were ballooning with happiness, so much that she imagined if Sirius weren't holding her so tightly she would start to expand, and eventually become light and round like a helium balloon, drift off into the atmosphere, positively stupid with joy. Or…or something.

_Who sodding cares? Sirius is…is…um…_

_Oh, sod it_.

Melody stopped trying to think, because Sirius had begun exploring her neck and chest with his lips, and Melody was having a hard time breathing, let alone _thinking_. He came notoriously close to her breasts before working his way back up and investigating the other side of her neck, which produced much the same breath-disrupting results as before.

_You sure this isn't a dream?_ she asked herself, vaguely, in between kisses. _Well, fuck it, if it's a dream it's a damn good one and I'm going to enjoy it,_ she decided, and guided Sirius's lips back to hers.

* * *

Lucy was nervous. She was usually good at speaking in front of people, but she was anxious about today. She'd never given any kind of speech about something this _important_ before, unless you counted her brief description of the club to Wendy, Rachel, and Gillian. She hoped she wouldn't mess it up too badly. More importantly, she hoped everyone _came_.

She was getting ready to hold the first official meeting of the Fully Pure Club. No one else had shown up yet, and that made her even more nervous. Granted, she was half an hour early, but _still_. Lucy surveyed the room, bouncing on the balls of her feet. It _looked_ all right, she thought…the desks were arrayed in a circle so everyone could see each other, with one FPC badge laid neatly on each desk…if someone didn't show up, it would be painfully obvious. Or if an _extra_ person showed up…hm. Maybe positioning the desks this way was a bad idea.

Lucy hastily put all the FPC badges back into her velvet bag and rearranged the desks so they were facing the front of the room, where a colorful banner displaying the "FPC" logo hung. Gillian, who was rather artistic, had spent the better part of two days fashioning it, and it looked positively _brilliant_. Lucy watched it for a minute as the colors shifted, the FPC letters glossing from bright gold to deep blue, the background shifting from murky red to murky black.

"Wow," came a flat voice from the doorway. "Crowded."

Lucy turned around and frowned. "Don't be sarcastic, Gillie. I'm nervous enough as it is."

Gillian shook her head and walked into the room, her red-gold hair swinging behind her. "What do you have to be nervous about? It's just a meeting. All you have to do is explain what we're about. It's not as though anyone particularly _important_ is going to be here, either—unless you count _Anthony_."

Lucy squeaked and dropped her bag. "_Anthony Hall_? You got him to _come_?"

"That's what he said on Thursday," Gillian grinned.

"And you waited until _today_ to tell me?" Lucy demanded, her face growing pale. She'd liked Anthony for _ages_. He was easily the cutest boy in her year, with his sandy-blonde hair…strong shoulders…the most _gorgeous_ golden-brown eyes Lucy had ever seen…. She got knots in her stomach just _thinking_ about him.

"Oh, don't get upset about it, Lucy. I mean, this is a _good_ thing. Maybe he'll stop hanging out with that _loser_ Lin and take an interest in you."

"You…you think?" Lucy tried to remember how much make-up she'd applied this morning. She hoped she'd remembered to put on some striking eye shadow. Her eyes were a deep blue, almost purple, and she enjoyed attracting attention to them. Anything to offset the disappointing brown-ness of her hair.

Gillian shrugged and sat down on top of the desk in the front of the room, flipping her hair over one shoulder. She was rather vain about her hair, and Lucy couldn't really blame her. She would _kill_ to have hair so…so…_brilliant_. It was red, mostly, but it shimmered golden in the candlelight. Gillian wore it in a long mane down her back, and it took her hours to get all the tangles out after she washed it…but still. Lucy would sacrifice hours of her time, too, if she had hair like that.

"I hope so," Gillian said, jolting Lucy out of her moment of envy. She was still talking about Anthony. "He really could be one of _us_ if he wanted. I don't see why he wastes his time with that _pathetic_—" Gillian cleared her throat and cut herself off as she saw Wendy appear in the doorway with her boyfriend, Thomas. Wendy wasn't really friends with Lin anymore, but she still got kind of funny when Gillian said mean things about Lin.

"Pathetic? What's pathetic?"

"Oh—nothing," Gillian lied. "Lucy's just nervous about the first meeting, that's all."

"Don't be. It's going to be brilliant," Wendy assured her.

"Where's Rachel?" Lin asked, fiddling with the drawstring on her bag.

"She was coming here with us, but she had to go to the _bathroom_," Thomas drawled. "I didn't feel like waiting for her."

Gillian rolled her eyes. "I don't blame you. She takes _forever_ in the bathroom. I mean…what does she _do_ in there?"

"Who knows?" Wendy muttered. "Everybody better get here soon, though. I have a paper to write on Mushrooms in Potionmaking."

Gillian screwed up her face. "It's _Saturday_. You can't write papers on Saturdays."

"Yeah, but Thomas and I have planstomorrow."

"Thanks for waiting for me," Rachel snapped, walking through the doorway.

"I said I wasn't going to wait around for you," Thomas reminded her.

"Yeah, _you_ said. _Wendy_ didn't."

"Well, what was I supposed to do? Wait around and…hum show tunes to myself? It would've been _boring_."

"Well, I might've gotten lost!"

"But you didn't," Gillian interjected. "So there's no point fighting over it."

"Um…is this the right place?" asked a voice by the door, and everyone looked over to see Anthony Hall standing in the doorway.

"Yes," Lucy said, rather breathlessly. "Come in. Why don't you have a seat? In fact, why doesn't everybody have a seat? Let's um…get ready for the meeting. Everyone else should be arriving shortly."

Anthony took a seat near the back, Lucy was disappointed to notice, but at least he was _there_. She grinned at him, probably too widely, and he returned the grin with a faint one of his own.

Well, he wasn't throwing bouquets at her or anything, but at least he was _here_, and he hadn't brought Bridget or Lin with him, so…that was something, wasn't it?

A few more people trickled in—though not as many as she'd hoped—and she glanced at her watch. _Two-forty already._ Well…if no one else was coming, she might as well get started. She took a big, calming breath, and began to speak.

* * *

"It's called the _Fully Pure Club_," Anthony said in disgust, taking off his badge and tossing it onto the table.

"The Fully Pure Club?" Bridget echoed. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

Lin picked up the badge and looked at it sadly. "For people who are pure-bloods?" she guessed.

"Yeah," Anthony confirmed, but sneered. "But not _just_ for people who are pure-bloods. Only _certain_ pure-bloods. Only the ones that _Lucy_ likes."

Bridget snorted. "Well, that's not a very broad category, is it?"

"Fully Pure Club," Jen, a friend of Bridget's, repeated. She shook her head. "I don't see how Dumbledore's going to allow it."

"The way I understand it, they're not exactly planning on asking for permission," Anthony replied, shaking his own head. "They're not even going to refer to it as the Fully Pure Club outside of meetings. They think they're going to fool Dumbledore by calling themselves the _Future Prefect Candidates_."

"The Future Prefect Candidates? That's an even lamer name than the Fully Pure Club," Jen said.

"Yeah, but at least it's something they might be able to get away with," Anthony pointed out.

"That doesn't make sense. Lucy's a Fourth Year. What does she plan on doing _next_ year, after they've picked all the Prefects? She can't exactly be a future candidate _then_, can she?" Bridget asked.

"Oh, she's got that all figured out, too. The Fifth-Years are going to become _mentors_ next year."

"But what about the Fifth Years next year who _aren't_ Prefects?" Jen demanded.

"That would never happen," Anthony said sarcastically. "They're all pure-bloods. Why _wouldn't_ they be Prefects?"

"So what exactly is the _point_ of this club? Besides being a place where pure-bloods can go and talk about how brilliant it is that both their parents happen to be wizards?" Jen asked.

"Besides that…there didn't seem to be a whole lot behind it, really. Lucy went off on this speech about how the world's not safe anymore, and we need to know who we can trust. And because we're all pure-bloods and none of us were in Slytherin, I guess that means we're all trustworthy. And she made a point of picking lots of students who were younger than her, too—and there weren't any Prefects there, mind you. The oldest person in the room was Wendy's boyfriend, that Fifth Year kid Thomas, and I don't think he was even paying attention."

Lin was still staring at the badge, her mouth set in a hard, grim line. "They're doing this because of me," she said quietly. Everyone turned to look at her.

"No, they're not," Anthony said immediately, crossing the room to sit down next to her.

"Yes they are," Lin insisted. "Because of people like me. Because they don't want what happened to me to happen to them."

"No, Lin, it's not—"

"Yes, it is, I'm sure of it. They think if they stick together as pure-bloods and shun the rest of us, You-Know-Who won't have any reason to attack them."

"But they're not…on You-Know-Who's side, are they?" Jen asked timidly.

"No, they're not," Anthony confirmed. "I think they're as much against him as anybody. They just…don't want to take the side of the Muggles. They're too afraid to stand up for something besides themselves. Lin, I think you're partially right. I think they want to try and stay enough in You-Know-Who's good graces so that he won't have a problem with them, but they don't wan to join him, either. They're just scared."

"So Lin's right then," Bridget reasoned. "It is because of her."

Lin's face crumpled, and Anthony shot Bridget a glare. "_No_," he insisted, putting an arm around Lin's shoulders. "If anything, Bridget, they're doing it because of people like _you_."

"Like _me_?" Bridget demanded. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Well, you're a pure-blood," Anthony pointed out, "and you kicked Lin in the face. I think this is kind of her way of trying to get back at you—and all the people she thinks are like you."

"Like me _how_? I don't get it."

"I think I do," Jen said, frowning. "Muggle-lovers. You know…Mudblood-huggers."

"Please don't say that word," Lin said.

"Sorry," Jen said, her face flushing. "I wasn't using it to refer to anyone, I just…"

"I know. I just…don't like to hear it."

Anthony squeezed her shoulders. "Jen's right, though. They're trying to separate themselves from the pure-bloods who want to fight You-Know-Who. And…I don't think this was entirely Lucy's idea, either."

"D'you think her horrible friend Gillian had more to do with it?" Bridget asked.

"No. I think it was more her father. He works at the Ministry, like my father. They're not in the same department, but…well, they don't really get along. Lucy's father has all these ideas about…a conspiracy against pure-bloods in the Ministry, like the Minister thinks all of them are in league with You-Know-Who or something. Which is _ridiculous_."

"Well…no offense, Anthony, but why in the world would Lucy want _you_ there?" Jen asked. "I mean, I'm not saying you're not a pure-blood, but still…you're obviously not like her. And…you're obviously going out with Lin, so…I don't see her reasoning."

Both Lin and Anthony flushed interesting shades of red. "We're not…going out exactly," Anthony mumbled.

Bridget rolled her eyes. "They haven't actually gotten around to it yet, Jen. They're being very _obtuse_ about it. And anyway…I can think of a perfectly good reason why Lucy would want Anthony there, and I don't think it's because of his pure blood." She gave Anthony a very pointed look, and he scratched his head uneasily.

"She does have sort of a _thing_ for him, doesn't she?" Lin spat.

"Well, it doesn't matter," Bridget assured her, "because I don't think Anthony's been looking at anyone but you."

Lin and Anthony looked away from each other and went extremely red. Jen rolled her eyes.

"Knock it off, Bridget. It's hard enough for them to admit they like each other without you embarrassing them all the time."

Bridget grinned. "Oh, but it's so much _fun_."

"Not for us it isn't," Anthony mumbled.

Lin sighed, and looked at the badge in her hand one more time. "Anthony, can we get rid of this please?"

"Yeah," Anthony agreed. "Here…give it to me."

Lin handed it over. Anthony looked at the badge and shook his head in disgust one more time, then chucked it into the fireplace.

Bridget smiled as the flames crackled around it. "Good," she said. "It looks much better that way."

* * *

They were going to talk eventually, Melody assumed. Just as soon as they'd gotten over their kissing-fest. They were going to discuss why Sirius had been avoiding her and what all had happened with Mimi, and eventually they were going to make their relationship official—hopefully sooner rather than later—but Melody wasn't quite sure when. Every time they broke apart, and looked like they might want to stop snogging and talk things over for a bit, one of them decided that talking was just not what they wanted to do, and resumed kissing instead.

_Three years of pent-up desire does wonders for your stamina_, Melody noted briefly when she got a chance to look at the clock. _Four hours and no complaints so far_.

She wondered if maybe four hours was too long to spend kissing someone, but shoved the thought aside. It wasn't just _someone_, it was _Sirius_. And Melody had never in her life felt so deliriously happy.

It had to end, though, eventually, and when they finally pulled apart Melody felt rather exhausted. She rested her head on Sirius's shoulder, feeling a little short of breath, and let her eyes flutter closed. They were sitting on the couch now, standing having gotten very uncomfortable, and they'd been in one position so long bits of Melody's legs were starting to fall asleep.

"Sirius," Melody said, after getting her breath back, "are you ever going to ask me…if…if I want to be…be your…y'know…."

"Oh, that," Sirius said, turning his face towards hers. "Yeah, I s'pose I could do that."

Melody grinned.

"Be my girlfriend?" he asked, tucking Melody's hair behind her ear.

Melody gazed at him for a moment, and said two simple words before leaning in to kiss him again.

"Hell yes."

* * *

Bellatrix decided to ditch Siegfried. At least for this meeting. _He_ hadn't done any of the research, and he was currently too preoccupied with his bottle of gin to care what was going on. Not that Bellatrix wasn't drinking tonight, but it was just wine, and anyway she didn't plan on getting pissed. Wine just went so well with dinner, that was all. Well, she assumed it would, anyway, as soon as Monsieur Gerard appeared and the meal was served.

Bellatrix was currently seated, alone, near the end of a beautiful dining table. Three places were set, so either someone else was coming or Gerard expected Siegfried to be there. She hoped he wouldn't be too upset that Siegfried wasn't coming.

Siegfried was a good Death Eater, yes, but he had become completely useless in this particular venture, and was regularly too drunk to remember what he was supposed to be doing. She hoped Monsieur Gerard wouldn't expect him to be here and be in control just because he happened to be a _man. _After all, _Bellatrix_ was the one who'd bothered to set up this meeting. Bellatrix was the one who'd done all of the research on Delany and her necklaces, and Bellatrix was the one who knew what she wanted to get out of Monsieur Gerard. Siegfried had _meant_ to come, or so he said, but he was too inebriated tonight for Bellatrix to allow him out in public, let alone go to an extremely important meeting with an extremely important man who might hold the fate of their future with the Dark Lord in their hands.

Though she did worry about Siegfried, a little. He'd always enjoyed his drink before, but now he seemed to never _stop_ drinking. Any excuse at all seemed like a good one for Siegfried to open up a bottle. Up too early—got home too late—work was tough—feeling lousy—out of pumpkin juice. _As if there wasn't any water_, Bellatrix thought bitterly, taking another sip of wine.

Monsieur Gerard arrived just then, however, and Bellatrix had no more time to mull over Siegfried's drinking problems.

"Monsieur Gerard," she greeted him, rising. "Thank you for having me for dinner."

"Not at all, Miss Black," Gerard said, taking Bellatrix's hand and dropping a kiss on the back of it. "I thank you for being prompt."

Bellatrix smiled and allowed him to seat her.

Monsieur Gerard got right to business. He ordered Siegfried's empty place away without bothering to ask if he was coming, and had the food brought to the table promptly. He encouraged Bellatrix to eat while he began talking.

"Lucifer Malfoy has already explained your situation to me. I understand that you need the girl to prove something to Voldemort. I do not care about that. The only thing I am concerned with is the fate of the girl's necklace." Gerard paused to take a sip of wine. "I can arrange for you to…encounter…the girl. All I ask is that you bring me the necklace. I am willing to compensate you handsomely for it."

"The necklace is an extremely powerful magical object," Bellatrix said. "How much, exactly, are you willing to compensate?"

"Oh, an obscene amount, I assure you."

Bellatrix raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"All right. Five million Galleons, if you insist on hearing numbers."

Bellatrix smiled. "That will do, Monsieur Gerard. Now, about these arrangements…."

"Ah, yes. At the moment, Miss Evans is attending Hogwarts, which makes it difficult to…ah…access her. However, I intercepted an owl that will reach the young Miss Evans shortly. She does not know it yet, but her family is planning to go to America over the Christmas holidays to visit with her relatives. Her _Muggle_ relatives."

Bellatrix grinned wickedly. "How convenient," she commented, taking a sip of wine.

"I must warn you, however," Monsieur Gerard continued. "The necklace is…ah…elusive. I do not know how much you have researched it, but at times, it is impossible to get off of the wearer. If this proves to be the case with Miss Evans, I suggest you do not push your luck. It may be better to wait until you have…disposed of the girl…before you remove it. And even then—react quickly. The trinket has been known to disappear without warning. And should it disappear…it will be impossible for any of us to retrieve. Also, should you return without the necklace, your compensation will be forfeit."

"I understand, Monsieur Gerard. Siegfried and I will do our best."

"I expected him to be here tonight. Is he…otherwise engaged?"

Bellatrix thought of the scotch bottle. "Yes. He has other matters to take care of."

"Please send him my regards. And enjoy your Christmas," Monsieur Gerard said, and lifted his wine glass to Bellatrix's in a silent toast.

* * *

Mimi was not having a great week. Melody and Sirius weren't being disgusting or anything, but they were still _together_. And Mimi, the rationality-impaired, was incapable of taking it like a mature, logical person. She hadn't quite mustered up the courage to speak to Remus about this, either. How in the _world_ was she going to explain her lingering…_thing_ for Sirius? How was she going to articulate her feelings for Remus and for Sirius? What way could she possibly phrase things so they made sense to him? Or even so they made sense to _her_?

And this weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend, too. How was she going to handle going to Hogsmeade and seeing Melody and Sirius around everywhere? Or worse…what if she _didn't _see them in Hogsmeade anywhere? She recalled the last trip she'd had to Hogsmeade with Sirius. They certainly hadn't been within view of the student body, snogging in that carriage. She didn't think she wanted to wander around Hogsmeade plagued with those kinds of thoughts.

She _could_ go with Remus, of course. She still did _like_ Remus and everything, things were just…more complicated now. More complicated to Mimi, anyway. Not to everyone else. Obviously. But she still couldn't quite get herself up to the task. The situation was far too complicated for its own good. If only she could somehow get Lily to work things out for her…after all, Lily was the one who'd convinced Sirius to wait until Saturday to talk to Melody about things, and that had been marvelous. Well, for Mimi anyway. She didn't imagine it had been too wonderful for Melody.

But that wasn't the point. The point was Hogsmeade this weekend. They were all meeting up at the Three Broomsticks at noon, as usual, and Mimi didn't want to be the only one there alone. Lily and James, Melody and Sirius, Arabella and Mundungus…even _Peter_ was dating someone now; this Hufflepuff girl that Mimi didn't know very well. Some blonde Sixth Year. And…well, Remus would be there, but if he didn't go with Mimi then she didn't imagine he'd sit next to her, and then of course once they all left the Three Broomsticks, what were the odds he'd want to go off with her, and—

"Mimi?"

Mimi blinked and looked up from the library table where she was supposed to be studying. Remus was looking down at her curiously.

"Are you all right? You look like you're ripping your hair out over…History of Magic homework. Come now, Mimi. That's not hard, that's just _boring_."

Mimi grinned. "Nah, I was just thinking about…about stuff."

"Ah. Stuff," Remus stuck his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, _stuff_ always gets me too. 'S very complicated, isn't it?"

"Mm," Mimi agreed, and smiled up at him.

"So, Mimi…"

"Mm?" she repeated.

"What're your plans for Hogsmeade this weekend?"

_Avoiding Sirius and Melody at all costs._ "Oh…not much."

"Going with anybody yet?"

_Just my stupid hormones. They're ruining my life. _"Not to my knowledge."'

Remus grinned. "Shouldn't you know?"

"Well, you know…sometimes my mind leaves me. Who knows what I do while it's gone?" _Like decide I still like Sirius._

"Well is your mind around now?"

"I think it just stepped in."

"Great. So if I asked you to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend, you'd remember, yeah?"

"Sure I'd remember. But it wouldn't really matter unless I said yes." Mimi said, grinning back.

"Oh, I think it's going to matter," Remus said confidently.

"You've been spending too much time around James and Sirius," Mimi scolded. _Sirius. Damn him._ "You're beginning to sound awfully cheeky."

Remus grinned again and leaned across the table. "Nah. Just confident. No harm in a little confidence, is there?"

"S'pose not," Mimi agreed.

"So?" Remus prompted. "You going to say _yes_, or am I going to have to say it for you?"

"Oh, I might have to think on it," Mimi teased, and Remus surprised her by leaning in and giving her a quick kiss. Her stomach gave a sharp, funny twist.

"How about now?" Remus asked as Mimi tried to combat the flush growing her cheeks.

"Um…" she began, and Remus kissed her again. _That is NOT helping_, she thought at him.

"Still thinking?" he demanded.

"Yes," Mimi said quickly as he leaned in for another one. She stopped his lips with her fingers. "I'll go with you."

"Excellent," Remus said, and Mimi stood up quickly to avoid another kiss. She couldn't explain it, but she felt…_guilty_ now. It wasn't as though she was _cheating_ on anyone, she just…wasn't being completely honest with Remus. And she didn't like the feeling.

"I'll…I'll see you on Saturday," she said, smiling and gathering up her things.

Remus stood up straight and raised his eyebrows, surprised. "All right," he said, and shrugged. "Guess…guess I'll see you on Saturday then."

"Yep," Mimi agreed, forcing some perk into her smile. She slung her bag over her shoulder. "See you later, Remus."

"I'll…see you," he echoed, still sounding confused, and she hurried out of the library before he could follow her.

_Damn it,_ she cursed silently. _Now I'm going to go to Hogsmeade with Remus and it's STILL going to suck. What in the world is WRONG with me?_

* * *

Saturday morning was going wonderfully for Melody…until the mail came. At first she was excited to see an owl dropping a note at her place—the only mail she usually got was _Quidditch Weekly_—and thought it might be from one of her siblings, but when she saw the writing on the front her stomach sank.

It was from Hans.

She was sitting alone, as it was still early and none of her friends had gotten up yet. That was a good thing, because the letter was probably about where Melody and Hans were going for Christmas holidays, and she was sure it wouldn't go over well with Sirius.

Melody had nearly forgotten, in the midst of all her teenage drama and very recent supreme happiness, that she still had Hans to contend with. The reminder of her debt to Hans took the taste out of her scrambled eggs, and she stared at the envelope with an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

She still owed him so much money. And she was supposed to go with him over Christmas and—get engaged or something. But now—well, maybe now, since she was dating Sirius—

Melody bit her lip and thought about it for a minute. _If_ she managed to convince her uncle that she should marry Sirius, then maybe she could convince Sirius that it was a good idea that he marry her. And then she might be able to pay her uncle back and save her family. Maybe. The big problem there was that she wasn't sure how much of the Black family fortune Sirius was privy to. Would he have gotten his inheritance yet? Or would that only come after his parents died? Sirius's parents were still fairly young—it would be a while yet before either of them kicked the bucket. She knew it was _horrible_ of her to be thinking about Sirius's parents that way, but she couldn't help it.

She stared down at her right hand. She was still wearing the little diamond ring her uncle had given her, months ago, when he'd first told her about his plot to marry her off. She didn't know why she was wearing it. She hadn't, at first. Hadn't remembered. But ever since her uncle had accosted her in the Hog's Head…well, she felt it was better to go along with him. Even if she didn't want to take his crap anymore. Even if she was trying to fight him. She was still a little scared by him…even if she didn't want to admit it.

Melody took a deep breath and picked up the envelope. It was thin, so the message couldn't be that long, but it would still cause her a lot of trouble. Sirius knew her uncle expected her at Christmastime, of course, but that didn't mean he wouldn't resist the idea. He'd asked her to come home with him for Christmas this year, and she said she'd think about it. At the time she hadn't really been thinking that she'd have to go with Hans, but she'd known in the back of her mind that there was some reason why she couldn't.

And this…this right here in her hands, this was it. The letter from Hans.

She looked around the Great Hall nervously. Still none of her friends were up. None of them would be around to care. Or to yell at her.

Melody turned the envelope over and ripped it open hastily. Trying to keep her hands from shaking, she unfolded the parchment. The letter from her uncle was brief, as she'd expected.

_Melody,_

_We'll be spending the Christmas season in London this year. I trust you have not forgotten your duty, and that you also have refrained from participating in other foolish escapades since October._

_I will be picking you up at King's Cross Station as usual. I trust you will be well prepared for the holiday._

_Regards,_

_H. Cauldwell_

Well. At least he wasn't referring to himself as her uncle anymore. _Uncle_ implied family, and he certainly wasn't acting like family to Melody.

She looked down at the ring on her right hand again and swallowed, feeling ill.

It was a good thing today was a Hogsmeade day. She'd have plenty to distract her, and she didn't want to think about Christmas any more than she had to right now.

* * *

They were all packed into the Three Broomsticks again, happily, sharing several six-seater tables that were pushed together. Madam Rosmerta brought out a dozen mugs of butterbeer and several orders of cheesy fries, and the teenagers attacked them happily. Lily looked around the table and smiled, taking a hearty gulp of butterbeer and shoving several cheesy fries into her mouth. Next weekend was the start of Christmas holidays, and taking a trip to Hogsmeade always seemed like the perfect end to the fall term. And here she was, with her best friends, sharing a drink before running off to buy presents as usual—and today, a little something more, since Lily had an appointment with Mr. Zorcoran to discuss her necklace.

Melody and Sirius sat across from Lily and James, Sirius and James exchanging playful insults, and Sirius leaning over to Melody every once in a while to whisper something funny into her ear. Melody smiled and giggled more in one hour than Lily had seen her smile in three months—_really_ smile, that is, not the fake smile she put on when she was trying to flirt with boys she didn't really like. Not that the fake smile wasn't pretty, but…it didn't quite light up her face the way this smile did. She also wasn't bothering with her ridiculous hair and make-up routine anymore, and Lily thought this look suited her rather better.

Next to Sirius and Melody were Mundungus and Arabella. They'd been fighting lately, but things seemed to be going better today. They weren't arguing, at least. Well…perhaps that was because they weren't talking to each other. Lily frowned, and glanced down the table. Mimi and Remus were sitting next to Dung, and across from them were Peter and his new girlfriend Colleen, a blonde Hufflepuff girl. Lily strongly suspected Mimi was sitting on that end of the table so she wouldn't have a good view of Sirius and Melody. Although Mimi had to be improving, since she'd agreed to come with Remus.

To the right of Lily and James were Susie and Matt, a kind of odd addition to the group, but the Three Broomsticks was horrendously crowded, and they looked like they were getting along well enough. Dung and Matt seemed to be having some kind of involved conversation about Quidditch, and Arabella and Susie were complaining about Charms homework.

But still…it was Hogsmeade. And it was almost Christmas. And being here at the Three Broomsticks with all her friends was...pretty damn awesome, if she did say so herself.

* * *

Lucy was thrilled. The FPC had gone over even better than she had hoped—and with the exception of Anthony, everyone who had attended the first meeting was walking around Hogsmeade together today. Nothing could spoil her mood. Nothing except—except _them_.

Lucy scowled as she approached Anthony and Lin, who were holding hands and walking with the odious, blonde-haired Bridget DeBeauvois and a third-year Gryffindor girl with dirty blonde hair whose name Lucy couldn't remember. She wiped the scowl off, though, to smile at Anthony.

"You should have come with us," she said to him, halting, and the rest of the FPC halted behind her. There were nine of them now. Not a huge group, but still better than none. And certainly more intimidating than the group of four Bridget was in.

Anthony shrugged. "I had other plans. And I don't think I'm going to join the club anyway. It's not really my thing."

Lucy pouted. "Well…if you ever change your mind, you're always welcome."

"He said he's not interested," Bridget snapped, crossing her arms.

"I can speak for myself," Anthony said to her softly.

"Yeah, Bridget, don't be so overbearing," Lucy taunted.

"No one asked you," Lin snapped, and Lucy looked at her in surprise. "Just leave us alone. Don't you have anything better to do with your time?"

"Of course we do," Wendy said, pushing her way to the front of the crowd. "And we'll leave just as soon as you get out of our way."

"I think it's the other way around," Lin said coolly.

Wendy's eyes flared open angrily. "Well, there's more of us than there are of _you_. The odds aren't exactly in your favor, are they?"

"I'll take those odds," Bridget said, and tried to step forward, but Anthony put out an arm to hold her back.

"Don't," he said. "Don't bother. This is stupid."

"You're damn right it's stupid," came another voice, and everyone turned their heads to see Rachel shoving her way through the FPC group. She walked over to the other side of the road. "This street is ten feet wide. Let's just go."

"That's not the point," Gillian said, looking at Rachel as if she were too slow to catch on.

"No, I think Rachel's right," Wendy said, staring straight at Lin. "It's just not worth my time."

Lin's nostrils flared as she pulled in a quick, angry breath, but she just squeezed Anthony's hand and stared at Wendy as she walked to the other side of the road to join Rachel. Gillian, her eyes in angry slants, turned to Lucy for her opinion.

Lucy looked back and forth between Anthony and the FPC for a second, and then shrugged. "No point," she agreed. "Let's just go." She looked at Anthony for a long moment and smiled at him as the rest of the FPC crossed to the other side of the street.

Lin, furious at the way Lucy was capturing Anthony's attention, tugged her hand out of Anthony's, grabbed his face between her hands, and pulled his mouth down to hers. Lucy's mouth fell slightly open as she watched them kiss, and it took a tug on her arm from Gillian for her to snap out of it and walk across the road to join the FPC.

"Don't worry about it," Gillian hissed into her ear. "You'll get him one of these days. Just wait for the right moment."

Lucy thought she mumbled something in return, but she couldn't really tell. She kept replaying Anthony and Lin's kiss in her head, and as she walked away all she could hear was Bridget's gleeful cackling echoing behind her.

* * *

Perhaps things weren't as peaceful as Lily surmised.

Arabella and Mundungus had excused themselves from the table a few minutes before Lily and James left the Three Broomsticks, and as they walked out the front door, Lily discovered why.

Bella and Dung were standing in the middle of the street, shrieking at each other, and a small crowd of teenagers had gathered to watch.

"—DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU'RE SO UPSET!"

"Don't—don't _understand_?" Arabella sputtered. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN GETTING YOUR POCKET MONEY THE LAST SIX MONTHS, MUNDUNGUS? WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING IN THE HOG'S HEAD EVERY WEEKEND SINCE THE START OF TERM, EVEN WHEN WE WEREN'T ALLOWED OUT FOR HOGSMEADE WEEKENDS? WHY THE BLOODY HELL D'YOU THINK WE'RE STANDING HERE HAVING THIS ARGUMENT, YOU—YOU—_CROOK_!"

"I MAY BE A CROOK, BUT AT LEAST I'M AN HONEST CROOK!" Mundungus thundered.

"An _honest crook_? MUNDUNGUS, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN HONEST CROOK! THAT'S WHY THEY'RE CALLED _CROOKS_!"

"I am too honest! I _admit_ that I'm a crook!"

James snorted in amusement, and Lily hit him on the shoulder. "What?" he demanded, and Lily just shook her head at him. "I'm not the only one laughing," he pointed out, and Lily just rolled her eyes.

"You promised you were going to stop, Mundungus!" Arabella shrieked. "YOU _PROMISED_!"

"Well—you know what, I—I—_I LIED_!"

"WELL SO MUCH FOR YOU BEING AN HONEST CROOK, YOU BIG FAT—_GIT_!"

"Well, I may be a git but at least I didn't CHEAT ON YOU!"

Arabella gasped. "I never _cheated_ on you!"

"Like hell you didn't!"

"Oh, yeah? Who'd I cheat on you _with_, Dung? Huh? _Who_?"

"Adam Johnson, that's who!"

"Well—well—that's just _silly_, is what it is!" Arabella sputtered, unconvincingly. "How could I have cheated on you with Adam Johnson? He's been gone for a month."

"It was before he left!"

"He was dating somebody!"

"Well, so were YOU, but that didn't stop you now did it?"

James clapped a hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter.

"What?" Lily demanded.

"I think that explains why Adam was single during Auror Training," James said, and Lily raised her eyebrows and looked back at Arabella to try to figure out if Mundungus was telling the truth.

Arabella's face flushed. "Well—well—he and his girlfriend were fighting, and she broke up with him the next day anyway!" she shrieked, her face glowing pink. Mundungus was beginning to look triumphant, and her anger flared up again. "BUT THAT DOESN'T STOP YOU FROM BEING A CROOK!"

"Oh, come on Arabella, IS THAT THE BEST YOU HAVE?"

"IT'S ALL I _NEED_ TO HAVE, YOU SMARMY BASTARD!"

"Oh, that's real mature Bella, calling me names."

"You know what, Mundungus? I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! IT'S _OVER_!"

"GREAT!" Mundungus yelled. "Now if you won't mind getting out of my way, I have some business down at the Hog's Head."

"_FINE_!" Arabella shrieked. "I HOPE YOU HAVE FUN, YOU DIRTY PIG!"

She shoved past Mundungus and through the crowd, and started running down the road toward the Shrieking Shack.

"I better go talk to her," murmured a girl standing behind Lily, and Lily and James turned around to see Sirius and Melody standing there.

"Yeah…maybe you better," Sirius agreed.

Melody sighed. "I won't be long. I'll see you later."

Sirius leaned down to give her a kiss good-bye, and behind them Lily saw Mimi coming out of the Three Broomsticks. Mimi got kind of an ill look on her face and turned her head, striding away from the door quickly. Remus hurried to catch her up, looking rather confused.

Lily sighed and looked back at James. The crowd around them had dispersed, and she could see Melody jogging after Arabella. Lily glanced at her watch.

"Is it time yet?" James asked.

"Nearly," she replied. "Better get going."

"Time for what?" Sirius asked.

"James and I are going to see Mr. Zorcoran to ask him about my necklace," Lily replied. "Dumbledore said he might know something."

"I want to come," Sirius said immediately.

"You can't _both _come."

"Why not?" Sirius demanded.

"Well—because Mr. Zorcoran's really only expecting me, and—"

"Don't be ridiculous, Lily, he won't mind. You're going to tell us everything he says anyway, aren't you?"

"Well…yes, but—"

"Great! Then let's go."

Sirius took one of her arms, and James, not to be outdone, took the other, and together they walked her down the street to Zorcoran's, even though she protested the whole way there.

Once they arrived, Mr. Zorcoran greeted them, and summoned another employee to take over his register. Lily looked at the long line snaking away from the counter and felt guilty taking Mr. Zorcoran away from his work on such a busy day. _But he wouldn't have agreed to meeting with me if he couldn't manage it_, she reasoned, and tried to think how she was going to explain her necklace as he led her, James, and Sirius to one of the back rooms.

"Well now," Mr. Zorcoran said when they were all settled. "Do all of you have enchanted necklaces you want me to take a look at?" he joked, looking at James and Sirius.

"No," Lily said, smiling. "They just insisted on coming with me."

"We're her bodyguards," Sirius deadpanned, crossing his arms over his chest. "Your background check cleared, but we thought we'd better come with her, just to be sure."

"Sirius!" Lily protested in alarm, but Mr. Zorcoran laughed.

"Very well," he said. "Where is the necklace?"

"Here," Lily said, pulling the chain out from underneath her robes.

Zorcoran pulled a pair of large, thick spectacles and a small notebook out of his pocket. He flipped it to a blank page and scribbled a few notes with his pen—not a quill, Lily noted. "Gold?" he asked, and Lily nodded. "Twenty-four karat? Higher?"

Lily looked uncertainly over at James, and he shrugged as well. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "I got it as a present, and…well, I'm just not sure. It's…it's very old, if that makes any difference. I was hoping you could tell me."

Zorcoran nodded. "Can I see it please?"

Lily traded another glance with James. "Well…that's one of the things about it, Mr. Zorcoran. It won't come off."

Zorcoran frowned and made a few more notes on his pad. "Has it always been this way?" he inquired.

"No. When I first got it, it was just a normal necklace. It had a clasp. But I didn't take it off for a while, and now…now there's nothing. And I can't pull it over my head, and…well, I don't want to break the chain, and there's been no real reason to take it off I guess, and—"

Zorcoran held up his hand, and Lily stopped. "That's a fine enough explanation," he said, and continued scribbling on his pad for a while. "Now then. Has the necklace displayed any sign of enchantment, other than its…reluctance to come off?"

Lily hesitated, running the chain through her fingers. "Well…there are the dreams," she said finally, and Zorcoran looked at her interestedly.

"Dreams?"

"Yes. I have…dreams. About other owners of the necklace."

"Dreams," Zorcoran said again, scribbling more onto his pad. "Very unusual. Very. But not unheard of. Please, continue. What happens in these dreams?"

"Well…not a lot, until recently. Mostly I just…sort of followed the previous owner around and…watched them go about their business. Kind of like…stepping into someone else's memory, I guess."

"Like in a Pensieve?" Zorcoran suggested, and Lily shrugged, confused.

"I don't know. I've never seen a Pensieve."

He nodded. "All right. So what's happened recently in the dreams?"

"Well…one of the girls I dreamed about…the last dream I had about her, she…well, she died in it. At least…I think she did. I don't know. After that I started dreaming about another girl who owned the necklace."

"And these girls were…like you?"

Lily shook her head. "No, not at all. They lived in…different times. Different places. In the past."

"I see," Zorcoran said, and spent several long minutes making notes on his pad. "I should tell you now, Miss Evans, that I am not going to be able to help you very much. I'm sorry if I'm getting your hopes up taking all of these notes, but they will serve a very important purpose, even if I cannot do much with them."

Lily's face fell, disappointed, and she stared down at her necklace sadly. "Oh," she said.

"If I could have the necklace for a few days, I might be able to run some tests on it, but I am reluctant to try much with it still around your neck. And, I must admit, jewelry is not my specialty. I don't sell much of it, you may have noticed. However," Zorcoran said, ripping the pages out of his notebook, "I can refer you to an expert. Not only does he make and sell his own jewelry—he is also an expert on the history of enchanted jewelry. He will take far more of your time than I will, but it would be well worth your time to visit."

"His name," Zorcoran said, scribbling something onto a blank page, "is Al Schmundertoe." He tore the page out and handed it to Lily. "This is his address in London. Do you think you can make it there over Christmas holidays?"

Lily looked at James, who nodded. "Yes, I think so."

"Good. I am going to send these notes to him, securely. You should owl him yourself once you know when you're going to be able to get to London. He will need at least a week's warning, I should think."

"All right," Lily said, folding up the paper he gave her and tucking it safely into a pocket of her robes. "Mr. Zorcoran…even if you're not an expert…can you tell me what you _do_ think about the necklace?"

Zorcoran thought about this for a minute. "I think it's a very fine piece of jewelry," he replied finally. "And extremely powerful." He paused for a moment, and looked at her. Lily met his gaze evenly, and he nodded slightly before continuing. "Miss Evans, any magical object that can give you dreams—or transport memories, which may be the case here—is both extremely valuable and extremely dangerous."

Lily swallowed nervously.

"I suspect that the necklace has other enchantments on it, besides the one that induces dreams, and as the owner—and perhaps, from this moment, the unwilling owner—of such a jewel, it is in your best interests to discover exactly what these enchantments are, in case one of them goes awry."

Lily thought of Laurelle's death, and her stomach twisted itself into a sickening knot. "And…do you think Mister…um…Shundratee..."

"Schmundertoe," Zorcoran corrected.

"Schmundertoe," Lily continued, "will be able to find out what those enchantments are?"

Zorcoran thought about this for a long time before answering. "He is the only person I know whom I think capable of doing so."

Lily nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Zorcoran."

"You are welcome," Zorcoran replied, rising, and the teenagers followed suit. "I wish you luck. I hope Al will be more helpful to you than I have been."

He held out a hand, which Lily shook. He smiled and bowed them out of his office.

Lily left the store feeling deflated, and frowned down at her "L" pendant. "Well, _that_ was pointless," she said irritably. "I might as well have just stayed in the Three Broomsticks for the rest of the day, drinking butterbeers."

"Oh, come now, Lily," Sirius said, slinging an arm around her shoulder, which James immediately shoved off to replace with his own. James glared, and Sirius grinned at him cheekily. "Now you get to go see this Schmundertoe guy! It ought to be at least as helpful as your meeting with Zorcoran, and anyway, any man who has a name like Schmundertoe has to have a wonderful sense of humor."

"Or none at all," Lily argued. "If I had a name like Schmundertoe, I don't think I'd be very amused."

"Well, that's why your name is Evans, then, isn't it? Boring name with a boring sense of humor."

"Are you calling my girlfriend boring?"

"Wouldn't dream of it, Prongsie."

"Prongsie?" Lily echoed.

"Yep, Prongsie. You know, with the antlers and everything?"

"Why d'you call him _that_?"

James looked at Sirius urgently, but Sirius ignored him. Instead he looked at Lily, grinning wickedly. "Oh, y'know…because he's so _horn_y."

Lily's eyes bulged. She didn't know whether to laugh or smack him. She ended up emitting a snort of laughter, and then started giggling madly, her cheeks flushing a bit. "Sirius, that's _horrible_."

"Yeah, but you're still laughing," he pointed out. James just glared at him.

"I'll get you back for that one, Padfoot."

"Oh, he's Padfoot now?" Lily asked curiously. She'd heard these nicknames before, but never quite heard the explanations behind them.

"Yeah. You know, because he's so _pussy_-footed around the ladies."

Sirius shook his head. "Not quite as good as Prongsie, James. Sorry."

James looked at Lily for support, but she just shrugged. "He does have a point," she admitted. "I mean…he does have a girlfriend and everything."

"Yeah, but—well, it _took_ him long enough, didn't it?"

"No longer than you," Sirius pointed out.

"It was a _little_ longer," Lily argued. "But still, James…it was a little weak."

"Well…look what I had to work with," he mumbled.

Sirius grinned cheekily, and Lily shook her head at him.

"Don't be a baby, James," she said, kissing him on the cheek. James grumbled for a moment, but gave Lily a quick kiss on the temple and cheered up a bit.

"Hey now," Sirius said. "I need some of that. Where'd my girlfriend run off to?"

"She was heading over to the Shrieking Shack, wasn't she?" Lily said. "Running after Arabella."

"Yeah, that sounds right. If you lovebirds don't mind, I think I'm going to go find her."

"Bye, Sirius," Lily said, and he walked off. She slipped an arm around James's waist. "So," she said. "I still have to do my Christmas shopping."

"Me too," James agreed. "Might as well while we're here, eh?"

"Might as well," Lily agreed. "Might as well."

* * *

"What's that, Lily?"

"Letter."

"I _see_ that," Mimi said, rolling her eyes. "Who's it _from_?"

"My cousin. Well, and my mum. There's two letters. Apparently I'm going to America for Christmas."

"You're _what_?"

"Yeah," Lily said, and handed one of the letters over to Mimi. "My cousin's family has invited us to stay with them. Since…since my dad passed and all. And my mum, who got the letter long before I did, sent another letter along to say that she accepted the offer."

"Wow," Mimi said. "You sound like Melody, going off to another country over the holidays."

Lily laughed. "Yeah, except my uncle won't be buying me three hundred pairs of shoes and then demanding them all back months later because he's in debt."

"Wait…_what_?"

Lily blinked and looked at Mimi. "Haven't you heard about Melody's psychotic uncle yet?"

Mimi shook her head slowly.

"Oh, Jeez, Mimi…this happened _months_ ago…somehow I thought you knew. Weren't you at Diagon Alley with us?"

Mimi shook her head again. "I went with Susie and Matt this year, remember?"

"Oh…yeah," Lily agreed. "But then…when we got back to Hogwarts…I guess you started dating Sirius then, didn't you? So you weren't really talking to Melody…and since then…huh. I guess you _haven't _heard about it then, have you?"

"No, I haven't," Mimi agreed, "so _tell_ me."

Lily gave a brief description of the way Melody's uncle had acted when Melody tried to get back to England to comfort Lily after her family's deaths. She then told Mimi about him coming to Diagon Alley to yell at Melody for returning to England against his wishes, and to tell her that she was going to spend Christmas with him whether she liked it or not.

Mimi's eyes widened. "I see," she said, when Lily had finished. "Well…that's not good for Melody, is it? Is she really going to stay with her uncle over Christmas, d'you think?"

Lily shrugged. "Who knows? I guess she'll have to decide soon, though, since we leave for holidays on Saturday. I guess I haven't really asked her about it."

Mimi shrugged. "What about you, Lily? How do you feel about leaving for Christmas?"

Lily considered. She'd spent most of last Christmas break at Potter's Cottage. And—well, she'd really _enjoyed _it there. She realized that she'd been rather looking forward to going back to the Cottage, and actually felt a bit disappointed at the prospect of going to America. It wasn't that she didn't want to see New York City or anything, and it wasn't that she didn't want to see her family, she just…

…had another family now, too. Hogwarts felt like her home. So did Potter's Cottage. And her friends…her friends were her family. They were no substitute for her father or brother or sister of course, but…she was comfortable here. Familiar. And America would be so…well, _foreign_. Not that she didn't want to see her cousin. She got on amazingly well with her cousin. And her aunt and uncle were perfectly nice people, and…Lily could understand her mother wanting to be with her brother and his wife over Christmas, since it would be the first one she was spending without her husband, and…and after losing two of her children….

Lily blinked to ward off her tears. _But still_, she thought. _It won't be like home._ And the more she thought about it, the more Potter's Cottage started to seem like home.

"I don't know, Mimi," she said finally. "They're…they're _family_. It's important to be around your family during the holidays," she added quietly.

"Yeah," Mimi agreed.

"What's this about the holidays?" James asked, coming up behind them. The girls were eating breakfast, and James had come over to say good morning to Lily. He was amazingly awake for a Monday, Lily noted, as he leaned down to give her a peck on the lips.

"I'm going to America," she informed him. "Has your mother told you?"

"You're going _where_?" James said, dropping down next to her in shock.

"Oh. Guess your mother hasn't told you then. Well, James…I'm going to stay with my cousin in America over holidays. Though it won't just be _me_, obviously…my whole family's going."

"Well…well…this is news."

"Yes," Lily agreed. "It's news to me, too. I just got the letter from my mum this morning."

"But Lily…when am I going to give you your Christmas present?"

"You can give it to me before I leave, silly," Lily said, laughing.

"When are you leaving, exactly? Because—well, because I kind of had plans for it, and—"

"Ooh, planning some big romantic getaway, James?" Mimi teased.

"No," James said, but he still looked a bit flustered.

"Let me see," Lily said, consulting her letter. "I'm going to be at Potter's Cottage for a few days before we leave. _Hey_—d'you think I can Floo to London during that time? I need to see that um…Shunder…fellow."

"Schmundertoe?" James offered.

"Yeah. That's the one," Lily agreed, and offered a quick explanation to the confused Mimi about her necklace.

"I think that should be fine," James said. "Just don't forget to owl him about it, like Zorcoran said."

"I won't," Lily assured him. "So…America for Christmas. This'll be new. Hey…James, have you heard anything about where Melody's going for Christmas? Last I heard, her uncle was still going to try to make her go with him, but…who knows?"

* * *

"Absolutely not. You're not going. You _can't_ go."

"What, are you my mother now, Sirius? If I say I want to go, then I'm going. You don't have to get all worked up about it."

"Like _hell_ you want to go," Sirius spat. "You're just going because you're afraid of your uncle."

Melody glared at him. "That is _not_ why I'm going."

"Is it because of that ring?" Sirius demanded, grabbing her right hand. "I didn't even think you wore this anymore. Has he put some kind of Confunding Charm on it?"

"What? Sirius, no. I'm not Confunded."

"Are you sure? How can you prove it?"

"Oh—for goodness' _sake_, if you don't believe me—then _here_. Take my ring. We can wait and see if I feel differently."

"Fine," Sirius agreed, and stuffed the ring into his pocket.

Melody crossed her arms and looked up at him. "I don't feel any different."

"Just wait. This could take a while."

"All right. Well, in the meantime…Sirius, you're being a bit obtuse about this, don't you think? I mean…he wrote an awfully nice letter to me, and apologized for everything, and he wants to take me to London for Christmas holidays. I don't see what's so bad about that."

"And you _believe _him this time? Melody, he has _always_ planned to take you with him on Christmas holidays. Don't you remember? Even when he was furious with you this summer, at Diagon Alley, he told you he was going to take you with him over Christmas holidays."

"Yes, I remember Sirius, but the difference is now he's actually _apologized_ for being so rude over the summer. That makes all the difference."

So Melody was lying. So what? There was no point in telling Sirius anything until she had this all figured out herself…and she still wasn't entirely sure what her uncle was up to. She knew he wanted to marry her off, and that he was heavily in debt, but…well, she didn't know, something just didn't quite _fit_. After all, couldn't he have gotten _Catalina_ to do this for him, if he really wanted? Why torture _Melody_?

And…well, what was the point in dragging Sirius into all this, when she knew he would just try to come up with a solution and talk her out of it? Of course, Sirius _was_ kind of part of her plan…but he wasn't a _definite_ part of her plan, and anyway he might stop dating her if he thought she might be getting engaged to someone else. And, _damn it_, she'd _finally_ gotten Sirius, and she wasn't going to let him go that quickly.

"I want to see this letter," Sirius demanded.

"I told you, I lost it," Melody lied. Well, maybe that wasn't technically a lie. You couldn't exactly lose something that didn't exist in the first place, could you?

"I don't believe you," Sirius said, looking her over. "In fact, I don't believe a bit of it. Melody, what are you hiding from me?"

"Nothing," Melody lied again, she hoped more convincingly this time.

"Oh, _bullocks_, Melody. You're worse than Mimi."

"Worse than Mimi? How?"

"Oh…never mind. You're just both full of it, that's all. And I can _tell_ when you're lying, Melody, so don't try it anymore."

_Sure seemed to work well on you last summer,_ she thought, annoyed. "Look, Sirius," she said, sighing. "I'm sorry, but you're not going to change my mind. As much as I'd love to spend Christmas with you…I'm _going _to spend it with my uncle. You're more than welcome to come visit me in London, if you like," she added quickly, impulsively. _And stupidly_, she thought a moment later. What was she doing, inviting him to London? Hans would _not_ appreciate her teenage boyfriend lurking around when he was trying to marry her to some old fat…geezer.

"I think I will, Melody," Sirius said, handing her ring back. "I think I'd like to meet the man who makes you tell lies about yourself and wear pretty rings so he can keep track of you. I just hope I don't meet the Melody he's trying to turn you into."

Melody's hand closed around her ring, and she watched him walk out of the common room sadly. Was he right?

He may have been her boyfriend, but he was still _Sirius_, and he could still see right through her.

And she was afraid that, over Christmas, he would use that particular trait to expose all of her lies about her uncle. The worst part was, she couldn't quite tell if she was afraid that it would happen…or that she secretly hoped it would. Because carrying around all these lies was beginning to become a burden Melody didn't want to take with her anymore.

And Sirius…well, Sirius was beginning to seem like the only thing that mattered.

* * *

Melody and Lily weren't the only ones getting important mail. On the last Thursday before holidays began, James received a very important package, and called an official Marauder meeting to unveil it. Remus, Peter, James, and Sirius met up in MHQ on Thursday evening.

"All right, what's the big surprise?" Remus demanded, sitting down at the table.

"You don't sound very excited about this, Moony," James scolded, setting the package down on the table in front of him. "Don't you want to know what's inside?"

Remus shrugged. "Sure I do. I'm just a little…preoccupied."

"Girl trouble?" Peter guessed.

"Why would he be having girl trouble?" James asked. "Things are going all right with Mimi, aren't they?"

Remus shook his head. "I don't know."

"She likes you though, doesn't she?" Peter pressed.

"I _thought_ so. She's just…been acting really weird lately. Every time I try to talk to her, she's…not quite there."

"Her mind's going then?" James joked. "Tragic when it happens at such a young age."

Remus didn't laugh. He just looked irritated.

"Oh, come on, Moony," James continued, slapping him on the shoulder. "She'll come around."

"I thought she already _came_ around," he grumbled, leaning his cheek against his fist.

"I think I hear a musical number coming on," Sirius said, speaking finally. He walked around the table to stand next to Remus. "Allow me to play the world's tiniest violin for you." Sirius began imitating squeaky violin noises, and Remus whacked him on the arm.

"Not funny, Sirius."

"Oh, come off it, Moony. I agree with James—she'll come around eventually. You know girls. Sometimes they get _moody_."

Remus couldn't argue with that. "I just wish I were going to see her over Christmas, that's all."

"Why don't you?" Peter asked.

"Because…she's going home," Remus said, as though it should be obvious.

James shrugged. "So are the rest of us, but you're still going to see _us_, aren't you?"

"Mimi's house isn't exactly connected to the Floo Network," Remus pointed out.

"Well, I'm sure you'll work it out, Remus," James said, giving him a supportive whack on the back.

Remus mumbled in agreement, and the Marauders turned their attention to the package lying on the table.

"So what's in it?" Peter asked.

James cleared his throat and straightened his tie pompously. "Well, comrades," he began. "It is a tale of great cunning and bravery. A tale of stealth and intrigue. A tale of—"

"Sirius taking the package off the table and opening it before James has a chance to give us a long-winded speech about it."

"I object, Padfoot. It is a tale of _none_ of those things—now, give me that package, or I will be forced to steal it away from you and then hit you with it."

"You can hit me with it all you like; I doubt it'd hurt much," Sirius replied, balancing the package on his pinky.

"Very well, Padfoot. You leave me no other choice." James dove across the table, and, as promised, wrestled the package from Sirius.

It ripped open in the process, and James quickly pulled the slinky fabric out, wrapped it around himself, and promptly disappeared.

He pulled off his shoe and whacked Sirius with it.

"Ow!" Sirius howled, and whirled around, trying to locate James. Luckily, this wasn't hard, as James was exploding with laughter, and Sirius pulled the cloak off and glared at him, rubbing his head.

Remus and Peter stared at James's brand-new Invisibility Cloak in astonishment, and ignored Sirius as he pulled off his own shoe and whacked James with it.

"_Wow_," Peter breathed. "Where did you get _that_?"

"Well, if Sirius had let me tell the story," James said, whacking his friend back, "you would know that already, wouldn't you?"

Sirius shrugged. "What can I say? I couldn't handle suspense."

"Well, now that the suspense is over, can I tell the story?" James demanded.

Sirius sighed dramatically. "If you must."

* * *

Lily had brewed another cauldron of Dreamless Sleep Potion, but she wasn't sure she wanted to take it anymore. It meant she wouldn't have the nightmares, but…it also meant she couldn't have the necklace dreams anymore. And she was sure that if she kept dreaming about Livana's world, she'd find out _something_ about the necklace…something substantial…because, as she now knew, the papers that Livana was scribbling out were research notes of some kind—notes about her necklace. She was _sure_ of it. If Lily could only manage to _read_ Livana's handwriting, then maybe she'd learn something.

She sighed and stared down at the bottle of potion in her hands. She thought of the conversation she'd had with Naomi during Auror Training.

_Sooner or later you're going to have to face it_.

Sooner or later, she repeated to herself. Sooner or later.

And better sooner than later, if she was going to meet with that Shunderschmoe…shumdertoe…whatever-toe fellow.

Lily, hands shaking, capped the Potions bottle and set it on her nightstand. She burrowed deep under her covers, praying for the necklace dream instead of the nightmare, and surrendered herself to sleep.

Livana was scribbling again. Her hand was already cramped when Lily popped into the dream, and Lily wondered if maybe this time she'd learn something. It was especially difficult to try to read Livana's writing this way, with her eyes sliding back and forth between a textbook and the piece of parchment hastily, her gaze resting on the parchment barely long enough for Lily to focus on the words. Livana's gaze remained on the textbook loner, and it would have been easier to read—if Lily could read Italian. At least she thought it was Italian. Maybe it was Latin. Or Spanish. Or…something. The only foreign language Lily knew was French, and even that she didn't know very well.

Lily sighed inwardly and prepared herself for another boring, pointless dream.

_Why am I having these dreams, anyway, if they're just useless memories the necklace carries around? Shouldn't there be a point to this?_

Lily redoubled on her own thoughts. _Wait…what did I just say?_

_Did I just think…about the necklace having memories?_

Zorcoran had mentioned something of the sort, she thought, and it did make sense. If the necklace was bound strongly enough to its wearer that it could tell when they were in trouble…then it had to be bound strongly enough to its owners to retain some memories of its attachment. Didn't it? But that bordered on spooky, Lily decided. She didn't want to think about the necklace having a mind of its own.

Lily didn't pay much attention to Livana's work until Livana shoved everything aside, pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment, and began writing on it. Slowly—neatly—legibly—_Lily could read it_! And—Holy Mother of Merlin, it was about _necklaces_! Not just any necklace, either—_her necklace_! FINALLY!

Lily read eagerly as Livana wrote, and wished only that Livana could write _quickly_ and neatly, so she wouldn't have to wait so agonizingly long for the sentences to form. But still—she was _learning_. It was _worth_ it. She thought she might swoon with happiness. If only she weren't trapped in Livana's body, she might have. But hey—Lily wasn't complaining. Finally, _finally_, she knew something!

Lily's (and Livana's) necklace, she learned, dated back to the early tenth century AD. Its origin was unknown, but most researchers (and there weren't many, from what Lily gathered) agreed that it came from somewhere in the United Kingdom. Some even argued that it came from Scotland—and that it was crafted by Godric Gryffindor himself. Livana herself believed that Gryffindor was the necklace's creator, and she promised in her opening paragraphs to prove this by the end of the essay.

The necklace was part gold, but Livana did not know how much—and nor did any other of the wearers or researchers who'd studied it. It was so heavily laced with enchantments, she explained, that the chemical make-up was negligible, and nearly impossible to ascertain. She expected the necklace, having lasted nearly a millennium already, was magically prepared to last at least another millennium more, and as long as the magic lasted, so would the metal.

Much of the necklace's history was vague and shadowy, even to Livana. It popped in and out of records without any apparent pattern, sometimes disappearing for centuries at a time. It was listed, Lily learned, in most of the great treasure-hunting guides of Livana's and earlier eras, and Livana suspected that several times when it disappeared from the history books, it was being exchanged amongst the hands of thieves who wished to use it for unscrupulous purposes, instead of—as Livana explained—its true purpose: defense.

She claimed that Godric Gryffindor crafted the necklace to protect his wife, Loveda (_luh-vee-duh_, Livana emphasized)—though from what, she never specified. No one but Gryffindor truly knew the number of enchantments he placed on the jewel, and for centuries treasure-seeking wizards had been attempting to determine just how powerful the object was.

Evidence of the necklace's various enchantments came from eyewitness accounts of the necklace in action—or from the personal accounts of the necklace-wearers themselves. One owner wrote in her diary that when she got lost in the woods several miles from her home, the necklace tugged at her neck and pulled her gently in the right direction until she arrived safely back at her house. Another wearer described the warmth the necklace gave her on a cold January night when she was home alone and the firewood ran out.

Most accounts of the necklace, however—and these were the accounts that interested treasure-hunters—were not firsthand. Stories of necklace owners turning invisible, or just plain disappearing, when put into dire straits. Of girls flying without broomsticks, traveling through time, or miraculously producing large quantities of gold when their families landed in harsh poverty. Of the necklace mysteriously disappearing from the neck of its owner when unscrupulous characters, having disposed of the creature who owned the necklace, tried to get their hands on it. (The cases in which the villains managed to kill the girls, Livana warned, were rare, and were not examples of the villains' triumph over near-ancient magic, but rather the necklace's failure to fulfill its duty as a pendant of protection.) Most important, Livana stressed, was the theory that the necklace, at the height of its powers, could even protect its wearer from death. This alleged trait, Livana surmised, was what made the necklace worth hunting for in the first place. (She personally did not believe that the necklace could truly protect the wearer from death, since there was too much evidence of the necklace failing its wearers in the past.)

Livana was deeply interested in how the necklace had come to be in her possession. She went back to the necklace's origins and discussed how, for nearly two hundred years, the pendant had remained directly in the hands of the Gryffindors. Each Gryffindor woman passed the necklace down to her daughter—or, if she had no daughter, to her son, so that he could bequeath it to the woman he loved. At this point, the necklace's pendant shifted shapes, to fit the initials of its wearer. Not until later, when the descendants of Gryffindor realized the necklace's true and potentially terrible power, was the necklace's pendant sealed so that it could neither be removed from the necklace or shifted into any letter but "L," the initial of the necklace's true and rightful owner.

This enchantment, Livana explained, was a newer, weaker magic, still overshadowed by the original enchantments Gryffindor himself laid down. It was cast by the Gryffindors in the hopes that it would limit the number of wearers—and therefore the number of legends—about the jewel. They warily anticipated the number of unscrupulous men who would attempt to lay their hands on it in the future, and their enchantment seemed to have worked well, pushing knowledge of the necklace's power into obscurity.

But the necklace had more curious qualities still. Some of the wearers described themselves as being able to cast magic with it, or use it as a source of power to strengthen other magic that they cast. Some owners described, like the first examples Livana mentioned, simpler things, like tugging them in the right direction when they were lost—or when they'd lost something. Some described strange dreams they had.

Others did not note anything unusual about the necklace at all.

Livana could not quite explain this phenomenon. If the necklace was crafted for protection, why did it not protect every wearer equally? She'd gathered from her research that it provided some amount of magical protection for every Gryffindor woman who'd owned it—but Livana herself was not a Gryffindor woman. She was married, she explained, to a descendant of a Gryffindor woman, but she was not a Gryffindor herself—and yet the necklace had exhibited more proof of its power to her than to many of its previous owners.

_What makes the difference_? Lily wondered, and Livana did not seem to have an answer.

Nor, it seemed, did she have time to finish her essay. Her writing was interrupted by the same man who'd barged in on Lily's last dream with Livana—only this time Lily felt biting disappointment when she realized that Livana was done writing for the day, and the dream world was slipping from around her.

* * *

The train ride back to King's Cross wasn't the greatest in Lily's memory. She enjoyed herself, of course, but she was a bit apprehensive about what the Christmas holidays would bring. She'd never been outside England before, and she didn't know if she liked the thought of being so far away from home on Christmas. She'd much rather be at Hogwarts—or Potter's Cottage—or even in London, where Melody would be—but no. She was going to visit with her family. Which wouldn't be so bad, really. She just couldn't shake off the feeling that she would have a much better time if she stayed in England with James.

But there wasn't any point in worrying about it, was there? Lily turned her attention to James, who was telling a story about Auror Training to Sirius, Melody, Peter, and Peter's girlfriend Colleen. Remus had insisted on riding with Mimi, who was sharing a compartment with Susie and Matt somewhere.

Lily laughed at James's punch line and tried to forget her worries. There was no point being nervous about the future. What was going to come would come. She just tried to enjoy the ride back, right here, right now, sitting in a warm, cinnamon-scented train compartment across from James, the boy she loved…

...to kiss.

* * *

A/N: Whew! That was long. Hope you enjoyed it. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Responses to your reviews can be found at the Yahoo Group "eyesdatabase." (There is a link in my profile.)

A tasty, crackling, snapping, popping, chewable, edible, breakfast time THANK YOU (no, not a bowl of Rice Krispies, but a THANK YOU) to everyone who reviewed for last chapter, to everyone who survived reading this chapter, and to everyone who reviews this chapter!

I'm SO CLOSE to having a thousand reviews—I can't even believe it! When I started this story, I don't think I expected to ever get more than five hundred. I would promise to do something really exciting and wonderful if I get over a thousand reviews after posting this chapter, but I can't think of anything exciting and wonderful enough. If you have any ideas, please let me know. (And keep in mind I have finals coming up, so if you're planning on me doing something exciting and wonderful in the next two weeks…it's probably not going to happen. Bah humbug on finals!)

Anyway, I can't thank you all enough for the support and inspiration you've given me. It's really overwhelming.

But enough of that! At the suggestion of my beta-reader, I'm going to give you fair warning: The next chapter of Eyes will be entitled "Lily Dies."

Muahaha.

Cheers!

Sierra Charm


	20. Lily Dies

A/N: Hurrah! It's Chapter Twenty!

Keeping with tradition, the update much later than I promised—but hey, at least it's here, isn't it? I'm making no promises about the next update, except that it _will_ happen. (You know…eventually.)

Disclaimer: Obviously I own none of the Harry Potter characters or story. No trademark or copyright infringement is intended. There is also a brief mention of the London store Harrod's in this chapter, and I lay no claim to that institution or its affiliates either.

That said, here's a brief summary of the last chapter, "Mucking About With Hormones":

The Auror Training groups have returned to Hogwarts, and Lily and James spend a fair amount of time getting reacquainted with one another. Sirius tries to work out his relationship with Mimi, and Mimi is frustrated because she still has feelings for him. Sirius and Melody get together, and Remus invites Mimi to go to Hogsmeade with him, but she is still hurt by Sirius's relationship with Melody. Lily visits Zorcoran in Hogsmeade to ask about her necklace—with James and Sirius tagging along—and is referred to a specialist in London named Schmundertoe. Lily also learns a good deal about the history of her necklace from a dream featuring Livana. Both Melody and Lily learn where they're going to be over Christmas holidays—Melody in London and Lily in America, visiting her cousin. In other news, Arabella Figg and Mundungus Fletcher break up, Bellatrix continues scheming against Lily, Lucy and her horrible friends begin a group called the Fully Pure Club, and Lin finally kisses Anthony. Lily remains in denial about her feelings for James.

Damn. Those summaries are never brief. Oh, well. Anyway, I don't think there's anything more that I need to say…except that this chapter is _less than forty pages long_! I'm soooo excited. (You think it would have taken me less time to write, though, wouldn't you?)

Ah well.

Cheers and Happy Reading!

* * *

Chapter Twenty  
Lily Dies

Bellatrix Black arrived home to find Siegfried Lestrange drunk out of his mind.

"Oh, perfect," she muttered, and glared at him. A half-empty bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky sat on the kitchen counter. Siegfried was in the living room, stumbling around with a glass in his hand, wearing only a T-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts…on his head. He was wailing something, very loudly, and after a moment of careful observation that Bellatrix realized that he was, for some obscure reason, singing the Durmstrang school song.

"For the love of all things magical, Siegfried," Bellatrix snapped, striding over to him and snatching the glass out of his hand. "Stop making that horrible racket and put some clothes on."

"Belllllatwix!" Siegfried slurred, grinning sloppily. He looked very happy to see her, despite the vicious glare she had on her face. "I thhhhought you _wwwiked_ me wwiffout any clllowes on."

Bellatrix yanked the boxer shorts off his head and shoved them into his hands. "Put these around your _waist_, please."

She walked back into the kitchen, looking for a bottle of Instant Sober-Up Potion. It wasn't the most pleasant stuff in the world—it flushed all of the alcohol out of your system very quickly through your bladder—but Bellatrix wasn't much concerned with the pleasantness of Siegfried's life at the moment. She glanced over at him. He was hopping around the living room on one foot, attempting to put his boxer shorts on.

"You might want to try that sitting down," Bellatrix suggested, and he fell over onto the floor. She sighed deeply and turned back to the cabinet. It was looking rather emptier than usual, due to Siegfried's recent drinking binge, but the Sober-Up Potion was still there. She yanked the cork out of it and poured some into a small shot glass. She figured at this point Siegfried would drink anything as long as it resembled alcohol.

Siegfried stumbled into the kitchen, having successfully pulled his boxer shorts on, and clumsily wrapped his arms around Bellatrix's waist. "You know, Bellatwix, you aaawe vewy pwetty. Have I evahh toowd you thaaat you ah pwetty?"

Bellatrix twisted around in his embrace to face him. "Once or twice. Shot, dear?" She held up the Sober-Up Potion in its shot glass.

Siegfried smiled sloppily and took it, but he didn't drink it right away. "You know wwha, Bellatwix? I wweally llllike you. I thhhink I'd like to be wwiff you fooooevah."

"That's nice, Siegfried. Don't you want to drink your shot?" Bellatrix didn't trust anything Siegfried said while he was drunk.

Siegfried brought the shot glass to his lips, but then stopped as a thought struck him. "You knnnow, I wweally mean it, Bellatwwix. I thhhink we should get mm-mm—mmawwied!"

Bellatrix stared up at him.

"Please tell me you did not just try to propose to me while you were shit-faced drunk."

Siegfried grinned down at her stupidly. "Do you wwant to mawwy me, Bellatwix?"

Bellatrix just blinked at him. She could not _believe_ he was doing this to her. Any time she brought up the subject of commitment, Siegfried abruptly changed the topic, or uncorked a bottle of wine, or came up with some other kind of distraction to avoid discussing it. And now, here he was, so inebriated he would not remember _any_ of this by the time he was sober, and he was trying to _propose_ to her.

Bellatrix wanted to hit him over the head with the bottle of Firewhisky, but resisted the temptation. Instead, she grabbed the bottle and a second shot glass, and stared at him angrily as she poured herself a drink.

"Siegfried," she said, flatly, "Do not ever ask me that question again unless you are perfectly sober and you _mean it_."

"But I _ddooo_ mmean it, Belllatwix, I—"

"Just drink your damn shot, Siegfried!" Bellatrix yelled, tossing back her own.

Siegfried, looking dopey and a bit disappointed, did as she commanded. He set down his shot glass and stood there for a moment, looking at her happily, until a twinge of concern appeared in his face. The concern grew deeper, until--

"Bellatwix, if you'll exwuuse me, I think I have to go to the—"

But the potion didn't leave him any time to linger, and he ran off to the bathroom before he could finish his sentence. Bellatrix sighed and set about putting away the potion and the Firewhisky. She put the two shot glasses into the sink and sat down at the table to wait for Siegfried to finish relieving himself so she could tell him about their plans for the Christmas holidays.

She still could not _believe_ that he'd tried to propose to her while drunk.

And she further could not believe the little thought that flickered through her head just after he'd said it. It was the wrong place, the wrong time, the completely wrong atmosphere, but…just after Siegfried had said it, one little word flickered into her mind. One little word that had quickly gotten flattened by a train of indignant thought.

_Yes_.

* * *

"Oh, Happy Christmas, Lily dear!" 

"Mum, it's not Christmas yet," Lily protested, but her mother ignored her and squished her into a hug.

"I know that, darling," her mother said, still squeezing her, "but it's the holidays now, and it _feels_ so much more like Christmas with you home, and—oh, I'm just glad to see you!" She squeezed Lily still harder.

"You saw me yesterday when you picked me up from King's Cross," Lily reminded her, trying to squirm away from the hug.

"What, and you think I'm tired of seeing you already?"

"You know, mum," Lily commented, her face smushed against her mother's shoulder, "squeezing me harder isn't going to make me any more real."

"Well, maybe not, but it's a fun form of torture, isn't it?" Mrs. Evans reasoned, and finally released her daughter, beaming.

"Oh? And what did I do to deserve torture, pray tell?" Lily asked, taking a seat at the kitchen table, where she, her mother, and Mrs. Potter had gathered to eat lunch.

"You slept in too late. This is what you get for missing breakfast," her mother answered, matter-of-factly.

"Mum, you said it yourself. It's the holidays. There's nothing wrong with catching up on a little sleep."

"Sleep? Who said what about sleep?" James said, shuffling into the kitchen, looking very bleary-eyed.

"James, how marvelous to see you," said Mrs. Potter from the other end of the table. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd died."

"Good morning to you too, mum." James sat down at the table next to Lily. He gave her a sleepy grin and plopped his head onto her shoulder.

"James, it's past noon. Wake _up_, for goodness' sake. _Tea_, please," Mrs. Potter intoned, and a large pot of tea appeared on the kitchen table, accompanied by four teacups. "Drink this, James, and stop using Lily as a human pillow."

James grumbled, but lifted his head from Lily's shoulder and poured himself a cup of tea.

"That's better," Mrs. Potter said once he'd woken up a bit.

"Well, now that we're all here," Mrs. Evans said, trading a glance with Mrs. Potter, "there are a couple things we've been meaning to discuss with you two."

Lily glanced back and forth between the mothers uneasily, and then looked at James, who just shrugged.

"We know that you're dating now, of course, and that's wonderful," Mrs. Evans continued. "But having you under the same roof, even just for a few days, is a bit—a bit—well, concerning."

Lily and James looked at each other, and then back at their mothers.

"We'd just like you to…to behave yourselves while you're here, that's all," Mrs. Potter finished, rather bluntly.

Lily and James stared at each other. Lily opened her mouth several times to say something, but never quite got the words out, and her cheeks began to flush fantastically. She looked away from James, embarrassed, and began examining her fingernails.

"Thanks for the lecture, mum," James said finally. "But Lily and I—I mean, we don't—we're not—look, you don't have anything to worry about, all right?"

"Oh, honestly, James, it wasn't a _lecture_. It was just something that had to be said." Mrs. Potter tried to say this dismissively, but Lily thought she sounded rather relieved. Not that Lily and James hadn't spent several hours snogging last night, but…still. She thought perhaps their mothers were thinking a bit _farther_ than that, and Lily and James hadn't…well, they weren't quite ready to…

Oh, for heaven's sake, they hadn't even said they loved each other yet. It wasn't as though their relationship was getting really _serious_ or anything. Which was just fine with Lily, especially considering she couldn't make up her mind how she felt about James.

She decided to change the subject.

"So, when's Petunia coming?" Lily asked, surprised that this was the first thing that popped into her head.

Mrs. Evans looked slightly uneasy at the question. "Well, dear…you know she feels uncomfortable around magic. Petunia decided to spend an extra couple of days with her boyfriend and his family, and she's going to meet us at the airport on Thursday."

"Oh," Lily replied. She couldn't say she was incredibly disappointed to hear this news, and she couldn't quite think of anything else to say.

But her question eased them into normal conversation again, and James began discussing with his mother the plans he and Lily had for visiting London on Tuesday to meet with Al Schmundertoe.

* * *

"So, what are our plans for the brat?" Siegfried asked, cradling his head between his hands. The Sober-Up Potion, though quite effective in most areas, didn't stop him from having a headache. 

"We're going to kill her and then steal her necklace. Or…steal her necklace and then kill her. Whichever works best, I suppose," Bellatrix replied, setting a steaming cup of tea in front of Siegfried.

"I _know_ that, Bellatrix. What I mean is…how're we going to do it? Are we going to get her alone, or off her whole family at once, or…what?"

Bellatrix took a sip of her own tea and considered. "Well," she said slowly, "this isn't an authorized mission, so we don't want it to be linked to the Dark Lord. I think it's best if we don't call too much attention to ourselves."

"So…we won't be offing the whole household then?"

"I think it's best if we just take care of the girl. She'll be staying in New York City, you know. What's one dead body in a deserted alleyway? The Muggles will hardly even notice."

"Good planning as always, darling," Siegfried said, and tossed back half of his cup of tea.

"It's not a _drink_, dear. You should slow down," Bellatrix advised, taking a dainty sip from her own cup.

Siegfried frowned. "You know how I get when I'm hungover, Bellatrix."

"You're not as hungover as you could have been," she muttered.

Siegfried ignored her. "So when are we leaving for America, then? Straightaway?"

"Not until Tuesday. I want to get there before the girl does so we can get familiar with the surroundings."

"Not until _Tuesday_? Bellatrix, it's only Sunday. You might as well have left me drunk!"

Bellatrix glared at him. "I want you sober while we're packing, thank you very much. And as a matter of fact, I'd _rather_ if you didn't get drunk anymore. It was all very well and good when we were on the Dark Lord's bad side, but the past few weeks he's been giving us more and more important assignments. We're working our way back up, Siegfried, can't you see it? Or are you too lost in your bottle to notice?"

"I'm not lost in anything," he grumbled. "I just like a good drink."

"Yes, well _I_ like a good boyfriend, which is what you _aren't_ when you're drunk."

"That's ridiculous, Bella. I'm so much more _open_ when I'm drunk."

Bellatrix thought of his impromptu proposal, and her cheeks burned. "Yeah, but you're a lot more pathetic in the sack," she snapped, and stood up, tossing her teacup into the sink. She ignored the tinkle of breaking china as she strode out of the room.

* * *

Melody was gorgeous again. Gorgeous and fake. She stared at herself in the mirror. A year ago, the image would have made her smile. Every hair in place, every line of her face strategically accented or toned down by spells and make-up for the best possible effect…her blue eyes sparkling, her golden hair glowing, and her expensive jewelry glittering in the candlelight. It was quite an effect, really. Very enviable. She should have been pleased. 

But instead she just stared at herself, appalled. _I don't even look real. I look like…a statue or a painting or something. _And, much like a painting, this outward Melody was little more than an illusion. A striking image stroked onto a troubled canvas.

There was a knock on her door. Statue Melody didn't respond. She just stared at herself in the mirror and let the knocking continue until the person knocking became impatient and walked in. Melody turned her head to see who it was. She could feel a mass of golden curls shift behind her. Her little silver earrings dangled happily. She looked just as beautiful from this angle, she imagined. Equally beautiful and equally fake.

But she forgot that for a moment when she saw who it was. "Catalina!" she cried, smiling genuinely for the first time since she'd arrived in London.

"Oh, Melody, you look wonderful," Catalina said, rushing over to give her a hug. "I was afraid you wouldn't be coming."

"Why wouldn't I be coming?" Melody asked. She wondered what Catalina knew of Hans's plans for Melody.

"Because of the way Hans treated you last summer. I thought maybe you'd...grown tired of his hospitality."

"Oh," Melody said, slipping her gaze away from Catalina's. Clearly, she knew nothing. "My uncle and I have…made amends," she lied, turning back to her dressing table. She fiddled with a tube of lipstick.

"You don't need to put any more of that on. You look perfect already," Catalina told her, smiling. This time Melody could not quite return the grin. Catalina frowned. "Melody, what's the matter?"

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm just…a little tired tonight, that's all."

"Ah. Yes, I heard the festivities last night went on for quite some time."

Melody nodded. "I didn't see you there. Where have you been?"

"I was in Portugal visiting some relatives. I find that I have time for things like that, now…now that I'm no longer with Hans."

"Really?" Melody's head snapped back in Catalina's direction. The older woman sighed.

"Clearly Hans has told you nothing. Though I suspect, with you being as clever as you are, that you have probably discovered that he is quite bankrupt. That is not my reason for leaving him, of course. But ever since he lost his fortune, he's…well, he's changed. I don't really want to go into details, but…I just couldn't be with him anymore, Melody. He's not the man he used to be."

Melody stared down at her dressing table again. Well, she agreed with Catalina on that one. "I'm glad you're here," she said, looking up and smiling again. Catalina reached over and squeezed her hands, returning the smile.

"You're braver than I am, trying to get along with your uncle in the state he's in. He's very lucky to have family like you."

Melody couldn't think of anything to say to this, so she just rose and pulled Catalina into a hug.

"We should get going," she said. "Dinner will be starting soon."

* * *

"I still don't see why Sirius had to come," Lily complained for the hundredth time, scowling over at the offending party. Sirius was pointedly ignoring her and concentrating very hard on the map he held in his hands.

"He said he was going to, didn't he? After we visited Zorcoran in Hogsmeade," James reminded her, exasperated. "Besides, we needed a navigator."

"Fat lot of good he's doing us, too. We've circled the same block three times."

"Is it my fault Schmundertoe's directions are ambiguous?" Sirius demanded, squinting at the small, scribbled directions on one corner of the map.

"There's a difference between ambiguous and indecipherable, Sirius," Lily pointed out. "I don't see how you can make out any of his handwriting."

"I can _read_ it just fine. I'm just…not quite sure what he means. He says it's invisible on Tuesdays, so we have to hop the third brick past the sparrow, and knock three times on the tin can to—"

"Oh, please, Sirius, you are _making that up_. Give me that." Lily snatched the map out of his hands and examined it. "Just because you can't read Schmundertoe's writing doesn't mean you have to _invent_ things and pretend like you can." She squinted down at the map. She did see something that looked kind of like _Tuesday_, but she didn't see anything that remotely resembled _invisible_. Of course, she couldn't make anything else out of the scribbles that remotely resembled _words_, so perhaps she wasn't the best judge.

"I'm not _pretending_," Sirius replied, irritated, and took the map back. "I'm just an excellent decoder."

"If you were really excellent, wouldn't we be there by now?"

"Everyone's a critic," Sirius muttered, reading over the directions again. "All right," he said, stopping. "Have we passed the bookstore yet?"

"Three times, which is how many times we've circled this block," Lily told him, pointing. "It's back that way. And," she added, checking her watch, "it's almost two o'clock. We're going to be late."

"We'll be fine. Just trust me," Sirius assured her, striding purposefully toward the bookstore. Lily glared at James, but he just shrugged and followed Sirius. Lily sighed and walked after them.

"All right, now what?" she demanded when she caught up.

"Patience," Sirius admonished. "We have to find the sparrow."

Lily looked upward. "I don't see any birds. Except that pigeon, but it flew away."

"I didn't mean up _there_, Lily-bean, I meant—aha! Look there! What do you call _that_?"

Lily turned around. Sirius was pointing at the edge of the bookstore's building. Engraved near the bottom was an image of a sparrow. "You've got to be kidding me."

Sirius grinned. "What did I tell you? Now…we've just got to hop the third brick past this sucker and we're home free."

"What about the tin can?" James remembered.

"Psh. Insignificant details." Sirius counted three bricks to the right of the sparrow and stood next to the wall, preparing to jump.

"Sirius, I really don't see how you can jump _over_ that. The brick is kind of…you know…part of a wall," Lily reasoned.

"I'm just going to jump this way, Lily-bean. Kind of…next to and over the brick. You know, _above_ it without really being _over_ it."

"Just jump. We're wasting time."

"All right, kids. Now watch and see how it's done." Sirius furrowed his eyebrows in concentration, sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth for effect. He squatted slightly and curled his hands into fists, swinging his arms back and forth in preparation.

Lily couldn't help rolling her eyes. "Just jump already, would you?"

Sirius shot her a glare and jumped, without any ridiculous preparations, and promptly disappeared.

"D'you…d'you think he's inside?" Lily asked, staring blankly at the empty space in front of her. After all the things she'd seen, this really shouldn't have surprised her, but…but _still_. It was so…_nonsensical_. And the fact that Sirius had actually managed to decipher Schmundertoe's directions was both astonishing and infuriating.

"One way to find out," James reasoned, positioning himself next to the bricks. He jumped as well, and also disappeared. Lily sighed and stood next to the wall, feeling slightly ridiculous, but the next second she'd jumped, and bumped into James as she landed.

"You might have given me a second to get out of the way," James grumbled.

Sirius grinned. "Oh, please, James. Like you mind having Lily throw yourself at you."

"I did not _throw_ myself at him, and anyway—where are we?" she asked suddenly, looking around. They appeared to be in the back of a narrow, deserted alley. Neither the street nor the bookstore were in sight.

"Well, we found the tin can," Sirius told her, indicating a rusty can sitting in the middle of the alley. Besides the three teenagers, it was the only thing present. "Lily, take out your wand and tap three times on it."

"If you insist," Lily said, trying to sound exasperated, but at this point she was more curious than she was annoyed. She pulled her wand out of her robes and did as Sirius instructed, and then stood up and stared at the can.

Nothing happened for a moment, but then the can began wobbling. It wobbled faster and faster until it was shuddering and twisting with movement, and Lily noticed that the rust began to disappear. The can bent itself out of shape, quite literally, and twisted itself in what appeared to be a…doorknob. It glinted for a moment as its surface changed from dull, rough tin to shiny, polished silver, and then the doorknob lifted off the ground and zoomed toward the wall, lodging itself firmly into the brick.

As soon as the doorknob was in place, the wall melted away, and in its place was a long, white building, with gaudy golden front doors framed by a set of windows. The street and the bookstore re-materialized around them, and as Lily re-oriented herself, the rest of Schmundertoe's building organized itself between the bookstore and a health food store. Lily stared as the shiny silver doorknob shifted until it sat directly in the middle of the door. In one of the windows hung a modest sign that read: "OPEN."

"Geez," Lily said after a moment. "Is it always this hard to get to?"

"No, just on Tuesdays. It's closed on Tuesdays," Sirius informed her, sounding a little too pleased with himself. He pulled open one of the golden doors and motioned for Lily to go in ahead of him.

Lily stepped into the shop and looked around. It was pretty, but not overly impressive. The carpet was a reddish sort of maroon. What few decorations there were on the cream-colored walls were all gold, but those weren't really noticeable. The prominent feature in Schmundertoe's store were the dozens of glass display cases that filled the length of the room. Most were octagonal in shape, and stood equidistant from one another, sparkling with expensive jewels and watches. The most noticeable display case, however, was the long counter that ran the entire width of the room in the back.

Lily walked through the store to the back counter, and glanced around, looking for Schmundertoe. She turned around and frowned at James and Sirius. Except for the three teenagers, Schmundertoe's shop was completely empty.

"Well, well, well, there you are!" came a voice from behind the counter. Lily jerked slightly in surprise and turned around. Standing behind the counter was a short old man. He had a rather large nose and round spectacles that magnified his eyes. Large tufts of white hair stuck out in a ring around his head, framing his bald spot. He wore a white oxford shirt under a green vest, and the gold chain of a pocket watch hung across his stomach.

Schmundertoe took the pocket watch out and examined it. "Three and a half minutes late, but it will do. You must be Miss Evans."

Lily nodded.

"And these two are--?" he queried, indicating James and Sirius.

Lily turned around and considered. The boys were trying to look innocent and harmless, which didn't quite work for them. "A nuisance," she told Schmundertoe, turning back around.

Schmundertoe's whole face crinkled into a smile, and he laughed heartily for a moment. "Very well. You and the two nuisances may come to the back."

He turned around and began walking toward the back room. Lily was about to open her mouth and protest that she didn't know how to get around the counter, when the counter suddenly split in the middle and separated into a gap wide enough for Lily to walk through.

"Nuisances?" James hissed into her ear.

Lily had to suppress a giggle. "Hey, Schmundertoe thought it was funny."

"That's all right, James. Why don't you just stop kissing her for a few days and then see how much of a nuisance she thinks you are?" Sirius suggested.

"Not a bad idea," James replied as they entered the back room.

A large oak desk sat on the right side of the room, with one chair on each side. On top sat several silver instruments that Lily could not identify, though the largest one looked like a...set of magnifying glasses, she thought. On the wall hung a glass case with several more unfamiliar silver instruments, but other than that the room was bare.

"Have a seat there, Miss Evans," Schmundertoe said, indicating the chair on the near side of the desk. "I'll draw up some chairs for these nuisances." His face crinkled in amusement again as he said it, and Lily thought James looked a bit sulky as Schmundertoe produced two chairs for the boys with his wand. "Well, enough of that joke. Would you gentlemen care for some tea?"

Schmundertoe produced a table, a teapot, and some crumpets without waiting for a response. "Make yourselves comfortable," he advised. "This may take a while."

Schmundertoe sat down across from Lily. He pulled a notebook and a quill out of a drawer, and set them on top of the desk next to his wand. "Now then," he said. "Let's have a look at your necklace." He extended his hand.

"Um…sir, it can't…it can't come off."

"I know that. Zorcoran sent his notes ahead to me. Just lean over."

Lily scooted toward the desk and complied, leaning over until she was close enough for Schmundertoe to take the pendant in his hands.

"Ah, good. Now then…" Schmundertoe, fixated on the necklace, didn't seem to notice Lily's discomfort. He pulled out his wand and tapped Lily's necklace with it several times, muttering to himself and taking notes. Lily tried not to fidget, but she was beginning to get a crick in her neck. She tried to stretch her neck a little, hoping it wouldn't disturb Schmundertoe. He glanced up at her briefly and went back to his muttering. Lily waited as patiently as she could, as the ache in her neck spread to her back and then to her calves, and then finally—finally—something happened.

Schmundertoe tapped the necklace with his wand again, and a great gold shimmer ran through the length of the chain. He was now muttering in a language Lily didn't recognize. He put the tip of his wand on the necklace where it met Lily's neck, and stroked the chain until he hit the golden _L_ pendant that hung upon it. The necklace shimmered again, and then…_lengthened_. Lily watched with wide eyes as Schmundertoe stroked the necklace several more times, and then grinned up at her.

"You can sit down now."

Lily nodded and plopped into her seat, staring at the necklace. Its chain was at least two feet long. She wondered… "Mr. Schmundertoe, since the chain is so long now…d'you think it might be easier if I just took the necklace off?"

"No!" Schmundertoe said urgently. "You must _never_ try to take this necklace off."

"Because it would…hurt me if I tried?" Lily swallowed, thinking of Laurelle.

"On the contrary, Miss Evans, this necklace was created explicitly to _protect_ you."

"But then why—"

"If anyone—_anyone_, including you, Miss Evans—tries to prevent this necklace from doing what it was created to do…then the necklace will do whatever is necessary to protect _itself_."

"So it has a…mind of its own?"

"No, Miss Evans. As far as I can tell, it has no more of a mind than my pocket watch. But I am not finished examining it yet. I know it is frustrating, but trust me—I will be able to give you a much more thorough explanation of the necklace if you let me finish taking notes on it before you start asking me questions about it."

Lily nodded, feeling a little embarrassed. "Sorry for interrupting you."

"Not at all," Schmundertoe said, a little absentmindedly, as he'd gone back to examining the necklace. He was now running the chain through his bare hands. He had his eyes closed, as though he were searching for something by touch alone, but Lily couldn't imagine what. "Excellent craftsmanship," he muttered. "Very smooth chain."

Lily glanced over at James and Sirius, but they didn't look like they knew what Schmundertoe was talking about either. What did the smoothness of the chain matter?

"Hmm," he said, still running the chain through his hands. "Mm…mmm…ah…_ah_!" Schmundertoe opened his eyes and stared at the chain excitedly. Apparently he'd hit a snag. Lily stared down at the section of chain in Schmundertoe's fingers and saw…absolutely nothing.

"This is it!" Schmundertoe cried.

Lily couldn't help herself. "What's it?" she demanded.

But Schmundertoe didn't seem to care that she was breaking his concentration. "This—this—it's the source, the source! Most necklaces don't have these, they're just—mmhm—but _this_—this one's smarter, yes it is, and it's all contained in one place, one very tricky place—this is wonderful—I have to see it—"

Lily looked over at James and Sirius. They just stared at her helplessly.

Schmundertoe ignored all of them and dragged one of his silver instruments across the desk. It was the largest one, the one Lily thought looked like magnifying glasses—and now, she saw, as Schmundertoe stood up to peer into them, she was right. The jewelry maker turned on a lamp and flipped all of the magnifying glasses to one side of the contraption, so they were all aligned for the highest possible magnification.

"There it is!" he cried. "Come—come—you must come and see this," he said, motioning to Lily and the boys excitedly. "Oh, it's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Just look. _Look_!"

Lily stood on her tiptoes to lean over and peer through the magnifying glasses. At first she couldn't see anything—just a bit of gold chain in between Schmundertoe's obscenely magnified fingers—but then she shifted, and something sparkled under the light, and she saw it. Right there, lodged into one of the tiny eyelets of the fine golden chain, something red and ruby-like glinted.

"There, right there, that explains it all!"

"Explains what all?" Lily asked curiously.

"Why the magic's still so strong after so many thousands of years. Why the pendant's practically useless," he added, flicking the shiny golden _L_ with his index finger. "But, most importantly," he continued, "it explains why the necklace is linked to both you"—he nodded at Lily—"and him."

Schmundertoe's gaze traveled to James, and Lily's gaze traveled with his. James just stared at him, completely bewildered.

Schmundertoe laughed. "Come, come, everyone sit down. I must finish this."

The teenagers complied, baffled into silence.

* * *

Schmundertoe's examination of the necklace lasted another hour and a half, during which the teenagers were allowed to ask no questions. It was a very frustrating wait.

Schmundertoe amassed more than twenty pages of notes during that time, and, once he was finally done looking at the necklace, he demanded another half an hour alone to look over his notes and collect his thoughts. During that time, he asked Lily, James, and Sirius to wait in the hallway just outside the back room. Lily paced nervously, fiddling with her necklace, Sirius leaned against the wall, tapping his fingers anxiously, and James sat on the floor, frowning across at the other wall.

"What does he mean, it's linked to _me_?"

Lily sighed and stopped pacing. "I don't know, James. You're the one who gave it to me. Maybe that has something to do with it."

"Maybe."

Lily went back to pacing.

"D'you think he'll be out soon?"

"I don't know," Lily snapped.

The door to the back room opened, and all three teenagers turned their heads toward it. Schmundertoe emerged, looking rather worn out. He had his eyeglasses in one hand and a handkerchief in the other, and was using the handkerchief to clean his lenses.

"Come in, come in," he said, gesturing, and his guests wasted no time in complying. Lily eagerly took her seat by Schmundertoe's desk again and waited for him to sit down and explain.

Schmundertoe closed the door behind them and resumed his seat behind the desk. He picked up his note pad and flipped through several pages of notes before setting it down again and looking around at his three visitors. "There's no need to stay in the corner any longer," he said, gesturing to James and Sirius. "Please, come closer."

James and Sirius pulled their chairs up by the desk and positioned themselves on either side of Lily. They sat and stared at Schmundertoe, waiting.

"I haven't decided what would be easier," Schmundertoe confessed, after a moment, "so I'm going to let you decide. Would you rather ask me questions about the necklace, or listen to me waffle on about everything I've discovered?"

Lily looked between Sirius and James, but they just shrugged at her. She rolled her eyes and returned her gaze to Schmundertoe, fidgeting. "I have so many questions. I…well, first of all, what's the red stone for?"

Schmundertoe flipped through his notebook eagerly, muttering softly as he located the right page of notes. "Well, Miss Evans," he began, glancing up from his notes, "I'm not _entirely_ sure. I have a few facts and numerous speculations. The facts first." Schmundertoe glanced down at his notes again, and then back up at Lily.

"It is…the source of the necklace's power, you might say. It is the base of the object—the one thing to which all the enchantments of the necklace are bound." A frown line etched itself into Schmundertoe's forehead when he said this, but if something was bothering him, he didn't comment on it. "I am not sure precisely what the stone is," he confessed, "which, as a jeweler, is very distressing. I'm afraid it's too small to study thoroughly, and though it glints like a ruby, it just doesn't…_feel _to me like a ruby. Do you understand what I mean?"

Lily traded glances with her friends. "Not…not really, sir. I'm sorry."

Schmundertoe nodded and rifled through his notes again. "Well, I—hm." He scratched his head, making some of his hair stick up on end, and thought about it for a moment. "No, I don't have a better explanation for it than that. I'm very sorry. What is your next question?"

"I'd like to know more about this ruby," Lily pressed, "or…whatever it is. What are your speculations about it?"

"And why," James said suddenly, "did you say it was linked to me?"

"Because it is," Schmundertoe said. "The enchantments around the necklace are linked both to Miss Evans and to you. I may have gotten a _bit_ carried away in my excitement before. Upon further thought I realized that much of what I originally exclaimed about the ruby may have been...a tad inaccurate. You must understand that everything I say about the ruby from this point on is merely guesswork."

Lily nodded eagerly and waited for him to explain.

"The ruby, I believe, is not entirely a ruby. I think it may hold an extremely tiny drop of the blood of its crafter. And its crafter, in turn," Schmundertoe continued, turning his attention to James, "must be related to you."

"Godric Gryffindor," Lily breathed, taking hold of the necklace. "It was crafted by Godric Gryffindor."

"Goodness, was it?" Schmundertoe said. "Zorcoran certainly didn't include _that_ in his report." He hurriedly flicked the pages of his notebook aside until he found a blank one, and began scribbling away again. "That's interesting," he muttered. "_Very _interesting..." He looked up briefly. "I don't suppose there's anything else about the necklace you've neglected to tell me?"

Lily's cheeks flushed. "I—I'm sorry, sir. You didn't ask."

"That is true," Schmundertoe conceded. "And you don't have to apologize. Please, tell me what you know."

"Well," Lily said slowly, "I'm not sure all of my information is completely accurate. I…read a report about the necklace, and much of the report was speculation. I am not even entirely sure that Gryffindor was the crafter; it just…makes sense." James and Sirius were both staring at her, and she shrugged at them, embarrassed. "I never got a chance to tell you about my dr—I mean, about the report I, um…read."

She proceeded to divulge all she had learned about the necklace through Livana's report, with James and Sirius staring at her and Schmundertoe scribbling notes the whole time. When she'd finished, Schmundertoe looked up at her expectantly.

"And that's it? Did the report give any sort of explanation for the variation in the necklace's powers?" Schmundertoe was referring to the phenomenon by which some of the necklace's owners witnessed a great deal of magic cast by the necklace, and others experienced nothing unusual about the necklace at all.

Lily shook her head. "I never quite finished reading it. I'm sorry."

"No, don't worry about apologies," Schmundertoe said, waving his hand dismissively and staring down at his notebook again. "Different types of powers, you said…variations, variations…." He started muttering again, chewing on the end of his pencil.

"You had another dream, didn't you?" James whispered, and Lily nodded. James frowned. "Why didn't you tell me about it?"

"I guess it slipped my mind," Lily whispered back. "I'm sorry."

"A dream? Zorcoran's report did mention you having dreams," Schmundertoe said. "Did you get all of this information from a dream?"

"Well…yes," Lily said reluctantly.

"Then why did you say you read it in a report? That makes a difference."

"I _did_ read it in a report," Lily insisted. "In the dream, I…I was writing the report. But it…well, it wasn't really _me_, because I didn't know anything about the necklace, but the person I _was_ in the dream knew all about the necklace, and she was writing a report, and as she wrote it I got to read it, so…that was just as useful," she ended lamely. "That doesn't sound very credible, does it?"

"If it's a dream you got from the memory of the necklace, then I'd say it's more credible than half my speculations," Schmundertoe said, smiling at her kindly. For the first time, Lily noted, he really looked like an old man. Smiling crinkled all the wrinkles in his face, and his eyes had a sort of…grandfatherly twinkle in them, she thought. Lily didn't really remember her grandparents, so she wasn't really sure if his eyes looked grandfatherly or not, but they looked like the eyes of the grandfather she hoped she'd had.

"Memories," Lily murmured. "I'm sorry, Mr. Schmundertoe, but I just don't see how an object without a mind of its own could possibly have _memories_ of its own."

"Don't apologize, don't apologize. That's a perfectly legitimate concern. An object as powerful as this one, with as many enchantments as it's been given over the years, is lucky not to have run into some sort of dark magic that would implant it with a mind. No _good_ kind of magic would ever give an object a mind of its own. You see…." Schmundertoe frowned for the second time, and this time four creases appeared in his forehead instead of one. He mulled over his words carefully before continuing.

"It is impossible to create a mind out of nothing. It is possible to charm objects, yes, and to make these objects tap dance or sing or talk—but those sorts of charms do not last, and are almost entirely dependent on the will of the wizard controlling them. The 'mind' for the object, you see, comes from the wizard, and not the object itself."

"What about the front doors at Hogwarts?" Sirius asked. Lily and James both turned their heads toward him, surprised. "They are enchanted, and they are only made of wood, but they can be taught to recognize people through pictures and deny them entry to the school, and not to open during certain times of the day. _Taught_, and not charmed. What about things like that?"

"Ah, but that's different," Schmundertoe said, looking delighted with Sirius's point. "I remember those doors. I was at Hogwarts once, too. Gryffindor House, you know." He looked rather wistful for a moment, and then got back to his point. "The doors are made of wood—the finest kind. Wood that has been crafted in such a fine way as the front doors of Hogwarts still retains some of its old spirit—a bit of the soul it had as a living tree. It does not take much enchantment to reawaken the memory of life in objects like those."

"Well…then what kind of magic _could_ implant a mind into an object?" Lily asked.

Schmundertoe hesitated. "There is only one kind of magic," he said slowly, "that could do such a thing. I have only ever heard of it, and never seen it performed—not that I'd want to—but I gather that it is one of the Darkest and most complicated spells in our world." He stopped again and sighed, looking reluctant to continue. "I am not even sure of the name of the spell," he admitted. "But after the spell was performed, the object would no longer be merely an object. It would be a…a Horcrux."

"What exactly does that do?" Lily asked, when Schmundertoe didn't continue.

He sighed again. "Casting the spell to make a Horcrux transfers part of the soul of a wizard—and therefore part of his conscious self—into an inanimate object. It is a way to…try to preserve part of yourself, I suppose. But it is a very dark magic, and hardly worth the cost."

Sirius swore under his breath, and three pairs of eyes swiveled to look at him.

"_That's _what the blasted old coot was trying to make," he muttered, and shook his head. Sirius glanced up and noticed that everyone was looking at him. "Don't mind me."

"Sirius, what are you talking about?" Lily asked.

Sirius sighed. Even Schmundertoe was looking at him curiously. "It's my Great Uncle Augustus. He was trying to make one of those Horcruxes, once, and kept failing. He was at our house for summer holidays, and got drunk one day and started blathering on about his immortal soul, and how he was sure he wasn't going to heaven, so…well, I'm not really sure what he was thinking, but I guess he thought if he preserved part of his soul in an object, he'd never really make it to heaven _or_ hell, and he could just kind of…half-exist. I guess."

"If he didn't want to face the afterlife, couldn't he have just turned into a ghost when he died?" James asked

"He hated ghosts. And if he had become one, I don't think he would have had any place to haunt. He hated people, hated cities, hated the countryside…come to think of it, I don't know that he liked much of anything, except maybe money."

"Well, he sounds like a charming fellow," Lily said.

Sirius's face darkened. "Oh, he was the greatest. Used to practice the Imperius Curse on me when my parents weren't around."

Lily was shocked, but James didn't look very surprised.

"But…but that's an Unforgivable Curse!" Schmundertoe cried.

"Yeah, well, I haven't forgiven him for it, so the curse is true to its name, if you ask me. It doesn't matter now, though. He's been dead for a few years."

"Sirius," Lily said softly. "Is that why…before they picked us for Auror Training…I mean, when Moody…"

"Yeah," Sirius said. "I've had a bit of practice."

"Something should have been done." Schmundertoe shook his head. He repeated himself, softly. "Something should have been done."

Sirius folded his arms and stared straight ahead. "It's in the past now. Doesn't matter." An awkward silence hung in the room for a few seconds, and then Sirius said, "Let's just get back to the necklace. If…if it doesn't have a mind of its own, how can it have a memory? Wasn't that your question, Lily?"

Lily nodded, and looked at Schmundertoe expectantly. The frown line appeared in his forehead again as he thought.

"All objects have memories," he said finally, "even if they do not have minds. To have a mind suggests that you have…reason. The ability to think logically, to speculate, to construe. Memories are just…memories. They do not have personalities or preferences or feelings of their own—although your perception of those memories is indeed altered by your preferences and feelings. But the recollection of places you have been and things you have seen or touched are merely experiences. Sensory experiences. They require no real reason or thinking, and so can exist in many objects. Again, the _interpretation_ of memories requires a mind, but to exist, memories require no logic whatsoever. In fact," he added, as the thought struck him, "that is why Pensieves work.

"Pensieves, if you've never used one, are objects which hold thoughts and memories that you extract from your own mind. They allow you to…clear your head a bit, and examine events from a more objective point of view. And, as I was saying, they work because memories, though an inherent part of your experiences, are not inherent in the rhetorical part of your mind—the part that makes your mind worth having, you see.

"The necklace, I believe, is merely a…vessel. It carries many spells, almost too many for me to discover if I had a lifetime to work with it, and it has been further enchanted to carry out those spells at nearly any cost. I believe that any object with that much magic around it begins to soak up a little of whatever magic it comes in contact with—and that would include the personal magic of all of its owners. This would, in turn, contribute to the strength of any memories the necklace carried, by linking it to its wearers through magic even more heavily. And I expect that a smart owner would be able to harness some of the necklace's power for herself, as well."

Lily mulled this over. "That does make sense," she said finally. "I think I understand what you mean."

Schmundertoe smiled again. "Good! Now, do you have any other questions?"

* * *

Schmundertoe spent another half an hour sharing his speculations with Lily, James, and Sirius, but most of his conjectures were ones that Lily herself had made already. He did give a useful suggestion for why the necklace's powers varied from owner to owner; he guessed that it might have something to do with the lady in question having Gryffindor blood or not.

When it seemed like they had discussed all they could discuss, Schmundertoe requested an audience with Lily alone, and kicked James and Sirius out of the store, advising the boys to keep themselves busy for the next half hour or so. Once he'd got rid of Lily's companions, he rejoined Lily in the back room.

"Miss Evans," Schmundertoe said, removing his glasses to massage his forehead, "have you ever met anyone who expressed any interest in the necklace as more than just a necklace?"

"Yes."

Schmundertoe looked at her sharply. His eyes looked very small without his glasses, but they didn't seem to lose any of their focus. Lily wondered if he needed glasses at all.

"Miss Evans, there are treasure hunters in this world who would unblinkingly take your life if they thought it might mean riches and glory. And in this case, what you hold is mostly glory."

"What, it isn't real gold?" Lily asked, attempting to make a joke. Schmundertoe gave a very faint grin.

"I wasn't sure until I saw it that it was the right necklace, but now I am certain. Zorcoran hinted that he thought that was what it was, but—well, I must say I didn't believe it actually _would_ be."

"I'm a little confused," Lily admitted. "What exactly makes the necklace so famous? Well—not famous precisely, since most people don't seem to have a clue there is anything unusual about it. But…what exactly had you heard about it, before you saw it?"

"Well, I'm sure you understand how it is with legends and all, Miss Evans. But some say that the necklace has such power, it can actually save the wearer from death. Of course, if the necklace works differently for different people, then this wouldn't be true for all wearers, would it?"

"It doesn't seem like it could be true at all. I don't mean to sound cynical, it's just…" Lily trailed off, unsure of what to say. Schmundertoe didn't speak, and she felt the urge to continue, if only to fill the silence. "Death gets to you after a while, you know? It's so…permanent." This, Lily thought, was a stupid thing to say, but she couldn't think of anything else to say, so she stopped speaking.

"Yes," Schmundertoe agreed softly. "Thus the desire to prevent it. Miss Evans, who was it who inquired about your necklace, if you don't mind me asking?"

"A night club owner. Monsieur—Gerard, I think it was."

Schmundertoe sighed. "No one I recognize. He must just be a collector, then."

"Yes. That's what he said."

"At least he's done his research. Most collectors just buy the jewels and don't know how to take care of them properly. Anyone who's done enough reading to hear about your necklace must be well-read indeed."

"Or just lucky," Lily suggested. "It took me ages to find anything about enchanted necklaces, and the only way I learned about Livana was—well, through _this_," she said, fiddling with her pendant. She thought of something. "Mr. Schmundertoe, when you said that the pendant was useless, what—what did you mean exactly?"

"It's…just a pendant," he replied, shrugging. "Just a decoration. It has nothing to do with the necklace's power whatsoever. Except," he added, slipping his glasses on again, "there _is_ one spell on the pendant and the pendant alone."

"What's that?"

"The permanence spell that prevents anyone from changing the pendant to another letter besides 'L.'"

"Oh. That. How can you…how can you tell what spells the necklace has on it?"

Schmundertoe smiled, removing his glasses again. "Partly experience, partly with the help of this,"—he held up his wand—"but mostly, with the help of these." He held up his spectacles. "They help me see magic."

"Where did you get them? That's—that's fantastic!"

"I made them," he said proudly. "Took me fifty years. If I ever lose them, I don't know what I'll do."

"I would cry," Lily said honestly, and Schmundertoe laughed.

"Come now," he said, rising. "Your friends will be waiting."

As he escorted her out of the back room and into the shop, which was still empty, he said, "I'm normally not open on Tuesdays, Miss Evans, but if you see anything you like, I would be willing to make a sale."

"Oh," Lily said. "Well—I wasn't quite planning on shopping. I'm not sure I have enough money for any of this."

"Special discount today," Schmundertoe said, winking. "I'm willing to negotiate."

Lily couldn't resist. She began looking through the glass cases eagerly, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over diamond earrings and emerald rings. She wasn't spellbound, however, by any jewelry. It occurred to her that she hadn't quite found the right present for James, and when she got to a display case full of watches, she was struck by a certain silver one with a gorgeous blue watch face.

Schmundertoe, sensing a sale, joined her by the display case. "Find something?"

"How much for that watch?" she asked, indicating the one she'd seen.

"Well, let's see now," Schmundertoe said, tapping his wand on the glass. It disappeared, and he removed the watch. "This is a very fine watch. Took three months to craft. See, here—different time zones, compass, health monitors—very useful. Entirely waterproof, too. I took great pleasure in making it."

"It's lovely," Lily breathed. "I don't think I can afford it."

"Now, wait a minute," Schmundertoe insisted. "How much do you think it's worth?"

"More than I've got."

"Well, how much have you got?"

Lily rifled through her pockets. She thought they might eat while in London, so she'd gotten a twenty pound note from her mum, and in her other pocket found five Galleons, two Sickles, and a Knut. She sighed. "Only twenty pounds. I'm sorry—that's not even wizarding currency. And then—five Galleons. That's not very much at all, is it?"

Schmundertoe smiled. "Consider it a gift. I'll take the twenty pounds and five Galleons—that is, if you're willing to spend it."

"Mr. Schmundertoe, you can't—I mean, I—well, that watch must be—it _can't _be worth only twenty pounds—"

"Please, Miss Evans. Don't fret over the cost. I'd like for you to have it."

"Sir, it's not even really for me, it's–"

Schmundertoe held up his hands. "Don't argue. I insist."

"But—but I—I mean…well…all right. If you insist."

* * *

Sirius waited outside for Lily, feeling bored. James had run off to buy…something…and he was supposed to wait for Lily so that when she was finally done talking to Schmundertoe, she wouldn't come outside and think the boys had deserted her.

"Where's James?"

"There you are!" Sirius said, relieved. "Sure took you long enough."

"It was very important," Lily informed him, sounding rather distant. "But really, where's James?"

"I dunno. He ran off…somewhere. He'll be back before long."

Lily didn't look too pleased with this, but just then James came around the corner. "Speak of the devil," Sirius said.

"All done, Lily?" James asked as he neared them.

"Seems that way. Where have you been?"

"Oh, nowhere. Took a stroll around the block."

"Sure you did," Lily said sarcastically, but she shook her head and let it go.

"Well, you two kids enjoy yourselves. I think I'm headed off," Sirius said.

"Why? Where are you in such a hurry to get to?" Lily asked.

"True love awaits," he said, grinning.

"Ah. Melody," Lily said. "I forgot. I wonder how she's doing with her uncle?"

* * *

Melody could scarcely breathe. She was wrapped so tightly into her dress she was amazed she could sit. _Is this what corsets feel like? _she wondered, attempting to adjust the fabric around her waist. Her dress this evening was red, long, and rather pretty, but it wasn't quite her size, and Melody was convinced one of her ribs had been bruised during the dreadful putting-on process she'd experienced half an hour earlier. She didn't make much headway in rearranging her dress before a servant came into the front hall and bowed to her.

"Dinner is ready, madam. Please, this way."

Melody nodded and picked up her skirts, following him down the hall to a large, beautiful dining room decorated in rich greens. Her chair at the table was plush, comfortable, and cushioned in green as well, but even that could not quite make her feel at ease in the vicious red garment.

She didn't have much time to look around before Lucifer Malfoy entered. He smiled at her before taking his seat at the head of the table. Melody was seated on his left.

"I am glad you agreed to have dinner with me, Miss Cauldwell," he said, as a bottle of wine and two glasses appeared on the table. "Wine?"

"Yes. I thank you for inviting me to dine with you this evening, sir."

Lucifer smiled as he poured her wine. "It sounds so formal, coming from you."

"It is formal."

Lucifer retained his grin and lifted his wine glass. "A toast."

"To what?" Melody held her glass up next to his.

He studied her for a moment, his eyes glinting in the candlelight. "To youth," he said, and nodded at her before taking his drink. Melody raised an eyebrow and took a sip of her wine, studying him carefully.

Lucifer was older—much older than her—but she wasn't sure by how much. He must have been nearly Hans's age, but he didn't look it. He was still lean and fit, and far more attractive than Hans could ever be. His hair betrayed him a little; it was graying slightly, and it showed most in the strands just above his ears. He was surprisingly nice to look at, Melody thought, and she shifted her gaze away from him before he caught her looking.

"What do you think of my home, Miss Cauldwell?"

"I have only seen the front hall and the dining room. I don't think I can accurately say."

"I should take you for a tour after dinner."

Melody considered this, and her stomach twisted uncertainly. "Perhaps some other time. I am feeling a little tired tonight," she told him. "I'm not sure that I am up to a tour of such a—luxurious house." She wondered briefly if it was a mistake to say this. Did she sound too much like she wanted him to ask her back? That wasn't what she meant at all.

"Luxurious," Lucifer repeated. "I'm pleased you think so."

Melody raised her eyebrow at him again. "Why, don't you think so?"

He smiled again. He unfortunately looked very handsome when he smiled. But there was still something about him that Melody didn't like. It was…his eyes, she decided. They were too cold, too calculating. Like her uncle's, but not desperate, not greedy. He did look amused, though, at least for the moment, and that surprised her so much she returned his smile.

"I'm afraid I'm not at home as often as I would like, Miss Cauldwell. My evaluation of the manor is not as critical as it once was."

"Well, it's a very fine house, sir," Melody said. "I'd be proud to live in it."

Lucifer took a sip of his wine and regarded her with interest. "Would you?"

Melody was just trying to be gracious, but she got the distinct and unpleasant feeling that Lucifer was taking her words for more than they were worth.

"Of—of course," she said, feeling a bit flustered. "I mean, who wouldn't?" She couldn't stand those cold eyes gazing at her like that. She took solace in her glass of wine.

"Thirsty?" Lucifer inquired, leaning back in his chair. He looked quite at ease, but Melody still felt a bit unpleasant.

"And hungry. Both," Melody said, hoping the unpleasant flush in her cheeks wasn't too evident. Was it the wine or the company? she wondered. "What's—what's for dinner?" Oh dear—that didn't sound too crass, did it? No one ever asked what they were going to be served at parties, they just ate it without complaining.

"Lamb," Lucifer replied. "I hope you don't object?"

"No, of course not." She wasn't particularly fond of lamb, but at least he wasn't offended by her question.

There were too many rules for this high-society thing, she thought. And it was so much more nerve-wracking eating dinner with just one society snob than it was with twenty. At least with twenty, she didn't have to speak unless somebody asked her a question. But here—she supposed Lucifer expected her to be interesting and clever and whatnot. And that _gaze_ of his…she wondered if he was practiced at reading minds. Melody had meant to take up Occlumency, but with all her dueling practice and…everything else that had been going on in her life…she'd never gotten around to it. So if Lucifer Malfoy was trying to snoop around in her mind, she really couldn't tell.

This thought twisted her stomach around some more. She didn't give Hans enough credit to be a Legilimens, but Lucifer Malfoy was on another level altogether. And if he could see into her mind…well…suffice it to say that no matter where Melody's thoughts drifted, her thoughts about Sirius always drifted along behind, just waiting for an opportunity to surge forward.

_Sirius_, she thought, and felt a rush of happiness. He was coming to visit her—soon—and although it would be tricky to conceal her feelings for him around Hans, she didn't care. She'd do anything for a chance to spend more time with Sirius. She missed him already, and she'd only been in London for four days. _Pathetic_, she thought, but she was happy that she even had a reason to miss him. He was her boyfriend now. Hers. All hers.

"It's amazing, isn't it, how mesmerizing flames can be?"

_Oh, shit,_ Melody thought. She hadn't even realized she'd been staring at the candles until Lucifer spoke. How long had she been thinking about Sirius?

"It's so easy to get lost in thoughts. In memories," Lucifer continued, refilling their wine glasses. He leaned back into his chair and looked at Melody. She continued staring into the flames. It was easier than looking at Lucifer. "What were you thinking about?"

"School," Melody replied. She thought of the long afternoon she'd shared with Sirius in MHQ, in front of the fireplace.

"Hans tells me you've been attending Hogwarts."

"Yes. This is my last year."

"And how do you like it there?"

"I enjoy it." She finally looked away from the flames. Lucifer was looking into his wine glass now, swirling the liquid around gently.

"How old are you this year, Miss Cauldwell?"

"I'll be eighteen shortly. My birthday's in January."

"Eighteen," Lucifer murmured, taking another sip of wine. He did not look back at her, and Melody's gaze dropped to her plate. She wondered again how old Lucifer was. In his forties, at least. Maybe older.

Just then the lamb arrived, materializing in the middle of the table, steaming and looking rather juicy and sumptuous.

"Ah, there you are, Miss Cauldwell. Enough to sate anyone's hunger. Here, allow me to cut. I hope you enjoy your meal."

* * *

Melody arrived in her rooms after dinner feeling very drained. Eating with Lucifer had been as much of a mental challenge as it had been a physical challenge. She felt like Lucifer added an extra weight to her words. She had never had to monitor her speech so carefully before. It was exhausting.

As for the physical challenge—her damned dress prevented her from eating as much as she liked, and she arrived back at the hotel feeling nearly as hungry as when she'd arrived at Malfoy's manor.

Melody stripped off the red dress as quickly as she could and immediately sent out for room service. She didn't anticipate a visit from Hans—or anyone else who would care how she looked—and changed into her most comfortable set of pajamas, letting her stomach relax and her posture sag. She let down her hair, too, releasing it from its tight coil, and washed her face happily, unclogging the heavy make-up from her pores.

She smiled at herself once she felt natural again, and appreciated the somewhat red and splotchy face of the girl in the mirror.

_Ah, freedom,_ she thought, sighing, and walked back into her sitting room to await the arrival of her late-night tray of goodies. When there was a knock on her door, she answered it promptly, and—

"Sirius?"

The tall, dark, and handsome boy in her doorway grinned. "Were you expecting someone else?"

"Room service, actually, but—Sirius!" she squealed, losing her composure and throwing her arms around him. He laughed and returned her hug. "I didn't think I'd see you tonight," she said, gesturing for him to come in. She closed the door behind him.

"I didn't think so either. When I checked in they said you'd be out for the night."

"Ooh, divulging my personal information, were they?"

Sirius grinned. "It's funny what the name 'Black' can do for you every once in a while, isn't it?"

"Well, I guess I wouldn't know, now would I?" Melody replied, leading him into the kitchenette. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"You have your own kitchenette and you still ordered room service?"

"Well, I haven't exactly had time to stock it. All I have are some drinks—pumpkin juice, water, um…pumpkin juice…."

"I'm fine," Sirius said. He looked around, taking in the expanse of Melody's suite with a critical eye. "Very nice suite. Is your uncle trying to make things up to you?"

"I suppose," Melody lied, shrugging. She didn't really want to discuss her uncle with Sirius. "What have you been up to?" she asked, slipping her arms around his waist. "I missed you." She looked up at him with a kind of inviting gaze, and, just as she hoped, he dropped the conversation about her uncle.

"I missed you too," he agreed, and leaned down to kiss her.

Melody got so caught up in it that she nearly didn't hear the knock on the door from room service.

* * *

"I love this place around Christmas," Lily said, sighing happily. She and James were walking through the indoor gardens, hand in hand, carrying their Christmas presents for each other. They were taking their sweet time getting around to exchanging gifts, because once that was over with they wouldn't have much of an excuse for wandering off alone, and besides they'd have to start thinking about saying good-bye. Lily was leaving for America tomorrow, and while she wouldn't be gone terribly long, she would still miss James. A part of her wished that she were going to be staying at Potter's Cottage for Christmas instead.

She would miss the indoor gardens, she thought, gazing around. Most parts of the garden were blanketed in fake, magical snow—though places like the beach had been spared—and all of it was decorated for the holidays with fairy lights, tinsel, ribbons, wreaths, and, of course, floating mistletoe—which Lily and James occasionally used to their advantage.

They wandered into a grove of pine trees. The largest tree was decorated from tip to trunk with lights and ornaments. Lily decided that this would be the perfect place to exchange gifts, and plopped down on the snow, pulling James with her.

"Tired of walking?" he asked, grinning.

Lily smiled back. "I just thought we should exchange presents near some sort of Christmas tree."

"Sounds good to me," James agreed. "Who wants to go first?"

She noticed James fiddling with his bag of gifts anxiously and smiled. "I'll open first," she offered.

"Great!" James thrust the bag of gifts at her and beamed. "They're in no particular order, Lily-bean. Just start opening."

Lily dumped the presents onto the snow and selected a package. There were three, which made her feel bad about only getting James one—but then, his present had been more expensive than any of the other presents she'd bought this year, so perhaps she shouldn't feel _too_ bad about it.

She opened the first package from James, a small, thin one, and discovered a card promising her a year's subscription to _Quidditch Weekly_.

Lily's mouth fell open slightly. "Are you serious?" she asked, looking up at him.

James grinned. "Well, since you keep stealing my copies and I can never _find_ them, I figured this would be a solid investment."

Lily squealed in delight and threw her arms around James's neck, sprinkling kisses on his cheeks. James laughed and wrapped his arms around her. "That's only the first present," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's really _great_," Lily said, and kissed him once more for good measure. She released her hold on James and picked up the next package. "I don't know if I'll be able to handle this," she joked. The package was rather squishy, she noted, and she tore off the bright red wrapping paper to discover a very nice pair of gloves. They were black leather, extremely soft, and very…elegant, she thought. Lily had never seen a pair of gloves she thought were beautiful before, but these were gorgeous, even in their simplicity. She'd been about to make a joke about James giving her a practical present for once, but she couldn't quite manage it. These gloves were just too…too..._pretty_.

"James, these are beautiful."

"You don't…think they're a boring gift?" he asked anxiously.

Lily slipped one on. It even _felt_ gorgeous. "James, these aren't just gloves. They're…_gloves_. They're amazing. Where did you get them?"

"From the secret room at Harrod's."

Lily looked at him in confusion. Harrod's was a large, famous department store, but she'd never heard of there being a secret room, and she certainly couldn't figure out when James had found time to sneak off to London to visit the secret room at Harrod's. But maybe…_oh_. Maybe that's what James had been doing while Lily was speaking privately with Schmundertoe.

"There's a room at Harrod's for wizards only," James explained. "They sell things that have been crafted or enchanted by magic. Your gloves, I think, fall under both categories."

Lily put on the other glove and examined her hands. "I am officially in love," she announced. "These are the sexiest little black gloves ever."

James grinned. "Does that mean I deserve another kiss?" he asked, leaning toward her.

"Certainly not," Lily said, dodging him. "I'm saving my kisses for these gloves."

James put on his best sulky face until Lily laughed and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You're such a baby, James."

"Or maybe," James said, giving Lily a quick kiss on the lips, "I'm just very cunning and persuasive."

"Mm," Lily agreed, and leaned in for another kiss. She should have been used to the feel of James's lips on hers by now, but her heart still fluttered when he kissed her, and the warmth and nearness of his body made her face flush.

James pulled away, looking rather pleased. "You still have one more," he reminded her.

Lily removed her gloves and set them aside. They were beautiful, but, seeing as she was indoors, they also made her hands too warm, and there was no sense in ruining her brand new gloves by sweating all over them.

She picked up the third package, thinking that whatever was inside would be a real let-down after her sexy, sexy gloves, and ripped off the wrapping paper. There were two smaller packages inside, each wrapped in black velvet, and Lily picked one up and pulled off the velvet.

It was a small mirror. Its smooth, dark frame was carved into the shape of ivy leaves. Lily looked up at James curiously. Was this a hint that she needed to improve her cosmetic routine?

"It's a looking glass," James explained. "Open the other one."

Lily complied, and found another small mirror, identical to the first one. She looked back up at James.

"One of those is actually for me," he said, holding out his hand. Lily gave him one of the mirrors, and then stared at him blankly. "Look into your mirror and say my name."

Feeling slightly ridiculous, Lily looked into the mirror. She stared at her reflection as she said James's name, and was surprised when her reflection wavered and disappeared to be replaced by James's face.

"Hullo, Lily," James said, and Lily heard his voice twice—first, from James, who was sitting right next to her, and then again, an echo, from the James in the mirror.

"Brilliant," Lily said, looking up at the real life James. "And these will work…anywhere?"

James nodded. "Pretty much. I thought since…well, you know, you're going to America and all, and if you wanted to talk to me this would be faster than an owl…."

"These would have been really nice during Auror Training," Lily remarked, setting her looking glass down.

"Yeah," James agreed. "They—" He cut off suddenly, struck by a thought. "_Damn_. I feel stupid now."

"What?"

James looked down at the looking glass and laughed. "Why didn't I think of that before?"

"_What_?"

"Well, it's just that—Sirius and I have a set of looking glasses like this too. I don't know why we didn't think of taking them to Auror Training with us."

"Since when do you and Sirius have something this cool?"

"We've had them forever. We used to use them to talk to each other when we were in separate detentions."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm glad to know you take your punishments so seriously."

"We took them seriously…enough."

Lily laughed and shook her head. "If you say so, James."

She looked down at the looking glasses again. "I'm glad you got me these. I was going to miss you very much over Christmas."

"I'll still miss you over Christmas, Lily-bean. Looking glasses are _not_ the same."

He kissed her again, and they carried on for a bit before Lily decided it was time for James to open his present.

"Well, after all that, I'm afraid this might be a bit of a disappointment," Lily warned him, handing over James's gift. "But I hope you like it anyway."

"Don't be ridiculous, Lily-bean. I'm sure I'll love it." He leaned over and gave her another kiss. Lily wondered if he was doing this to reassure her, or just looking for an excuse to kiss her. She decided she didn't really mind either way.

She watched as he opened the package. It did seem rather boring after the things he'd gotten her—it was just a watch, really—but all the same, she'd gotten it from Schmundertoe, and that made it seem much niftier than if it had been a regular old watch.

James opened the box and examined it. Lily watched nervously, fiddling with her hair. _Oh, no. It's lame. I knew it. He hates it. I'll have to get him something else. I feel so STUPID, how could I have thought that—_

"Lily, this is a _really_ nice watch," James said finally.

"D'you—d'you like it?" she asked hopefully.

"It must've cost more than all of the things I got you combined."

_Oh, no. He avoided answering my question. He really DOES hate it_. "It—it wasn't that much," Lily said, but she felt like she was lying.

James looked up at her doubtfully. "Lily, I've seen watches like this before. I've been thinking about buying one for ages, but they're so darned _expensive_—I mean, look at this!" James began fiddling with the buttons on the side of the watch to see all of its faces. "It has three different watch faces for three different time zones, plus a lunar calendar and a...is that a compass?"

Lily nodded when he looked up at her for confirmation.

"Yeah, and then there's a…a…is that my temperature?"

Lily nodded again. "I think it also checks your heart rate and blood pressure…when it's on your wrist, that is," she added, trying to be helpful. "Plus if you put in the longitudinal coordinates of your home, one of the compass arrows will point in that direction instead of north."

James blinked and stared at the watch. "Lily, this is too much. You can't spend this much on me."

"Don't be ridiculous, James. I wanted to. And besides—" she cut off for a moment, thinking. She couldn't very well tell him that it had practically been a _gift_ from Schmundertoe. With all the fuss he was making, he'd never believe it.

"Besides what?" James pressed.

"It's for you," Lily said finally. "I wanted to give you something nice. You can't refuse it, and don't you dare try to feel bad about 'not spending enough money on me.' I love all of my presents, James. And besides, those gloves can't have been cheap. So don't try to pretend like you didn't spend any money on me."

James was defeated. He grinned at her and put the watch on. "How can I argue with that?"

Lily just grinned and welcomed his lips as he leaned over to kiss her again. It was short this time—shorter than some of the other ones they'd shared today, anyway—and Lily laughed as James gave her one more peck on the lips and then went right back to fiddling with his watch.

She watched him for a few moments, amused, and then fell back onto the snow, feeling disturbingly…happy. She hadn't felt this happy in months. Maybe it was Christmas, she thought. Maybe it was the presents, or the indoor gardens, or James. Maybe it was all of the above. But whatever it was, it was making her happier than she could remember being since…since last summer. She looked at James, watched him fiddling with his watch and observed the way he scratched his head and messed up his hair—as though it wasn't messed up enough on its own. She giggled as he scratched his head again and aggravated a particularly wayward tuft of hair.

"What?" James demanded, finally looking up from his watch.

"You're making your hair look ridiculous," she informed him.

"So what? My hair always looks ridiculous."

"Yeah, but…every time you scratch your head you make it worse. It's just…amusing," she told him, rolling onto her side and propping her head up with her hand. James laid down next to her and rolled onto his side to face her.

"And how does my hair look from this angle?"

Lily considered. "About the same." She reached over and ruffled his hair, mussing it up as best she could. "Ah, now there's a look for you. Very sexy, James. It's a new style. We'll call it…the electric socket look. Perfect for anyone who wants to stick their finger into an electric socket."

James frowned. "You're starting to sound like Remus."

"Remus? Why do I sound like Remus?"

"No reason," James said quickly. "Hey, Lily, what do you say to me creating a new style with _your_ hair?" He reached over to touch Lily's hair, and she batted his hand away.

"Absolutely not."

"What, you don't trust me?"

"No," Lily said flatly. "Not with my hair."

"Oh, come on. It's not like I could mess up your hair anyway."

"Ha ha…I don't think so."

"Are you sure? I could make the electric socket look for girls!"

"Back off, James," Lily said, attempting to fend off his hands as he reached for her hair. "Noooo touchy the hair…y."

"But Lily, think of the fashion statement we could make together! It would be brilliant, I tell you, brilliant!"

Lily wrestled with James's hands, trying to keep them away from her head. After a minute or so of this, Lily, exasperated, rolled over and shoved James onto his back, successfully pinning down his hands.

"Aha! I emerge triumphant," she gloated.

"This is only temporary," James assured her, squirming to remove his wrists from her grip.

"Oh, really?"

"Mmhm," he said, and stopped squirming suddenly. "Besides, how do you know this isn't what I wanted all along?" he asked, grinning mischievously.

It suddenly occurred to Lily that she was lying on top of James. She felt a hot flush begin to creep into her cheeks, and let go of his wrists. James wrapped his arms around her before she had a chance to move away. He was looking at her oddly, intently, and Lily noted with some amount of concern how close their faces were, and how many parts of their bodies were touching, and…how the way he was looking at her was beginning to trouble her. Her heart thumped disturbingly faster. The flush in her face grew hotter, and she looked away uneasily.

"Lily," James said finally. His voice sounded a little deeper than usual. More serious. Lily's heart skipped a beat, and she slid her gaze back to his reluctantly. He was still staring at her with that odd look on his face, and his eyes bore into hers like they were looking for something. What, though? He looked like he was on the verge of telling her something…something really important, like…like…

Dread settled, cool and firm and omniscient inside Lily's stomach, and she got the terrible feeling that she knew _exactly_ what James was going to say.

"Lily," he began, looking very serious. Their faces were so close that their breath mingled when he spoke. "I—"

"Let's make snow angels," Lily blurted, twisting out of his embrace. She rolled over onto the snow and began moving her arms and legs. She wished it were real snow. Then it would be cold. Then maybe it would cool off the blaze burning in her cheeks. Lily barely noticed the way her right foot was banging into James's leg as she attempted to make the angel, and she didn't glance over to see the look of hurt on his face. She didn't want to look at him. Was afraid to look at him. Was afraid that if she looked, he'd get hope again—he'd say what he'd been about to say, and—and—

_Oh, bugger, I'm just not ready for this_, Lily thought, and halted progress on her snow angel to put her hands over her face.

"How—how's that snow angel coming?"

"It's done," Lily said, her voice muffled. "Isn't it great?"

"Well, it's a little hard to see with you still laying in the middle of it, but…it looks fine to me," James offered lamely.

Lily took her hands off her face and sighed. "I'm sorry, James. I know you were trying to say something. I—" She stopped speaking as James rolled over so that he was on top of her. He held himself up with his arms, but their legs were intertwined, and his face was startlingly close.

"It's all right," he said softly, and then leaned down to kiss her. Lily opened her mouth and let him. He did some things that made heat flush through her face and between her legs, and when he pulled away Lily's breathing was ragged. He laid a few kisses on her cheeks and her neck, and then left a trail of them leading to her ear.

He kissed her earlobe and said, very softly, "I love you, Lily. Whether or not you're ready to hear it." He gave her one more kiss on the neck, just below her ear, and then whispered it again. "I love you."

Lily's breathing came in shallow, quiet, shuddering gasps. Her heart felt like it had leapt into her throat, and she swallowed in an attempt to force it back down. Her head was spinning wildly, and she couldn't quite think straight, which was probably why she didn't react fast enough to James when he picked himself up and walked out of the clearing.

Her hands were shaking now, and for some reason her eyes were growing damp. What was she so upset about? Or…was upset even the right word? Were there words?

Lily rolled over in the snow and buried her face in her hands again.

She didn't know what to think. She didn't know what to _say_.

Except…except…

_Oh, damn it, James,_ she thought in frustration. _Why did you have to do this to me NOW?_

* * *

Melody was much happier with Sirius around. It was easier to deal with her snakelike uncle, to be nice to Lucifer Malfoy, and to lie convincingly to Catalina about having a good time when Sirius was there. This was the first high society gathering she'd been to all year that she actually _enjoyed_.

She made a point, of course, to converse with people other than Sirius, and tried to keep herself from staring at him or latching herself to him or doing something worse—like kissing him in public. Whatever she did with Sirius, her uncle _could not know_ that they were together. And as for Sirius…Sirius _could not know _what she was really doing here.

As long as Melody mingled, however, and avoided spending too much time in the company of Sirius, her uncle, or Malfoy, she thought she could pull it off.

She was currently engaging Duke Asbury in conversation. He was trying to explain the importance of the British newt extract market to her, and she was focusing intently on the bubbles in her glass of champagne, which were more entertaining and certainly far more appetizing than newt extract. She hardly noticed when another person sidled up beside them and joined the conversation. Melody glanced up and was surprised to see Sirius standing next to her, nodding at something the Duke was saying.

"Fascinating," he said, when the Duke had finished. He turned to Melody. "Speaking of wildlife, I wonder if you've had a chance to tour the gardens?"

Melody almost snorted with laughter. The Duke obviously didn't consider newts an inherent part of wildlife, and that sentence sounded so _pompous_ coming from Sirius.

"No, I haven't," Melody lied. Any excuse to get away from Duke Asbury was a good one.

"Shall we take a look?" Sirius offered, to both of them.

The Duke mercifully declined, and went off in search of hors d'oeuvres. Melody took Sirius's arm and allowed him to lead her out of the room.

"Thank you," she said as they exited the hall. "I thought I was going to die of boredom."

Sirius grinned. "I've always found newt extract fascinating, myself."

"Sure you have."

"Yeah. It's right up there with flobberworms and History of Magic."

Melody made a fake gagging noise and Sirius laughed. He led her into another room.

"Sirius, where are we going? This isn't the outdoor gardens."

"Of course it isn't. It's the cloak room."

Melody looked around and then stared at Sirius pointedly. "The cloak room? Sirius, we can't just disappear so we can go snog."

"Why not?"

"Because—"

Sirius leaned down and kissed her. "Because why?"

"Because I have to—"

He kissed her again. "No you don't."

Melody tried to glare at him, but that was hard to do when her heart was jumping and she could still taste the wetness of his lips on hers. She attempted to be angry with him. "Damn it, Sirius, how am I going to finish my sentence if you—"

Sirius tilted her chin upward and kissed her once more. She could have pulled away from him easily. He was touching her only on the cheek, with his thumb, and on her lips, with his lips. It would be so simple to take a step backwards and walk away. Sirius would not force her to stay.

But—_oh_, could he be persuasive. When he wanted to be with her—_really_ wanted to be with her—he kissed her like this…slowly, protectively…completely.

_Well…well…shit_, Melody thought. _How am I going to say no to this_?

Sirius took his time finishing. When he finally pulled away, they were standing close, feet and foreheads and noses touching. "Well?" he asked, his voice sounding a bit less confident than before.

Melody pulled away a little and studied him. It was odd being this close to his face—she could see his pores and a few freckles and individual eyelashes. She kissed him again, experimentally, and he put his hands on her waist. It felt wonderful to kiss him, but she hesitated about kissing him again. Sirius pulled her closer.

"Don't go," he said, touching his forehead to hers. Melody avoided looking into his eyes. He moved his cheek against hers affectionately. "You know you want to stay," he whispered.

Melody pulled away again. "Sirius, I do, but I—"

"But what?" he asked, staring at her.

_Oh crap. He's going to find out. If he keeps looking at me like that I'm going to tell him everything_.

"But—" she glanced around the room, fervently trying to avoid his gaze. There was really only one way out of this, she reasoned. It really wouldn't do for Sirius to become suspicious of her.

"Oh, sod it," she said, and wrapped her arms around his neck. They stumbled back between the coats and tried to hide themselves effectively.

_This is purely business_, she reasoned, pulling him closer. _I have to keep Sirius from finding out what's going on. This does not mean that I can't keep myself away from Sirius if I want to. This is just a…preventative measure. _

At least that's what she told herself.

* * *

"That was fast," Molly Havernaugh sighed, staring at all the unwrapped presents strewn under the Christmas tree. "Christmas always passes too quickly."

Molly's mother laughed. "Molly, it's still Christmas day."

"Only for a few more hours," Molly pointed out. "And besides, there aren't any more _presents_."

"You're eighteen now," her father pointed out. "I would think you could do with a few less presents."

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, daddy. A girl can never have too many presents."

Lily laughed, and Molly grinned over at her. "Am I right, cousin?" Molly asked.

Lily nodded in agreement. "I could always do with more presents."

"You sure seemed to get enough from that _boyfriend_ of yours," Petunia sniffed.

"Oh, hush, Petunia. You're just jealous of my fantastic gloves."

"Who wouldn't be jealous of your gloves?" Molly interjected, grinning, before her cousins could get into another fight. "Anyway, girls, I say we watch a movie. Now that we've gotten all the _important_ business out of the way"—she indicated the presents—"we have a bit of time on our hands."

"Sounds all right to me," Lily agreed.

"Groovy. All right, what should we watch? Ooh, have you girls seen _Love Story_? I don't know how many American films get to England, but if you haven't seen it, it's _fabulous_."

"Well, I certainly wouldn't expect Lily to know," Petunia said. "She never gets out to the movies."

Lily shot her sister an annoyed sort of glare. "I've been busy," she told Molly. "What's _Love Story_ about? I mean—besides a love story."

"Oh, you don't want to watch _that_, it's too depressing," Mrs. Havernaugh said. "Why don't you pick out something we can all watch?"

Molly rolled her eyes. "And what would that be, Mom, a Disney movie? I think I'm a little old for _Pinocchio_."

"How about a Christmas movie?" her mother suggested, sounding slightly exasperated.

"I think we'd all enjoy _It's A Wonderful Life_," Molly's father suggested. "Have you girls ever seen it?"

Lily and Petunia shook their heads.

"Never heard of it," Lily said.

Molly gasped. "_Never_?"

Lily shook her head again. "Um…should I have?"

"Well—I guess I don't really know. Maybe it is sort of American. But it's a _great_ movie, we have to watch it."

Lily and Petunia didn't have much of a choice after that.

* * *

"What are they doing?" Siegfried whispered.

"They're…staring at a box," Bellatrix replied, puzzled.

"A box? What kind of box?"

"A big…square one. With…light coming out of it."

"Well…well, that's odd, even for Muggles," Siegfried said, sounding a bit baffled. "And…you're sure the girl is with them?"

"Of course I'm sure," Bellatrix snapped. "Would we be waiting around here if I wasn't?"

Siegfried sighed. "Are you _sure_ we just can't off them all?"

"We have been over this a hundred times, Siegfried. All we want is the girl. The rest of them will have to live. Regrettably," she added.

"So we're just going to hover here until they're done staring at the box?" Siegfried asked, fidgeting on his broomstick. Bellatrix was looking in the window and Siegfried was keeping watch on the sky behind them for owls or Muggle aircraft or any potentially dangerous airborne objects.

"Siegfried, you know better than I how to carry out a successful kidnapping. How _else_ are we going to catch her when she's alone?"

"Couldn't we just wait until she goes to sleep?"

"I thought she _would_ be asleep," Bellatrix snapped.

"Well, honestly Bellatrix, when was the last time you went to bed at ten o'clock?"

"To bed or to sleep?" she asked, smirking at him over her shoulder. She returned her gaze to the living room, where all the Muggles had gathered to stare at the box, and jerked when she realized the girl was gone. "Siegfried—she's gone!"

"Gone? What do you mean, _gone_?"

"I mean she's—wait, no, there she is. She's going up the stairs!"

"Well then let's _follow_ her," Siegfried urged, and they flew around the high-rise apartment building until they had a good view of the staircase. "Where's she going?"

"Looks like…the loo. She's going to the loo!" Bellatrix whooped, somewhat unprofessionally, and flew over to the window. She whipped out her wand and muttered a nifty little charm that allowed her to seep through the glass and into the flat. Siegfried followed, and together they crept up the stairs toward the bathroom. They positioned themselves on either side of the door and waited silently for the girl to emerge.

Siegfried and Bellatrix exchanged a few words silently, and as soon as the door opened they were prepared. Siegfried shot a silent spell that rendered the girl unconscious, and Bellatrix stepped aside as the girl collapsed. Her head knocked against the wall, and Bellatrix sneered at her. "Mudbloods," she spat. "Can't even faint properly." She kicked the girl once in the stomach, just for good measure, and she and Siegfried proceeded with the kidnapping.

* * *

"You wanted to see me?" Melody asked, entering her uncle's suite.

"Melody. You're just in time for tea. Have a seat," he offered, and she complied. He had a very nice tea laid out, but Melody didn't have much of an appetite. Hans poured the tea and regarded her sourly over the rim of his cup.

"Is there anything in particular you'd like to talk to me about, uncle?"

Her uncle's eyes slanted in annoyance, and he slammed his teacup down. "What do you think you're playing at, girl?"

Melody blinked. "Uncle, I just came here for tea because you—"

"I don't mean _that_. I meant last night."

Melody's insides chilled. _Does he know? How could he know?_ "There was an excellent party last night, uncle, and I—"

"I saw you and that _boy_ together," he growled. "_Kissing_ out in the cloak room!"

Melody's cheeks flushed and betrayed her. "It was just one night, uncle—it doesn't mean anything—we met at the party and—"

"Don't lie to me! You go to school with him. You must have met him before."

"Well—maybe, yes, but we weren't really close, I—"

"He is in the same _House_ as you! Do you think I'm an idiot, Melody?"

Melody shrank back in her chair. Tears stung her eyes. _Damn it. Damn him. Damn everything._ "No," she said, and her voice was as full and wet as her eyes. She wasn't looking at Hans, so she didn't notice the expression on Hans's face change from anger and frustration to disappointment and defeat.

"I should have guessed," he said. His voice wasn't gentle, but at least it was flat, and blessedly emotionless. Even with all the weight he'd lost, Hans was still an intimidating, portly man. "He's rich. I understand. I admire your…tenacity. But didn't it occur to you that although he is the heir to a large fortune, he won't get that inheritance until his parents die? And they're both quite healthy, I assure you."

"That's not why," Melody said fiercely. Hans lifted his eyebrows at her.

"Oh, isn't it?"

Melody felt a twist in her gut. Hans was right. _How sickening_. "That's not…entirely why," she amended, her gaze dropping. "I do care for him."

"That is irrelevant," Hans snapped. "I thought we had an understanding, Melody."

"We _never_ had an understanding," Melody spat. "All we ever had was blackmail."

"Be that as it may, Melody…this is out of my hands."

Melody stared at him, and for once she thought she saw something resembling remorse come over her uncle's face. "What do you mean, uncle?" she asked, her voice quavering. She had a very, very bad feeling about this.

Hans slowly looked up to meet her gaze. She _did_ see remorse there—remorse and frustration and…desperation. "It's not up to me anymore, Melody. Lucifer Malfoy wants to marry you."

Melody's stomach lurched in protest. A great roaring sound filled her head, and for a few minutes she could not speak at all.

"No," she said finally. "I can't."

"Damn, it Melody…you don't exactly have a choice."

"Of course I do. I can just tell him no. I'll find someone else."

"You don't understand. You _don't_ have a choice."

"You can't _force_ me to say 'I do'!"

"Don't you understand, Melody? It doesn't matter what I think anymore. I am not in control of this situation, and even if I didn't want you to marry him I couldn't do anything to prevent it!"

Melody sat still in her seat for a moment, stunned. "Uncle," she said, slowly, shakily. "Please explain what you mean."

Hans refused to look at her. He didn't say anything at first, and looked as though he hoped that if he didn't say anything he'd just disappear, and he wouldn't have to answer Melody's question. He _didn't_ have to, of course, and he'd been silent so long that Melody was beginning to think he wouldn't answer her. But then he opened his mouth and spoke.

"I've…sold…I've sold everything. To him. Malfoy now controls all of my assets. I have…nothing, Melody. I can hardly afford the robes I'm wearing, let alone the rooms I—and _you_—have been staying in. He's taken care of it all."

"Malfoy…Malfoy paid for…" Melody began, but she trailed off, baffled.

She'd known, of course, that Hans could not possibly afford the hotel they'd been staying at, and she knew that "a friend" of his had been paying the charges, but…well…Melody supposed that deep down she'd always thought it was Catalina who was helping them out, even though she knew Catalina had left Hans. Melody couldn't quite wrap her mind around this new information.

"I never meant for things to turn out this way," Hans said. "Melody, when I first contacted you, I…I was trying to repay a debt to my brother. He helped me out when things were tough—when I didn't deserve to be helped out, even. I always thought he was a fool for marrying your mother, and the way he wasted his life—never mind. But he never deserted me, even when our parents did. I thought maybe if I gave something to you, it would…even things out a little.

"But look. Look now, see what I've done to you. I wish I could apologize, but…I've been going down the wrong path so long I don't think I have it in me."

Melody just sat there and stared at him, shocked into silence.

* * *

Lily heard a roaring in her ears. Something was pounding inside her head, throbbing in time with the rhythm of her heart. It was funny, she thought, how much more aware of her heart she was when the rest of the world had gone black. She couldn't quite feel the rest of her body, but her heart, at least, was still beating. And her head had to be intact, or she wouldn't be thinking.

Her body came back before her vision did. Pins and needles pricked at her legs. Her gut began to throb in time with her head, and pain shot up her right arm. Her chest heaved as she tried to suck in breath, but she felt constricted—she couldn't—there was something heavy on her chest, something suffocating—and around her neck-- "Ghh!" she said, as something squeezed around it. A strange fuzzyness swept through her head, and she felt dizzy, even as she woke.

Then, suddenly, the world came rushing back. Lily choked on the gasp of air she was trying to take in, and tears pricked at her eyes from the pain throbbing through her system. The world would have been blurry even without the tears, but through them the world went kaleidoscopic, and Lily could barely make out the form of a woman sitting on her chest, her arms reaching toward Lily's face, and her hands—her hands were around Lily's throat, choking her.

But no—_no_—it wasn't hands, it was a chain.

_Jesus Christ_, Lily thought, squeezing her eyes shut, and tears leaked out of them, falling down either side of her face into her ears. _It's the necklace. She's trying to take the necklace._

_It's going to kill me._

She tried to take in breath again, desperately. She moved her arms to try to shove the woman off her, and convulsed in pain. Her right arm, she realized, was twisted beneath her, broken, and slowly being crushed. She couldn't sob—could barely breathe—couldn't use her arms—so instead she cried, and writhed her head around, which only made the throbbing worse.

"God damn it, Siegfried, get over here and make her stop convulsing."

"You do it," came a male voice from a few feet away. Lily couldn't see him; she had squeezed her eyes shut to try to deal with the pain.

"My wand's over there, I _can't_."

"I'm not getting near her. The damn thing _cut _me last time," he whined.

"GET OVER HERE AND HELP, YOU MISERABLE BASTARD!"

She jerked at Lily's neck, and Lily's head followed, then slammed against the floor as the woman let go. A high-pitched shriek escaped Lily's throat, and the woman practically throttled her in anger. Tears poured from Lily's eyes. Her body began shaking in fear and pain, and she slipped quickly in and out of consciousness.

_Make it end,_ she prayed. _Dear God, please take the pain away. I'll do anything. Just make it stop. Take me. Anything…anything…._

She must have been whimpering, because the woman screeched, "SHUT THE HELL UP! Siegfried, you better start making yourself bloody useful, because if you don't, I swear on the Unholy Pact _I will kill you_."

"I thought that's what we were trying to avoid, _darling_," Siegfried sneered.

"GET YOUR BLOODY USELESS CARCASS OVER HERE RIGHT NOW AND _HELP ME_!"

Without warning, a jolt went through Lily's system, and the woman sitting on top of her screamed and began jerking uncontrollably.

"YOU SEE? YOU SEE WHAT THE BLOODY THING DOES?" Siegfried bellowed. The woman yanked her hand away and slid off of Lily, still shaking.

Lily took in a great, shuddering breath of air and immediately choked on it. Her bruised ribs and constricted throat protested. It took her nearly a minute to get a pattern of normal breathing straightened out, and then she began sobbing. Everything throbbed. Pain ripped through her until she couldn't think anymore, couldn't interpret the images her eyes were taking in. If she saw the shuddering woman lying on the floor next to her, with her long black hair sticking up on end, she didn't know it. Her memory of this would never be anything more than a blur of pain.

Lily couldn't do anything but lie there. Her body couldn't cope with anything else.

Unluckily, her kidnappers recovered much faster. The woman growled out a plan of attack to her companion, and shoved him in Lily's direction. He stumbled, and managed to step on Lily's hand and shoulder before regaining his balance. Lily barely noticed through her pain. Her body was going numb now, she thought. Systematically shutting down. Or at least she hoped so. She couldn't think of anything else that would dull the pain.

"All right, now remember, Siegfried," the woman growled. "Take hold of that thing and don't you _dare_ let it slip through your fingers."

"I _understand_, Bellatrix. Just cast the damn spell."

If Lily had been fully conscious, she would have wondered what spell was coming. She would have tried to prepare herself for the unknown. If she'd been really on top of things, she probably would have tried to escape. But she wasn't conscious, and she couldn't escape. All she could do was lie there and wait for her fate to come.

"_AVADA KEDAVRA_!" Bellatrix shrieked.

Lily's body gave one last great jerk, and then she died.

* * *

Lin woke up screaming.

The sound pierced the ears of all the girls in the Fourth Year dormitory, and reverberated shrilly off the walls.

She couldn't stop herself. Couldn't get the images out of her head. Couldn't stop the nightmare. She could barely hear the voices of the other girls in the dormitory as they woke up.

"Oy! What is that bloody _racket_?" Lucy shouted across the room. She was barely audible against Lin's screaming.

"I dunno, but whoever it is needs to _shut the hell up_!" Gillian yelled back. Lin heard her, but she couldn't stop herself. Tears poured down her face.

She couldn't get the images of Lily dying out of her head.

"STOP IT!" someone yelled. "FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN!"

The door to the dormitory opened. Angry footsteps stomped across the floor, and someone threw back the curtain on Lin's bed.

Bridget.

She raised her hand and lashed it angrily at Lin's face, slapping her with a SMACK that resounded almost louder than Lin's screams. The force of Bridget's slap sent Lin careening back into her pillow, and suddenly, mercifully, the screaming stopped.

"Shut your bloody mouth," Bridget spat. "What in God's name are you carrying on for?"

She grabbed Lin's arm and jerked her out of bed. Lin half fell to the floor, nearly cracking her head open on her nightstand, and was in such a state of shock that she allowed Bridget to drag her out of the dormitory without protest.

Bridget led her down the stairs and into the Gryffindor Common Room, and then shoved her in the general direction of a sofa. She crossed her arms and glared down at Lin.

Lin had recovered enough by this time to register what had happened. She brought a shaking hand to her cheek and looked at Bridget as if she didn't know her.

"You hit me," she said, her voice quavering.

"It shut you up, didn't it?" Bridget snapped.

"Why the _hell_ did you hit me?" Lin demanded. Her brain was taking a while to catch up with the situation.

"Why the _hell_ were you making all that bloody _racket_?" Bridget demanded, eyes blazing. At least they weren't gray, Lin noted. Her brain was finally making sense of things.

"Sorry," Lin said softly, and Bridget's rage lessened. "It was just—oh dear God, Bridget, it's _Lily_. We have to go to her. We have to _find her_. She could be dead!"

"What? Who? Who's dying? Lin, what on earth are you talking about?"

"Quick—we have to get some Floo powder. We have to get to America. I don't care how."

"Lin, you're not making any—"

"Just shut up and help me! _NOW_!"

* * *

"What do you mean, _it disappeared_?" Bellatrix demanded. Her heart palpitated, and she swayed on her feet, still trying to glare threateningly at Siegfried. Her heart had been doing funny things ever since that teenage bitch's necklace had electrocuted her.

"It was in my hand one minute, and then as soon as you killed her, it was _gone_. What the hell other kind of explanation do you need?"

"You must not have been holding onto it tightly enough," she growled. "This is _all_ _your fault_, Siegfried."

"I had my _entire fucking hand wrapped around it_. Don't talk to me about whose fault it is."

"Well, what in the bloodyhellare we supposed to do now?" she shrieked.

"I don't give a _shit_ what you do, Bellatrix. I'm going off alone."

"Alone? To do _what_?"

Siegfried turned to stare at her. "I'm getting pissed, Bella. I'm gonna get really—really—really—fuckin'—_pissed_."

* * *

James woke up sweating.

"Lily," he gasped, shoving the covers away as quickly as he could. "_Lily_."

He stumbled over to his dresser and grabbed the first shirt he saw, pulling it hastily over his head as he ran out of his bedroom. He didn't bother putting on pants. Boxer shorts would be enough, and never mind that it was December.

He half-ran, half-fell down the stairs, jumping eight and nine and ten of them at a time, and dashed into the living room. He grabbed the jar of Floo powder off the mantelpiece, tossed the lid aside, and—

—was promptly knocked over by two girls who tumbled out of his fireplace.

Floo powder flew out of the jar and went airborne, surrounding the three of them in a white haze.

They detangled themselves and stood, coughing and waving the powder away. James checked to make sure there was still enough in the jar for a trip. There was. _Thank God_, he thought.

"You have the wrong house. Move out of my way," James said, but one of the girls, the blonde-haired one, shoved him back with surprising strength.

"_No_," she said. "We have to talk to you."

"Look, you're obviously lost and I don't have time to talk to stran—" He paused and frowned at Bridget. "Wait. You're that DeBeauvois kid, aren't you?"

"It's _Bridget_, thank you very much, and this is Lin, and we have to talk to you because—"

"Lily's going to die and we have to save her," Lin blurted out.

James stared at Lin. "How in the world did you—how do you know about—oh, bloody hell, never _mind_—if we stand here talking about it she _is_ going to die. If you're coming with me, you'd better hurry!" he yelled, and tossed the entire damn jar into the fire. It exploded with the Floo powder, and the flames in the grate turned green. "LEAKY CAULDRON!" James bellowed, jumping in.

The two young girls followed him without hesitation.

* * *

Lily's body lay silent and abandoned in the dirty corner of a back alley. Her corpse had been tossed behind a dumpster. The lower half of her body was obscured by smoke issuing from a vent in the ground. She was already dusted with a thin layer of snow, which hadn't begun falling until after her murderers had gone.

Her eyes stared, glassy and cold, at the brick wall in front of her. Her right arm, broken and half mangled, was thrown in an unnatural arc across her back. Blood was still drying and beginning to cake on the right shoulder of her festive green Christmas sweater.

She was obviously newly dead. She lacked any spark of life, but the stench of death had not yet come to claim her. A rat scurrying through the alley approached her, sniffed at her wound, and hesitated. There was fresh blood there, but the body was growing cool. The rat scurried over to her neck and sniffed around. Its whiskers tickled the skin there, but there was no response from the skin or the girl, and the rat decided it was safe to scurry up and over the girl and continue on its way.

Lily, like every other victim, had not survived the killing curse.

But suddenly something gold shimmered around her neck.

* * *

A/N: Tune in next time to find out what happens to our…um…imperiled heroine!

A sparkly, dangly, expensive, classic, timeless, beautiful, shimmering THANK YOU (no, not a set of million-dollar earrings, but a THANK YOU) goes to all present, future, and past reviewers. I would not have kept at this without your support.

Responses to your reviews can be found at the Yahoo Group "eyesUNDERSCOREdatabase". I would have just put the underscore in, but ffDOTnet won't allow things like that anymore, because it's stupid and it hates me. There is a more comprehensible link to this group in my profile.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think. 

Cheers,

Sierra Charm


	21. Giving In

A/N: Well, considering practically nothing happens in this chapter, it took an obscenely long time to post. I would apologize profusely, but I think at this point we're out on the other side of apologies. I think at this point we have reached the "just about everybody has given hope of there ever being another update for this story again so why am I even bothering?" stage. But um…here's an update anyway.

I know that I often say that I don't like my chapters, but that's particularly true for this chapter. When I say that nothing happens...really, nothing happens. Nothing remotely plot-oriented, anyway. I don't even know how this chapter is nearly fifty pages long.

Whatever. So here's a recap of last chapter, since I'm sure most of you have forgotten that this story even exists, let alone the events of Chapter Twenty:

Bellatrix and Siegfried begin their happy quest to kill Lily and steal her necklace. Lily, James, and Sirius visit Al Schmundertoe in London and discover very little about Lily's necklace, except that it has enchantments strung all over it (as well as a mysterious and microscopic blood-red jewel) and that Schmundertoe thinks they are mostly for protection. Sirius visits Melody in London, where she is of course having a miserable time, doing odious things like having meals with Lucifer Malfoy, but things get momentarily better when she gets a chance to snog Sirius in the cloakroom. The next day, her uncle confronts her about her relationship with Sirius, and then tells her that he's lost his entire fortune and that Lucifer Malfoy is in control of the entire situation. He even attempts to apologize for the mess he's gotten Melody into, but don't really believe him, do we, the miserable bastard.

Lily and James exchange Christmas presents and James tells Lily that he loves her, though of course Lily is still in ridiculous denial so she refuses to say the same to him. Lily then goes to visit her relatives in America with her mother and sister (oh joy), and in the middle of the movie _It's A Wonderful Life_ (which everyone should see, by the way, it's amazing) she gets up, presumably to go to the bathroom, and we see that Bellatrix and Siegfried are, in fact, stalking her, and they ambush her as she leaves the bathroom, knock her unconscious, and kidnap her. They then attempt to steal the necklace, which doesn't work out so well, as it electrocutes Bellatrix, and then Bellatrix gets tired of messing around with the necklace and she decides to kill Lily, at which point the necklace promptly disappears.

Both James and Lin wake up when Lily dies. Lin wakes up screaming, in fact, and Bridget DeBeauvois has to come into her dormitory and slap her to shut her up, and then the girls decide to Floo to James's house, where they run into a half-dressed James, who then decides, in a state of frantic stupidity, that they should all Floo to America, and so they do.

Little is likely to be resolved in Chapter Twenty-One concerning anything you had questions about in Chapter Twenty. (Such as: Why did James and Lin wake up and run after Lily? What happened with Lily's necklace? What's really going on with Melody and Lucifer and Hans? Why the bloody hell did this update take so long?)

But oh well. We can always hope for clarity in the future, can't we? (It probably won't come. But we can pretend.)

Anyway, apologies to my beta-reader. I didn't send this off to her before posting. (I can explain this later in an e-mail, but for right now I'll just say that life caught up with me again.)

Also, ffDOTnet is being particularly evil today, so instead of having a line between scene breaks, I've had to write out SCENEBREAK each time. My apologies.

Chapter Twenty-One

Giving In

James dashed through the streets of New York. He didn't remember how he'd gotten there and he didn't know where he was going, but he didn't care. He ignored the looks of the people on the sidewalk, ignored the four lanes of traffic that screeched and honked as he dashed across the road, even ignored the two young teenage girls running behind him panting and wheezing and trying desperately to keep up. He forgot that he was wearing only a T-shirt and boxers—but then again, clothes didn't seem all that important. Or warmth, for that matter. James was sure he was freezing—it was starting to snow a little—but he didn't notice. He was so focused on finding Lily that he didn't notice much of anything.

He had no idea where he was, no idea where he was headed, no idea really what was happening to him—all he knew was that if he followed the violent tugging in his gut, he would end up where Lily was, and right now, Lily was all that mattered.

Something terrible had happened to her. Something terrible, but he didn't know what. Death came to mind, but then how could she be dead? If Lily were really dead, what could be pulling him to her? Surely not the necklace. Surely the necklace couldn't work like this. Even if it could, would it work if Lily were dead?

That was not an option James wanted to ponder.

He dashed around the corner of an apartment building and down a side street. He rounded another corner and found himself in an alley behind the apartment building. There was little there except a fire escape and a dumpster, but James headed straight for the dumpster and dashed behind it and saw—

James felt like his stomach had fallen out of his body. Everything had fallen out of his body. There were no innards left, he was just an empty shell and he couldn't do anything but stand there and stare at Lily.

_Lily_. At least he thought it was Lily. _No. It can't…she can't…._

Blood pooled underneath her, spreading from a wound in her shoulder. Blood had begun caking on her sweater, but patches of it were still warm and gooey. If Lily was really dead, she hadn't been dead for long.

_SHE'S NOT—_ James tried to think, but she was. She wasn't drawing breath, and her _eyes_—those beautiful sparkling emerald green eyes—were blank, glassy and cold and unfocused and just as dead as the rest of her. James squeezed his eyes shut, but he couldn't get Lily's eyes out of his mind. There they were, alive and animated—narrowed at James in a vicious sort of glare, the vivid green sparking at him in anger (that had been the first time he kissed her, he thought)—then gazing at him sad, lonely (one of their conversations on the rooftop, maybe)—then sparkling in unbelievable jewel-like bliss (their reunion after Auror training)—then, that last time, staring at him wide and frightened, a quivering, fresh pickled toad-like green that was hesitant, scared, afraid to take the leap. That had been when James told her he loved her.

James's eyes began to burn, prickling heavily with tears, and he opened them again to look down at Lily. For a moment he thought he saw her eyes spark with recognition once more, but he was wrong. Maybe it was just a trick of the light in front of his blurry vision—or maybe, more simply, it was just a trick of his imagination. Because the next time James blinked, tears trickled out of his eyes and along his cheeks and his vision cleared, and he could see those green eyes again, glassy and cold and un-alive.

The Lily that James knew—the bright, beautiful girl he'd fallen in love with—she was gone. But her body lay there in the alley behind the dumpster, and seeing it made something inside James fall apart.

"_Lily_," James whispered, but it was no ordinary whisper. It was tight and hoarse and barely audible—his throat was closing up, his eyes were burning, his heart was swelling—and he fell to his knees just in time for Lin and Bridget to circle around the dumpster and see him do so, his hands shaking madly, his heart pounding out painful new rhythms against his ribs. Bridget and Lin just stood behind him, frozen, gaping, terrified and shocked and too baffled to say anything.

"LILY," James said again, but this time he screamed it, and leaned over to pull Lily's body into his arms. Her broken, mangled arm flopped uselessly against him. The sight of that pathetic, bloodied mess burst whatever bubble of self-restraint he had left, and his body began jerking in uncontrollable sobs. "Lily," he said again, more softly, cradling her head in his right hand. The necklace shimmered dimly around her neck, and he curled his fingers around it, with every intention of yanking the damned thing off and Banishing it to Siberia if he had to, because a fat lot of good it was doing protecting Lily—

and he promptly collapsed, dragging Lily's body back down with him as he slumped over onto the ground.

Lily hovered somewhere outside of consciousness. Her vision fluttered. It wasn't her eyelids, exactly, that fluttered, it was—something else. She thought she saw, in brief glimpses, images of her own body strewn out in an alley alongside a dumpster. For one second, she thought she saw herself lying there dead. But in the next second, she was consumed by blackness, and her mind went dead again, and she thought and saw and knew nothing.

She didn't know how long she fluttered like that—brief snatches of sight and thought in between long dark stretches of nothing—before her fluttering sight picked up images of James. She wanted to call out to him, to tell him that she was still there somewhere—that she wasn't totally lost—but she couldn't. In those fleeting moments when she saw his figure bent over hers, she couldn't draw the breath to say anything, and in those moments when blackness took her, she couldn't find the strength to drag herself from the nothingness enough to even register his touch.

Perhaps she was dying after all.

But _no_—then, there, in one brief fluttering image she saw James lean over and grab her, pull her up from her place on the cold concrete, and through the layers of darkness holding her mind hostage she thought she faintly felt his fingers brush her head. And then his hand traveled down toward her neck and suddenly the fluttering images stopped, and Lily was consumed by darkness and she didn't know any more.

Lin stared at Lily and James, collapsed and motionless on the ground, and felt her insides—so deprived and empty already—become even more hollow. Her eyes widened and her irises darkened and she stared at the two bodies, entwined and motionless and collapsed on the ground. She felt the whole scene practically burning itself into her eyeballs. She considered closing her eyes, but then the image of Lily and James would just be burned into her eyelids instead, so every time she closed her eyes she wouldn't be able to get away from it. It was just like one of her nightmares, like one of her all-consuming, exhausting, gruesome bloody visions, except—except that this was one she wouldn't wake up from. This was one she could not escape, no matter how loudly she screamed or how far she ran or how long she stood in this alley wishing for things to change.

She couldn't bring herself to do anything. What, she thought, would there be for her to do?

Lily was clearly dead. Lin had seen enough death to know what it felt like. Lily just _felt_ dead. Not that Lin was touching her, of course, but death, in a sense, wasn't exactly something you _saw_. You could see a dead body, of course, but to register that the body was really dead was more than just a realization of whether or not it had a pulse. It was the _acceptance_ that the person the body belonged to was gone. When someone was dead, they were dead. You just…knew.

So Lin stood there silently, accepting, feeling a small piece of her heart die with each second that passed, and began to wonder how many more people would have to die before anyone would be willing to stand up and fight against it.

Because this _wasn't _death from natural causes. Lily had been attacked—attacked and murdered, and Lin, despite Lily's bloodied arm, did not think her assault was by a Muggle. There wasn't nearly enough blood for her to have bled to death, and when was the last time someone had died because of a broken arm?

You-Know-Who was involved. He had to be. All of Lin's dreams and visions were about his victims. Not that all of her dreams were this astoundingly accurate, but she thought they at least counted for _something._

Bridget, on the other hand, was not so jaded, nor so plagued by gruesome visions, and she reacted as any normal teenage girl might have reacted.

She screamed herself into hysterics.

Her screams echoed so violently off the walls that Lin was dragged out of her stupor, and she stared at Bridget in alarm before attempting to clamp her hand over the girl's mouth.

But Bridget couldn't be stopped. Her arms were flailing now, her feet prancing about of their own accord—Lin couldn't get her to stand still long enough to stop her—Bridget's self-control completely evaporated and her shrieks and whimpers filled the otherwise desolate alley with a kind of desperate fear that Lin, though terrified herself, could not bring herself to feel. Lin didn't know if she felt fear anymore; mostly she just felt pain.

Bridget, as usual, could not help attracting attention. More than one person stuck his head out a window to yell at her to shut up, but only one man succeeded in actually silencing the screaming girl—a young man with dark hair, an Italian accent, and a magic wand.

The silence was immediate and profound. Bridget's arms flailed about for a few more moments before she realized what happened, and then her hands flew to her mouth, and she whirled around, glancing up and down the alley and then up the fire escape, where she saw a young Italian man descending the steps quickly. She was so furious she attempted to yell at him, but all this did was make her face turn a rather interesting shade of purple. Lin stared as the young man strode over to Bridget, grasped her firmly by the shoulders, and shook her once, furiously. Bridget stopped trying to scream at him long enough for her face to return to a more normal color, and then the young man said, "What is the meaning of this?"

Bridget tried to answer, but then remembered she couldn't, and this infuriated her again. She shoved the young man away and glared at him, pointing to her throat and stomping her foot on the ground demandingly.

"I'm not giving your voice back until I'm sure you're not going to yell at me," he informed her, and turned to Lin. "What is the meaning of this?" he repeated, but Lin couldn't speak either. She just pointed, numbly, behind the dumpster. The young Italian man strode over to the dumpster, expecting to see a few dead rats, or maybe even a dead dog—but either of those he could have handled. Either of those would not have made his face turn ashen white, or caused him to lose his senses so much that he pulled out his wand without thinking and cast weightlessness spells on the two bodies, lifting them carefully into the air with magic.

"We need to get them to Mama. No one else will be able to heal them better."

Lin nodded dumbly and began following him up the fire escape, watching as he carefully guided the floating bodies of Lily and James up the stairs as well. Bridget, who was full of opinions, stomped after them, and made as much noise stomping up the fire escape as she possibly could, hoping for the young man to notice so that she could demand he give her voice back again and she could tell him just exactly what she thought of him and his Mama.

But the young man didn't turn around, didn't even acknowledge Bridget's presence until long after they had all climbed through the window to his family's apartment and presented the bodies of Lily and James to his mother.

SCENEBREAK

"Here, have some wine. It will make you feel better."

Bridget looked up from her place by the fire and accepted the glass from Paolo's mother. Paolo, as it turned out, was the name of the Italian boy who'd saved Lily and James. At least, Bridget assumed they'd been saved—she hadn't seen either of them for over an hour, since she and Lin had entered the apartment behind Paolo and he'd whisked them off to a bedroom, where they'd been locked in and frantically attended to for the better part of that hour. Now everyone was just…waiting.

Lin declined the glass of wine that Paolo's mother offered, and turned her head back to the fire, her dark eyes introspective and faraway as usual. Bridget briefly considered asking what she was thinking about, but decided there was no point, as Lin's answers to this type of question were usually cryptic at best.

Paolo's mother took a seat next to the girls, her own glass of wine in hand.

"It is lucky that you are witches. I can't imagine what my son was thinking, pulling that wand out in front of you." Mama—which Paolo's mother insisted was the way she wanted to be addressed by the girls—shook her head. "It is also lucky that you are such a good screamer," she said, grinning at Bridget. "I can't think of any other sound that could have dragged my son from his sleep." Bridget's cheeks began to burn, and she grinned a little, looking embarrassed.

"I wasn't sleeping, Mama." Paolo emerged from the bedroom. "Though even if I was, I doubt I would have been able to sleep through that noise."

Bridget's cheeks were bright red now, and she turned her face toward the fire, hoping the glow of the flames would hide some of her embarrassment.

"We are only teasing. It _is_ a good thing that you reacted how you did. Otherwise you might never have been able to save them."

Lin lifted her gaze from the fireplace. "Do you really think they can be saved?" she whispered, almost demandingly. "Didn't you _see_ them? Aren't they _dead_?"

Mama frowned, and shifted a little in her chair. Bridget understood her discomfort. It was unsettling, sometimes, to look into Lin's eyes, too old and dark and troubled for her small, youthful face. Lin had a way of absolute conviction about her—about some things, anyway. Her convictions had nothing to do with boys or fashion or Ancient Runes homework, but rather life. And death. _Mostly death_, Bridget thought.

"The boy was nowhere close to dead," Mama began. "He was just—" she looked at Paolo for the appropriate word.

"Passed out," Paolo offered.

"_Si. Gratzi_. Now he is sleeping. Though I think when he wakes up, he will have the worst cold. I don't know what he was thinking, running around with no pants on."

"I think you two might have made him wear something more sensible, eh?" Paolo directed at Bridget and Lin.

"We didn't exactly have a lot of time to plan our wardrobe. We were trying to save somebody from murder," Lin said flatly, and Bridget looked at her in surprise.

"Is that what you think happened to the girl?" Mama asked.

"I know it is," Lin said, turning her dark gaze away from Paolo.

Mama was surprised for a moment. "Well, she is not dead."

"Not anymore, you mean."

Mama looked even more puzzled. "She was never dead."

"Yes she was. I saw her."

Mama looked more concerned than puzzled now. "I'm sure what you saw was—hard to see. I know how upset it must have made you. But to bring someone back from the dead—this is something I cannot do."

"Well then perhaps you weren't the one who did it."

Everyone just stared at Lin for a moment. Bridget wished she would stop talking like that. It was disturbing and too confusing to think about right now, now when all Bridget wanted to do was be relieved that Lily and James were going to be okay. She and Lin should have been happy—no, ecstatic—that Lily and James were going to be all right—should have been demanding to go and see them, to make sure—

But no, instead they were sitting here and Lin was prattling on about how dead Lily was, about how she must have been dead—how if she was alive now, that didn't necessarily mean she wasn't dead before, and Bridget—well, frankly Bridget didn't want to hear it.

If Lily was alive, what did it matter how dead she'd looked in the alley? Because Lin was right about one thing—Lily certainly _had_ looked dead when they'd come upon her behind the dumpster. And Lin had so much more experience with this sort of thing than Bridget…Bridget had to believe that Lin knew what she was talking about. But at the same time, did Lin have to be so goddamn _morbid_?

"It doesn't matter," Bridget snapped, and Lin's head whirled to face hers.

"What do you mean, it doesn't matter?"

"If Lily's alive now, then she's alive. If she were dead, she would be dead, but she's not, so I think we should stop talking about it."

"Are you saying you don't believe me? I _know_ what I saw."

"I didn't say that! I'm just saying that there's no point thinking or arguing about it right now. We should just be glad they're both alive and they're going to be all right."

Lin frowned, but she appeared to be retreating from her dark, morbid lines of thought.

"She is right," Mama agreed, sounding a little relieved. "We should not think too much on these things. Please, just sit—rest. Eat if you are hungry. I will fix you anything."

"I'm fine," Lin said softly, and her gaze slid over to the fireplace once more. "When can we see them?" she managed, from underneath her thoughts.

"Tomorrow," Mama promised. "After you sleep. Though I do not think they will be awake just yet."

"You can sleep there," Paolo interjected, nodding at Lin, who was sitting on the end of a couch. "And you—" he pulled out his wand again and muttered a spell, causing the big red armchair Bridget was camped out in to stretch into an equally comfortable couch, "—can sleep there."

Bridget smiled a bit halfheartedly in response, and Paolo conjured up two blankets for the girls. "Do not dwell on your thoughts," he advised. "Sleep would be better. You can always think in the morning."

_Yes,_ Bridget agreed, curling up and closing her eyes, _unless one night you go to sleep and never wake up again_.

She didn't want to turn morbid like Lin, but she couldn't help thinking of death. She didn't want to admit it, but when she closed her eyes and thought of the scene in the alley—of Lily, with James slumped over her, and all that _blood_—she was still terrified.

And she didn't think she'd be sleeping well at all that night.

SCENEBREAK

Melody awoke to an insistent knocking on her door. "Mmph," she grunted, rolling over and burying her face in her pillow. The knocking was faint but persistent, and she thought she vaguely heard the sound of someone calling out her name. The knocking continued. Why was it so _faint_? Melody wondered. Since when had her bedroom door gotten that far _away_?

Then she realized. It wasn't the door to her bedroom, it was the door to her suite. Her _suite_! Melody was still in the hotel. She was still in London, still with her bastard uncle, still with the shiver-inducing Lucifer Malfoy—and _not _shivering in a good way, either, not like Sirius made her shiver, but shivering in a cold, scared, malicious sort of—

"Oh, bollocks, _Sirius_!"

Melody rolled out of bed and dashed across her bedroom, ripping open her door and flying around the corner and to the door of her suite, which she pulled open hastily, only to find—

Nothing.

"Damn it," Melody swore, and poked her head out the door, swiveling it around for a glimpse of her boyfriend. "Sirius!" she called, having spotted him near the end of the hallway. It took a couple more tries before he actually heard her—she was trying not to attract _too_ much attention to herself, considering her inappropriate state of dress (although considering all the noise Sirius had been making trying to wake her up, she doubted her own shouts and bangs would make much of a difference)—and when he did, he managed to look both pleased and annoyed.

His initial reaction was happiness—Melody could see his grin, even this far away—but then he seemed to remember that he'd spent the last twenty minutes banging on her door trying to wake her up with no success, and he immediately changed his sloppy grin to a look of annoyance.

"I'm supposed to be saying good-bye to you," he hissed, striding back to her door.

"I'm _sorry_," Melody said, trying to sound like she meant it. She _did_ mean it, of course, but often when she was still sleepy she wasn't very good at putting expression in her voice.

Sirius stopped in front of her. "I only have half an hour left!"

"That's all? That's _pathetic_! Why didn't you come and wake me up earlier?"

Sirius just stared at her.

"All right, fine, never mind that. Just—come in. I'll fix you breakfast." Melody headed for the kitchen.

"I've already had breakfast," Sirius informed her, following.

"Have you? How splendid. Then I guess I'll just fix _myself_ breakfast."

"No, don't. I'll make you breakfast." Sirius put a hand on her shoulder and steered her toward the table. Melody shrugged and plopped down in a chair.

"If you insist."

Sirius grinned. "And I do." He straightened up suddenly, clapping his hands together briskly and motioning to imaginary people. "Come come, we have wairk to do!" he said, putting on a preposterously bad French accent. "Ze chef must wairk his magique on ze breakfast selection of ouair most admirabulle 'ostess."

Melody managed to laugh and roll her eyes all at once.

"Come now, mademoiselle, what would you prefer from ouair grhhand kisshon?"

"Your kisshon?"

"Our _kitchen_, if you _inseest_ on putting it in…_Eeenglish _terms." Sirius said, bending over in a condescending manner to get his eyes on the same level as Melody's.

Melody flipped her hair over her shoulder and put on her most affected accent. "Well, as an English lady belonging to the proper sort of English courts—and with _all_ the blue blood you could ever _hope_ to have, you know—I believe that diction is the single most important thing a young man or woman could hope to accomplish, and that _p_roper _p_ronunciation of the English language is something that everyone in the world—no _matter_ their _race_ or native _language_, my dear—must _strrrive_ to a_chieve_!"

Sirius blinked slowly and pretended to flick a bit of spittle off his cheek. "Yes," he said, still maintaining the horrible French accent. "Well, we all must have ouair flaws." He clapped again, turning toward the empty kitchen. "Come now, Philippe! Gaston! Man ze stove, get me my special cutting knife! Chop chop!"

"A stove and a cutting knife. Whatever are you going to feed me, my dear?"

"Whoevair said anyssing about feeding _you_?"

"I thought I was your '_admirabulle 'ostess._'"

"Ah yes," Sirius said, stroking his chin in contemplation. "Well, zat does put a dampair on ouair plans for a sacrificial ceremon-ee, but pairhaps we can…wairk around zis…minor inconvenience."

"Yes, perhaps you'd better _wairk _around it," Melody agreed, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at him.

"All right zen. Philippe! Gaston! Change of plans. Ze lady would like—a piece of toast!"

"A piece of toast? Oh how very generous," Melody said flatly.

"Ze artiste 'as _no_ time to wairk. You must cut 'im a leetle slack, OK?" Sirius stared back at her and tapped on his watch, and Melody sighed, feeling guilty for sleeping so long.

"Butter and marmalade will be fine, thank you, Sirius."

"Ah, but my name zis houair is _not_ Sirius! Zere are no wairld-famous French chefs named Sirius, are zere? I ssink not!"

"Oh? Then what, pray tell, _is_ your name?"

"Why, it is _Sebastian_, of course!"

"Of course," Melody said, rolling her eyes again.

"Sebastian Fairmay Labuche, to be exact!"

Melody couldn't help laughing. "You're such a _ninny_. Just make some toast, why don't you?"

"Ze greatest chef in all of France does not appreciate being treated in zis most un-'ospitable mannair!"

"Well, tell _ze greatest chef in all of France_ that if he ever happens to show up here, I'll be sure and be more cordial to him than I am to his cheap imitation."

Sirius changed quickly from play-acting to sulking. "Fine," he said, "but see if plain old Sirius Black butters your toast as well as the greatest chef in all of France." He dropped several pieces of bread in the toaster and pushed down the lever.

Melody shook her head. "I'd take toast made by Sirius Black over toast made by the greatest chef in France any day."

Sirius was not very good at pretending to sulk. A grin twitched at the corners of his mouth. "Really now?"

"Mm," Melody agreed, rising from the table. "Besides, the greatest chef in France is probably horrible at making toast. He's too busy cooking snails and lobsters and…things." She walked over and leaned on the counter next to Sirius.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, slipping an arm around Melody's waist. "Probably has some menial assistant to make all the toast for him. Probably hasn't even touched the stuff in years."

"Yes well, toast is very menial I suppose. Is that why you're making it for me?" Melody tilted her head to the side, grinning. "To show me how _menial_ you think I am?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm making it because I plan to steal some at the very first opportunity. I have a massive craving for marmalade on toast."

"Oh, _really_? Well then," Melody said, attempting to remove Sirius's arm from her waist, "that changes things a bit, doesn't it?"

"Does it?" Sirius asked.

Melody stepped away from the counter to try to squirm out of Sirius's grip, but he just wrapped his other arm around her waist instead. "That's not fair," she informed him, still squirming. Sirius grinned.

"No," he disagreed, "what wouldn't be fair is if I started tickling you."

Melody froze long enough to glare at him. "Don't you dare. This morning's going to be bad enough already without you going around _tickling _me."

"What's wrong with tickling? And, for that matter, what's wrong with this morning?"

"Well, first of all, tickling is just rude," Melody informed him, placing her hands on his shoulders. "And secondly, not only do I have to say good-bye to you this morning, I also have to go and see Lucifer Malfoy." She wrinkled up her nose. "Won't that be…fun."

Sirius frowned. "Lucifer Malfoy. What does he want?"

Melody shrugged and turned away from him. "Who knows?"

Sirius let her slip from his arms and frowned at her further. Melody walked away and stood at the edge of the kitchen area, where smooth tile gave way to plush carpeting, and stared across the living room to the large picture window. Light poured in and lit up the frizzy hairs haloed around Melody's hair, unbrushed and unkempt and unusual. This was not how she would look in two hours when she presented herself to Lucifer Malfoy. This was not how she would let herself look in front of her uncle, or Catalina, or the rest of the sniveling, fake-smiling people who thought they knew her.

But for Sirius…for Sirius, Melody could look any way she wanted to. She turned back around slowly and regarded him, his concern, his caring. She smiled limply.

"I'll miss you," she said.

Sirius looked like he had a question forming on his lips, but he halted it. "It won't be for so long." He walked over to her and took one of her hands.

"Just a week," Melody agreed. "But what will New Year's be without a kiss from you?" A sly grin spread across her face.

Sirius caught on quickly. "Well, we could always stock up _now_…" He tucked a stray bit of hair behind her ear and leaned in for a kiss.

Melody's toast popped up, and they both jumped, jerking apart.

"Damn toast," Sirius muttered, and settled for placing a kiss on Melody's cheek before going over to retrieve it.

Melody took a seat at the table and watched Sirius bustle around the kitchen, looking semi-domestic as he buttered and spread marmalade on her toast. Sirius presented the toast to her—on a plate and with a napkin, even—and then glanced at his watch.

"Well, I don't want to rush you, but if you want any kind of decent…good-bye...from me, you should probably hurry."

"I could just let the toast go cold…but what a shame that would be, after all the hard work you put into it." Melody had stopped caring about the toast, but Sirius looked disappointed at the suggestion that she might not want to eat it, so she bit into a piece as enthusiastically as she could—at least, as enthusiastically as anyone could bite into a piece of toast.

She was still hitting herself over the head mentally for mentioning Lucifer Malfoy. The thought of going to see him had taken away the best of her appetite, and thinking about her uncle and her fakeness had taken away even more. And then to think about Sirius…well, that just made her stomach twist in guilt, and with every bite she took, the toast looked less and less appealing.

How could she be doing this to Sirius? Sirius, who never withheld anything from her. Sirius, who was willing to spend twenty minutes banging on the door of his girlfriend's hotel room just to make her toast. Sirius, heir to a large fortune. _Doesn't he have a right to know everything_?

He knew Melody was keeping something from him. He'd accepted her lies about her uncle, but that didn't mean he believed them. And Melody was tired of keeping secrets, tired of keeping this whole damn fake world to herself, tired of worrying about betraying her feelings toward Sirius because of how Lucifer Malfoy might react. The thought of going to see him made her stomach twist further, and she put down her piece of toast.

"What's the matter? Too much marmalade?"

Sirius was joking, but he sounded concerned. Concerned about Melody's toast? Maybe. Concerned about the look on her face? More likely. Melody looked up and met his gaze, and she just…had to say _something_. But what she blurted out wasn't quite what she'd meant to.

"My uncle saw us."

"What?"

"The other night. Kissing. In the cloak room—he saw us."

"Oh. Looking for pointers, was he?" Sirius wiggled his eyebrows and grinned cheekily.

"He wasn't very happy about it."

"Yes, well, unfortunately for him, it's not really his business, is it?"

Melody shifted in her chair and picked at the crust on her toast. "No…no, I guess not."

Sirius's eyes narrowed. "Melody, what's the matter?"

"Nothing," she mumbled, but Sirius kept staring at her. Melody continued picking at her toast, now ripping off chunks of crust and crumbling them onto her plate. Sirius grabbed her hands to make her stop.

"Melody, please look at me. What's the matter?"

Melody glanced up at him, but then stared down at her plate of toast. She couldn't handle the force of the gaze or its directness. He made her just want to…tell him everything, and she couldn't do that. If she did, he'd hate her. He'd think she was only with him for his money. And that _wasn't_ it. Wasn't.

Sirius squeezed her hands gently. Melody looked up at him again, slowly. Sirius's brown eyes tore into her, and she couldn't hold back any more.

"I owe him lots of money."

"_What_? Who, your uncle?"

Melody nodded, and bit back tears. "_So_ much money. Or—I did. I—I don't know, Sirius, I'm not really sure what's going on. I just know that I'm in so much debt, and if I can't see you anymore, I don't know what I'll do with myself."

"Wait—_what_?"

Tears spilled out of Melody's eyes, and before she knew what was happening, she was sobbing onto Sirius's shoulder.

SCENEBREAK

Melody spilled the beans. She couldn't help herself. She hadn't _meant_ to tell him everything, but she couldn't hold it in anymore. She just needed everything out in the open.

Well—_almost _everything. She left out a few piddly little details, like Lucifer Malfoy wanting to marry her and her secret hope that Sirius's fortune (or his parents' fortune, anyway) might help get her out of debt.

They were sitting on the couch, Melody with a pile of tissues beside her and Sirius with an arm around her shoulders.

"Let me get this straight," he said, turning so he could look her in the eye. "So your uncle paraded you around because he was losing money, and he was hoping to marry you off to some rich bastard."

Melody nodded.

"And then he spent all that money on you and blew his fortune even faster."

Another nod.

"And then when all his money was basically gone, he came back and blamed you for it and demanded that you repay him, even though he was fully aware that there was no way in hell that you could do so, and he really just wanted to use you as a pawn to marry someone, like he planned all along, only he finally clued you into it and demanded that you cooperate or else he would…do something to your family."

Melody blew her nose in affirmation.

"But he never told you what he was going to do to your family?"

Melody shrugged. "The threats were a little vague. But—you should have seen him, Sirius, he…he would've done whatever he had to."

"And you believed him so much that you started hawking the fake watches with Mundungus?"

"Well…yeah."

"And you thought that would have been good enough to repay him?"

"_No_, but—Sirius, I had to do _something_!"

"You could've told _us_. You didn't think your friends would have been able to help you?"

"Sirius, none of you have that kind of money!"

"I do. _James_ does. Furthermore, James's dad is the _Minister_. There's _no way_ anything Hans was trying to make you do was legal—you had no obligations to him whatsoever, and furthermore if he was making _threats_—why are you shaking your head?"

"_Think_ about it, Sirius. Hans would've denied it. What he was doing wasn't legal exactly, but it wasn't really illegal either, was it? Personal debts don't have to be drawn up on paper. And he never actually _did_ anything to my family so there's nothing there to prosecute him with either. _Besides_—don't you think the Minister has other things to worry about besides some stupid little girl and her uncle?"

Sirius stared at her. "It doesn't sound quite as simple as all that."

"Well, it doesn't matter, because it's over now."

"Is it, Melody? Is it really?"

Now Melody was going to have to lie. "_Yes_, Sirius. Look, I told you. Hans put it all in the hands of Lucifer Malfoy."

"But he was trying to marry you off to the guy."

"I never said that! I said he wanted to marry me off to _somebody_. He didn't say anything about Lucifer specifically."

Melody could swallow this guilt. It was such a relief to have everything else off her chest that this little bit didn't matter. And maybe she wouldn't have to marry Lucifer anyway. _Yeah, and maybe Sirius will turn into a pink and purple-spotted toad and live with Moaning Myrtle in her toilet._

Sirius stared her down. "So Hans just sold off all his stuff and…decided he doesn't care anymore? He just…took everything back?"

"I wouldn't say he took it all back. I would say that he finally remembered my father was his brother, and that maybe he owed him something. Owed me something. But he also knew it would be too little too late. Nothing he can do now would change anything."

"Because…Malfoy is in control of everything?"

"All of Hans's assets, yes."

"And what is Malfoy getting from all of this?"

"He's getting Hans."

"I didn't know he swung that way."

Melody let out a bark of laughter. "I meant all of Hans's connections. His…debt of gratitude."

"Gratitude? Are you sure that's the word for it?"

"I don't know…involuntary servitude, maybe? Does it really matter?"

"I don't know. You really think…you really think it's all over?"

Melody shrugged. "I'd assume so. I've dined with Lucifer several times, and he never mentioned any—"

"You _dined _with him? What do you mean, you _dined_ with him?"

"I mean he invited me over for dinner, and—"

"For dinner? You went to his _house_?"

"Yes, Sirius. Why, what's so wrong with that?"

"But he's—he's—he's a Malfoy!"

"So what? He's not that bad, he's just…a little different. Older. More…sophisticated."

"He's a _Malfoy_. He has motives."

"Not everyone has motives, Sirius."

"People like Lucifer Malfoy do."

"Can we stop talking about Lucifer Malfoy now?"

"Why? Does it bother you to talk about him?"

"_No_. I just…would rather not talk about _this _anymore."

"You're the one who brought it up."

"Would you prefer that I kept everything from you?" Melody demanded, swiping another tissue from the nearly empty box.

"No. But you could have told me _sooner_."

"We've been over this, Sirius. You couldn't have done _anything_. And now everything's worked itself out, so…it's over. And I can just relax and…we can be together. No more of these silly parties, no more ridiculous lies."

_I am SO full of shit_.

"Are you sure?"

Melody blew her nose one last time. "Of course I'm sure."

"Then why aren't you looking at me?"

Melody forced her head up and stared him in the eye. _Don't screw this up_. "I'm sure," she told him. That part was easy. The hard part was staring Sirius down for the next minute without blurting out the truth again.

"Then why," Sirius said slowly, "does Lucifer Malfoy want to see you again?"

"Oh, for the love of _Merlin_, Sirius!" Melody exploded, breaking off her gaze. "Look, he might be a Malfoy, and he might not be the most…_enjoyable_…person in the world, but he invited me to lunch several days ago, when I thought I still had all these obligations, and I agreed to go. So I'm going to go and get it over with, and then…figure out how to leave London, I guess."

"Just come with me. Come with me right now. We can leave together, Lucifer Malfoy doesn't matter."

Melody frowned down at her pile of tissues. "Sirius, that would be rude."

"Rude? Who cares about being rude? He's a _Malfoy_."

Melody managed to glare at him and veil her agreement. "I still owe him something, Sirius. He got me out of this situation—whether or not he intended to. I can at least be courteous."

"Courteous? Are you sure that's all?"

"For Merlin's sake, Sirius, it's not like I'm going to _marry _the guy or anything."

_Ooh, nice delivery. You should be an actress Melody, really. You're such an effective little liar when you need to be._

_Shut up_, Melody told herself. This conversation was starting to drive her crazy.

"I'm twenty minutes late to meet my parents," Sirius said.

"You should go then," Melody said, and turned away completely. She gathered up her tissues and walked over to the kitchen to throw them away. Sirius followed her.

"And you should come with me," he said.

Melody sighed and stared down into the trash can. Maybe she should just jump in there with the tissues and get carried off with the garbage. _That certainly would be a unique way of running away from your problems_.

But she couldn't run away from Sirius, any more than she could run away with him.

"I can't," she said softly, and turned around. "But I'll be home soon. I _promise_. And I'll owl you as soon as I get out of here."

Sirius did not look pleased. "I don't understand why you don't want to leave. There's no reason for you to stay."

"Damn it, Sirius, I already told you! I have one more obligation to fulfill, and then that's _it_. That's all. I don't have to come back unless I want to, and—maybe I will want to," she finished softly. _There, that's something. Give yourself a little leeway in case Lucifer Malfoy asks you back_. "It's not all bad, after all. The parties can actually be quite…stunning."

"Oh, yes, stunning. I can tell how _stunned_ you were by Duke Asbury's lecture on newt extract the other night." Sirius made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. "You know what Melody, you can lie and simper all you want to all those other society idiots, but you need to stop lying to me." Sirius turned toward the door.

"I'm not _lying_ to you!" Melody cried, dashing across the kitchen to catch his hand. Sirius's head jerked back around and he narrowed his eyes at her, staring at her like he wanted to peel away the layers of flesh holding her secrets so he could see the truth in her mind. Melody swallowed and grasped Sirius's other hand in hers, lacing her fingers together with his. "Sirius, I want _nothing more_ than to be with you. But I have to try to finish things here, otherwise they'll never be finished."

Sirius stared at her for a long minute, searching her face for…for what? Some sign of betrayal, maybe? Some hint of a lie?

But she _wasn't_ lying—not about wanting to be with Sirius. The other stuff she decided to pretend she hadn't said. It would be easier for her to be convincing that way.

Sirius stared at her a little longer, and then squinted his eyes suddenly, as though he'd just thought of something.

"Why did you decide you wanted to go out with me?"

"_What_?"

"What made you decide to corner me on Halloween? What changed?"

"I—I don't know. I just couldn't stand seeing you and Mimi together." Melody's gaze slid away from his. "I mean…I already told you all this."

"Yeah, but—from what I understand, you were convinced your uncle was going to marry you off to some rich bastard, right? You didn't think you were off the hook until recently. So why the change of mind? Why was it suddenly a good idea to want to be with me?"

_Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit._

Thankfully, while Melody's brain was busy freaking out, her emotions (along with a little help from the part of her primitive mind that she liked to call the Bullshit-O-Matic) took control of her mouth.

"I've _always_ wanted to be with you! I just—I just couldn't handle _lying _anymore."

"But you were still lying about _this_. Who says all that wasn't a lie too?"

"Sirius, how I feel about you is _not a lie_." She squeezed his hands and stared up at him, sincerity oozing from her very being. (At least—she hoped it was.)

"Yeah, but your feelings for me weren't enough for you to want to be with me last summer, so why did things suddenly change around Halloween?"

"Because I couldn't take it anymore! Because I was sick of listening to my uncle. Because I couldn't stand seeing you with another girl—I don't know, Sirius, there were a lot of reasons."

"So my parents' money just had…nothing to do with it."

Melody's throat dried up. "_Sirius_," she rasped. Her brain exploded in panic. Her heart fluttered to a stop in her rib cage. She was so dead. She couldn't function. She didn't know what to do. Her Bullshit-O-Matic took over entirely. "When have I asked you for so much as a _dime_?"

"You mean except for the cheese fries in Hogsmeade?"

"Yeah, okay, besides those."

"And the Fizzing Whizbees?"

"Well, _those _certainly don't cou—"

"And the Dungbombs?"

"Okay! I get it. I've asked you for stuff. But really, Sirius—what girlfriend _doesn't_ beg her boyfriend to buy her things?"

Sirius considered this. "I don't know. I'm not saying I _minded_. I'm just saying…Melody, I want you to be honest with me. I can understand if you were feeling desperate. I understand that you felt like your uncle was going to hurt your family and that you wanted to get money, and I'm still mad that you didn't just tell me from the beginning. But Melody…if my family's money had anything to do with you wanting to be with me, I want to know. I just need to know if…if it was in spite of your uncle that you wanted to be with me, or if it was because of him."

Melody couldn't handle this. She couldn't handle Sirius thinking that he wasn't enough for her. That she'd wanted something more from him. She couldn't handle him being angrier with her than he already was.

She looked down at their intertwined hands, and then back up at Sirius's face. God, she loved to look at him. She blurted out the first thing that came to mind without even thinking. "Sirius, I'm in love with you."

Sirius blinked and took this in, taking a minute to process before speaking.

"I know," he said finally.

Melody couldn't help feeling a little indignant. _Couldn't he at least say something back? _Of course she realized that she'd already said this to him, kind of—on Halloween she'd told him she loved him, hadn't she? But the thing was—Sirius hadn't actually said this back to her yet. She kept hoping he would. This kind of seemed like the right moment. _Any moment would be the right moment_.

"But Melody…just because you love someone doesn't mean you can't hurt them. It doesn't mean you can't deceive them or use them or—"

Melody put her fingers on his lips. "_Stop it_. I wanted to be with you because I _needed_ you. If all I wanted was your parents' money, don't you think I would have mentioned it by now?"

Melody's lies were getting so good she was almost starting to believe herself. _And maybe they aren't really lies_. She _had_ wanted to be with him, for…ever, it seemed like. She'd wanted to be with him last summer, too, but she hadn't because she was trying to protect him. She hadn't wanted to give Hans another target—someone else's well-being to threaten her with. And then, in the fall, when she'd stumbled across a reason to be with him—an excuse, really—when she'd realized that Hans needed her, that he wasn't just being a bastard for bastard's sake…. She'd taken that small amount of justification to take her future into her own hands. And if Melody had any kind of say in her own future, no matter how small, then Sirius had to be a part of it. Maybe it wasn't really about the money. Maybe it really had been about him from the beginning.

Sirius seemed to accept this, but he still didn't look like he wanted to let her off the hook. "But you're still staying."

Melody sighed. "Sirius, we've been over this. I have to stay. And you—you have to go meet your parents. You're almost an hour late now," she noted, glancing at the clock on the wall.

"Fine," Sirius agreed, and he pulled his hands away from Melody's. Without so much as a word or a kiss good-bye, he turned and walked out the door.

SCENEBREAK

Bellatrix's arm burned.

Her head felt like it was filled with a gurgling cauldron, her eyelids like they'd been shut with a Sealing spell. She was so groggy she could barely roll over in bed. But no, perhaps _groggy_ was not the right word. Perhaps _catatonic_ was more appropriate.

Her arm burned, it tingled, it swelled. She groaned and rubbed her hand over it, trying to make it go away, but all that did was make it burn and itch. Then it throbbed and _stung_, and it pulled her from sleep.

She forced her eyes open, crusty though they were for lack of sleep, and fumbled on the nightstand for her wand. She managed to make sense of the hands on her clock and moaned. _12:05_. It was barely past noon. She'd been asleep for an hour, and home for not much longer than that.

Siegfried was…well, she didn't know where Siegfried was. She wasn't sure she cared.

She managed to Summon her Death Eater mask and a pair of clean robes from across the room. The burning on her arm intensified, and the pain propelled her out of bed and compelled her to change.

The action exhausted her. She stared longingly at her bed again, and then cried out as her Dark Mark throbbed once more. She forced herself to whirl around once, and then, with a _pop!_, she vanished.

SCENEBREAK

Molly Havernaugh was befuddled. Her cousin Lily had vanished sometime last night after getting up to go to the bathroom, but exactly how she'd done so was puzzling. The Havernaughs' apartment was on the eighth floor and the fire escape was accessible only through the living room, where everyone had been sitting watching a movie when Lily disappeared, and since no one had seen Lily come in and climb onto the fire escape, it seemed unlikely that she exited through a window. And the front door—well, it certainly wasn't out of the question that she'd left that way, but she would have had to come back down the staircase to do that, and since the staircase was perfectly visible from the living your, you'd think that _someone _would have noticed her leaving.

Molly's parents called the police, but the cops said that since Lily hadn't been missing for twenty-four hours, there wasn't anything they could do. Lily's mother was practically in hysterics, and Molly's parents had insisted that she stay in the building while they and Molly went out to comb the neighborhood for some sign of Lily.

But they found nothing. And now, twelve hours later, Lily was still missing, the police still couldn't help, and Lily's mother was still distraught, splayed out on the couch watching daytime TV with a carton of Ben & Jerry's cradled in her arm. Molly's parents were afraid that if they let her out of the apartment she would get lost and hysterical again, searching for Lily—either that or she'd come back with the entire inventory of the Haagen-Dasz down the street in tow.

Molly slipped on her coat and headed for the front door. The sight of Lily's mom was starting to depress her, and besides, she needed to sneak a smoke. She didn't consider herself a smoker, but every so often she needed a drag. _If only I had some of the good stuff_, she thought, jabbing the button for the elevator. The Camels in her pocket wouldn't soothe her quite as much as weed, but if she got high right now she thought her parents might notice, so she'd have to settle for what she had.

_I hope Lily miraculously reappears_. She leaned against the side of the elevator and stared at the glowing numbers above the doors as she descended. She thought of Mrs. Evans strung out on the couch upstairs. _For her mother's sake, if for nothing else_.

SCENEBREAK

James woke up gradually. He drifted easily and peacefully out of sleep, and when he finally rolled over in bed and opened his eyes, he felt better rested than he had for ages. He, of course, had _no _idea where he was specifically, but he remembered very quickly that he was in New York City, and as soon as he registered that, he remembered about Lily.

James tumbled out of bed and scrambled for the door. "Lily!" he said, throwing it open.

He nearly ran into a short, dark-haired woman, who took one look at him and laughed. "Running around in your underwear again, are you? Get back into bed, you need to rest some more."

"Where's Lily?"

"You're going to catch cold. Please, get back under the covers."

"No, I need to see Lily. _Is she all right_?"

"Yes, the girl is fine. She is resting also. _Please_ go lay down. I will bring you something hot to drink."

"I'm not cold," James insisted, but he realized that he was. He glanced down at his attire and realized that the woman was right; he was just wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt, and goose bumps were prickling along his arms and legs. He wasn't even wearing socks—which might explain why his feet were so sore. His trainers, he noted, had been removed and set neatly by the foot of the bed. James was mildly amazed he'd had the sense to put on any kind of shoes at all. He certainly didn't _remember_ putting on shoes—but then, he didn't remember much, except for the mad rush from his house to an International Travel Port to America, where…where…

Well, things were a bit fuzzy on that end.

The woman was still staring at him, and she continued to do so until James sank back onto the mattress and pulled the covers over his legs. With a satisfied nod, she left the room, heading in what James assumed was the direction of the kitchen. He plopped his head down on the pillow and stared at the ceiling, trying to process the moment. _The girl is fine_, the woman had said. But how was that possible? Lily was—well, Lily had been—

James sat up again. He had to go to her. He had to see for himself. She had to be somewhere in this—this—house? Hospital? Apartment? Where the hell _was_ he?

He was just about to climb out of bed again when the woman reappeared, carrying a tray, which she set on the table next to the bed. It had two mugs on itHaaHddd—one filled with coffee, the other tea—as well as a bowl of soup and a plate of toast.

"That was quick," James said, impressed.

The woman smiled. "Most of it was ready. We just had breakfast. I didn't know whether you liked coffee or tea so I brought both. Both the girls prefer tea, so I thought you might too." She shook her head and made a face. "That is a taste I do not share."

"Both girls?" _What girls_? Wasn't Lily asleep? What was she _talking_ about?

"Yes—Lin and Bridget?"

_Oh yeah_. The two Fourth Years. They'd accosted James in his living room and insisted on going with him to look for Lily; he still wasn't really sure why. "Oh. Right."

"And you are James. Is that correct?"

"Yeah, I'm James. Who—who are you? And—where am I, exactly?"

"I am Mariana Veranzo, but you should call me Mama. Everyone else does. And you are in my apartment in New York City, which I share with my children, Paolo, Antony, Gianni, and Isabella."

James doubted he would remember their names. He didn't really care. He just needed to see Lily. "And where is—"

"The girl is _fine_. She's resting now, like I told you. And you need to eat a little and rest some more before you see her. You both had a lot taken out of you."

James slumped back against the headboard, disappointed. "But—by what?"

Mama looked perplexed. "I was hoping you might tell me."

James tried to remember. It was all a little blurry at the moment. He closed his eyes, and saw—

Lily. Bloodied. Lying in an alley behind a dumpster.

He didn't want to think about it anymore.

Mama put a hand on his shoulder. "It's all right. Don't think about it right now. Just rest. Drink something and rest, please. I don't think the girl will be up for a while, so you will not be missing her."

_You're wrong_, James thought. _I almost missed her completely_.

SCENEBREAK

Melody cried more after Sirius left. She thought seeing him again before having lunch with Malfoy would make her feel secure, more complete, more prepared. Instead she just felt empty and rotten and full of tears. She was so stupid she could hardly stand herself.

But she didn't want to show any of that to Lucifer Malfoy, so she dressed in a sensible, boring blue skirt with a matching jacket, and tried to hide the redness and puffiness around her eyes.

Lucifer Malfoy's home was gorgeous as usual, and the table he had set for lunch, buffet-style, looked delicious, but Melody could only pick at her food. She kept running the conversation she'd had with Sirius through her head, occasionally murmuring polite things to Lucifer to try to maintain the illusion of conversation. This was not the smartest move on her part.

"Where might you be dining this afternoon, Melody?" Lucifer asked, and Melody looked up from her plate with wide eyes. _Crap_, she thought. _Even my body language is giving me away._ "You certainly aren't sitting at the table with me, are you?"

"I apologize," Melody said, trying to smile pleasantly. "I was a little distracted. I'm afraid I have a bit of a headache."

Malfoy chuckled. "You are not a very good liar, Melody."

_That's what you think_.

"You were thinking about something," he continued. "What?"

"Grapes," Melody invented. "They're funny."

Lucifer raised his eyebrows. "Funny?"

"Not ha-ha funny, but…odd-funny. And it's not really the grapes themselves, it's the way I think about them. I think of grapes as being sweet, but I'm usually disappointed because most of them are actually sour. The ones I pick out are sour, anyway." She frowned down at her plate again. "I guess I'm just good at picking sour things," she murmured. _And saying sour things. And making sour things. _Like relationships. Her relationship with Sirius was only a few weeks old and already she was spoiling things.

Lucifer laughed this time, not a chuckle but a bigger, heartier laugh of amusement, and Melody looked up from her plate at him, surprised. He continued to grin after his laughter stopped, and Melody was further surprised to note the niceness of his grin—even and symmetrical, accentuating his cheekbones and causing the skin around his eyes to crinkle up. Somehow, Melody hadn't expected him to have laugh lines. He'd always been so formal with her, so calculating. He didn't seem like the kind of person who ever _really_ laughed. But he did, and his laugh was surprisingly pleasant as well—not a sinister snicker or cackle, but a genuine, belly-deep cadence of amusement.

Melody was not sure how she felt about this. On the one hand, it made him seem more like a person and less like a rich manipulative bastard who was just using her as a pawn in his game of…whatever it was. On the other hand, it made Melody realize how little she knew about him, which made her unsure how to react.

Lucifer continued grinning as he spoke to her. "Grapes," he said, and laughed again. "Grapes, my giddy aunt. You weren't thinking about grapes. No one thinks about grapes."

_Did he just say "my giddy aunt"?_

"Tell me what you were really thinking about. If you're not going to join my conversation, I might as well try to join yours."

"It's not a conversation, it's just—complicated."

"You were frowning. Like you were arguing with yourself, maybe."

"No, it's not _me_, it's just that he—I mean, I—" Melody tried to correct herself, but it was too late. The "he" had popped out already.

"He who?" Lucifer inquired.

Melody searched for another lie, but she took too long. Lucifer spoke again before she had a chance to say anything.

"Hans tells me you've been dating a boy from Hogwarts. A Black, if I'm not mistaken."

Melody's mouth dried out. She moved her lips, but there was no sound. She didn't even know what she was trying to say, she just felt like she needed to say something.

"You don't have to explain it to me," Lucifer said, and Melody clamped her mouth shut. She was still trying to think of something to say, but her mind blanked out on her. She just sat there and stared at him instead. "I think," Lucifer continued, "that Hans has you under the impression that I am going to force you to marry me. Or some other such ridiculous nonsense."

Melody decided that her brain was not quite with the program. It thought that Lucifer Malfoy had just said he wasn't going to try to make Melody marry him.

"I am interested in you, Melody. I'm not going to lie to you about that. But I'm not going to try to force you to do anything against your will."

Melody felt her eyes go wide. She couldn't control her surprise. She let her eyes stretch themselves out until she was sure she looked like she had two flying saucers attached to her face. Maybe her brain was still playing tricks on her. Maybe she was hallucinating. Maybe Lucifer was hallucinating.

He was looking at her expectantly. _Maybe I'm not hallucinating_. Melody opened her mouth, but it took a moment before she could manage any sound.

"Oh," she said finally, and then, because her mouth was still gaping open, she had to remind herself to clamp it shut.

Lucifer laughed again, still genuinely amused. "Your uncle is a rather ridiculous man, Melody. He does not understand the rules of effective negotiation—nor, it appears, does he have any idea how to hold onto a fortune. I admit that part does surprise me, as he built the fortune himself. But"—Lucifer shrugged before continuing—"I suppose when you become more interested in house-hunting and social climbing than business, you deserve to have someone steal your money out from underneath you."

Melody was genuinely confused, and Lucifer, apparently, recognized that she had no idea what he was talking about.

"Your uncle," he explained, "started out in the business of private shipping—getting large packages overseas that couldn't be carried by owls, you see. It was extremely legitimate and rather successful, as his company dealt with all the international laws on shipping, and with all the political red tape in customs—so his customers wouldn't have to, obviously. But working so closely with all of those laws meant that Hans eventually figured out several ingenious loopholes, which he exploited to start a side business that involved international smuggling—which he was smart enough to keep separate from his legitimate business. But, for some unknown reason, he was an idiot with his personal finances, and starting spending Galleons by the millions and neglecting his business, which left him unable to finance one or two of his more questionable shipments, and…" he shrugged again. "I believe around the time he contacted you was the time when several unhappy and dangerous customers began demanding compensation for lost shipments, so he took funds from his legitimate business to pay them off, which, you can imagine, did nothing to help his situation. As I understand it, eventually the vice president of the legitimate business uncovered all of Hans's secrets, and threatened to turn him over to the authorities unless Hans signed all the deeds for the business over to him, and now…well, I'm sure you've seen what state he is in now. It is only my generosity that is keeping him from a long term in prison."

Melody wasn't sure if this speech was supposed to make her applaud Lucifer for his marvelous generosity, or to turn her against Hans, or, or…what. It certainly didn't _seem_ to have an angle behind it, it was just…facts. Almost conversationally. Rather informative. And all for Melody's benefit. She didn't need to know any of this—frankly she wasn't sure why Lucifer cared if she _did_ know any of this—and she was rather at a loss about how to reply.

"I suppose my point," Lucifer said, after it became apparent that Melody wasn't going to say anything, "is that I am nowhere near as foolish as your uncle." He took a moment to look at her appraisingly. "I'm going to speak to you candidly, Melody. I hope you don't mind."

Melody doubted very much whether it mattered if she minded, no matter what Lucifer said. He seemed all right, and he was much pleasanter this afternoon than he'd ever been, but—but still. She was suspicious. "All right," she agreed, and she wondered if he noticed the flatness in her voice.

"I have every intention of marrying you, Melody. But I plan to do it with your consent."

"Oh?" Melody said, trying to disguise the fact that she felt like someone had just injected a pound of lead into her veins. "And how exactly do you plan to obtain my consent?"

Lucifer looked surprised, but, shockingly, neither annoyed nor angry—instead he looked amused again. "By asking you, of course. And by offering you everything."

Melody blinked at him. "And by everything, you mean…what exactly?"

Lucifer grinned. He seemed pleased with the way this conversation was going, though Melody wasn't sure why. It wasn't as though she'd leapt into his arms and begged him to carry her off to a chapel at the mention of marriage.

"I will give you anything that is in my power to give," he said. "If you're interested in money, I can offer you plenty. I understand your family is often down-and-out. I can promise you that they will never be so again."

Melody narrowed her eyes, and he continued, changing topics.

"A career—any career. I have excellent contacts within the Ministry—and many other places. What is it you wish to do with your life? I can help make it happen."

He was starting to sound like a salesman. Like one of those hacks who put up a stand in Diagon Alley and sold rabbit's feet and talismans that he claimed could make you invisible, ward off demons, protect you from poisons—even ward those pesky gnomes away from your garden! _Ridiculous_.

"I understand that you're interested in dueling. I have contacts at the International Dueling Association as well."

His assurance was starting to make Melody angry. Where did he come off, getting information about her life from Hans and then trying to use it against her, to manipulate her, to offer it to her like she was some sort of desperate, money-grubbing wretch who needed saving.

"Mr. Malfoy," she said coldly, "I'm afraid I don't give a hippogriff's ass what sort of contacts you've made or how much money you're prepared to offer me. I can do perfectly well on my own, thank you. And furthermore, don't think for one minute that I would ever so foolishly accept your offer thinking that you would want nothing more in return than my…companionship."

"Marriage is a great deal more than companionship, Melody."

"Call me _Miss_ Cauldwell, if you don't mind, and don't treat me like I am a child who doesn't understand the full implications of marriage."

Lucifer's smile was gone now, but he did not look threatening. He merely raised his eyebrows at Melody and spoke again. "I would never try to insult you, Miss Cauldwell. I hear you have quite a reputation for turning your enemies into donkeys, and I'm afraid I wouldn't take kindly to you making an ass out of me."

Melody glared at him and tried not to be amused by his comment, as he clearly was. She was beginning to feel mildly disturbed about the wealth of information he seemed to have gathered about her. She still knew practically nothing about him. And here he was talking about _marrying_ her.

"Well, Mr. Malfoy," she said, trying to steer the conversation away from asses, "I'm afraid that of all the things you offered, not once did you mention love. I'm afraid that I could not condone a marriage that wasn't based on love."

Lucifer laughed again, quite heartily, and for the first time in his presence, Melody truly felt like a child.

"Miss Cauldwell, it amazes me that you of all people would believe in something as silly as a marriage based on love. Marriage is above all else, and has been for centuries, a contract—a contract based on land and assets and survival, not something as fleeting and unstable as love."

_And ridiculous_, Melody added silently. She didn't think love was ridiculous—images of Sirius popped into her head, and she hastily shoved them away—but clearly Lucifer did. And he was somehow making _her_ feel ridiculous about her feelings about love. Yes, he had a point, and yes, she already knew all that about marriage, but—but—

"I'm afraid I'm too modern for you, mister Malfoy. You see, I believe that as long as a girl has a choice, then assets and land and survival should be worried about secondly, not first. After all, this is the twentieth century. It isn't as though we're still operating under the feudal system." Not that the wizarding world ever took much stock in the feudal system…but still.

"If that is the modern viewpoint, then I worry about the financial security of the younger generation."

"I expect you would," Melody said, and didn't feel like saying any more.

Lucifer looked amused again. "I still hope that you'll give me a chance, Miss Cauldwell. I'm sure that your current boyfriend is very smart and attractive and affectionate—but I doubt he has a plan for your future. I doubt he is ready for marriage."

"Maybe I'm not ready for marriage either," she said, but she wasn't sure this was true. She had sort of reconciled herself to the idea of marriage over the past few months, and any time she thought about marrying Sirius—well, that thought didn't take much reconciliation at all.

"And the future? What does the Black boy have planned for that?"

"Respectfully, _sir_, I don't think that's any of your business." In all honesty, Melody had no idea what Sirius had planned for the future. They'd never really talked about it.

Surprisingly, Lucifer seemed to accept this. He merely raised his eyebrows and gave a slight nod.

"Besides," Melody continued hastily, "we're still young. We have plenty of time to think about the future."

She didn't know if she believed this at all. Their time at Hogwarts was coming to an end, and the world was looking much grimmer. People were dying left and right, and the Ministry seemed more and more unable to control what was happening—as the _Daily Prophet_ took no qualms to point out. Who knew if, in five months, dueling tournaments would even exist? Planning for the future seemed bleak and difficult. It was no wonder she'd never discussed it with Sirius.

All the same, with the world as bleak as it was, and the future rushing up fast to meet them—you'd think the topic of marriage would have come up once or twice. Hadn't the _Prophet_ said just last week that the number of marriages planned—the number of chapels booked, anyway—over the Christmas holidays was more than the country had seen in years? Fear was spreading, and, not far behind it, panic. Now that she thought of it, Melody was amazed she hadn't heard of more people in her year becoming engaged. She only knew of one, really, and she didn't know the people involved very well at all—she just remembered, shortly before Christmas holidays, passing some Hufflepuff girl in the hallway showing off an engagement ring to several of her friends. Alice, Melody thought her name was, and the boy who'd given it to her was named Frank. _Not Frank Longbottom, surely?_ Melody thought, and wondered why this hadn't occurred to her before. Frank was, after all, in her House.

She realized she was staring off into space, and shook her head a little to refocus her vision on Lucifer, who had apparently been watching her with interest. Melody shifted in her seat, uncomfortable once more.

"No matter," he said finally. "As you say, it is none of my business. Grape?" he offered, holding the bowl out to Melody, and she took one, feeling confused and unsure of herself. She popped the grape in her mouth and bit down, knowing she'd need plenty of time alone after she left to think this conversation over. Melody frowned and swallowed, taking a quick drink of water.

The grape was sour.

SCENEBREAK

Nighttime had long since fallen by the time Sirius landed his motorcycle outside of Potter's Cottage. The bike had been shifting funnily ever since Sussex, and he bent now to examine the gears. He spent a good ten minutes tinkering with the gearshift before he gave up on it. He thought he'd found the problem, but he couldn't be sure—the only way to test it would be to start up the bike again and give it a whirl, but Sirius didn't think Mrs. Potter would appreciate all that racket this late at night. The Minister wouldn't have, either, but Sirius doubted he was home.

Sirius walked in the front door without bothering to knock, and dumped his damp jacket and helmet on the floor, where they were silently and efficiently whisked away by a house-elf. He walked into the kitchen, half expecting to see James at the table shoveling down some late-night snack or another, but a glance at the clock on the wall showed that it was even later than Sirius thought—nearly one o'clock already—and James was probably at least pretending to be asleep.

Sirius was in no mood for sleep. After eating lunch and returning home with his parents, he'd spent a long afternoon brooding over his conversation with Melody. He still couldn't _believe_ all the things she'd been hiding from him—and he got the feeling that there was something more she wasn't telling him, either. Despite her claims that Lucifer Malfoy had no interest in marrying her, and that she was under no obligation to him, it seemed to Sirius that, for a girl who didn't owe Malfoy anything, she'd been a bit too keen on staying to have lunch with him.

He sat down at the table and asked for a piece of chocolate cake and some ice cream, which promptly appeared in front of him. There was _always_ chocolate cake available in the Potters' kitchen; Sirius had the house-elves well trained.

He had just taken his first bite of cake when the door to the kitchen swung open and Mrs. Potter walked in. She looked only mildly surprised to see Sirius there, and greeted him with a small smile that didn't reach her eyes, which were shadowed heavily by dark circles and rimmed with red, as though she'd been staying up at night to cry instead of sleep.

"'lo, Mrs. P," Sirius said thickly, around his mouthful of gooey cake and icing.

"Hello, Sirius. Where's James gone off to?" Mrs. Potter was at the stove, busying herself with making a pot of tea.

Sirius's bite of cake froze halfway to his mouth. "What d'you mean, where's he gone off to? Isn't he here?"

Mrs. Potter, who had been shooing away a house-elf who was demanding to make the pot of tea for her, stopped and stared at Sirius. "Well, I assumed he was back since you were. I meant, what part of the house has he run off to?"

"Back? Back from where?"

Mrs. Potter turned her whole body toward Sirius now, and the house-elf began making a very efficient pot of tea. "Back from whatever he was off doing with _you_, of course," Mrs. Potter said. "I haven't seen him since yesterday. I assumed you two were together."

Sirius shook his head. "I've been in London visiting Melody. I haven't seen James for a couple days."

Mrs. Potter's eyes widened in alarm. "Well, if he wasn't with _you_, and he hasn't been _here_, then where in the world _is_ he?"

Sirius didn't know. He did not try to hide this. "Maybe he had the pressing urge to go see Lily in America?"

Mrs. Potter gave him a stern glare. "Sirius, I am not in the mood for joking. Honestly, do you have any idea where he might be?"

Sirius thought about this for a moment. "Honestly? I have no clue."

SCENEBREAK

It was dark the second time James awoke, and when he opened his eyes he saw a young girl with a dark, tangled mess of hair sitting by the foot of his bed, balancing a large pad of paper on her knees. As soon as she saw that James was awake, she gasped and leapt to her feet, scurrying out the door. "Mommy, mommy! He's awake!"

A few moments later the little girl reappeared at the door. Behind her was not the short, comforting Mama James had met when he first awoke, but rather a tall Italian boy about James's age, who was shushing the little girl. "Be more quiet, Isabella. Mama is still sleeping, like everyone else."

"Sorry," she whispered, before grabbing her pad of paper and hurrying out of the room.

"I am sorry about that. I told her not to bother you, but she must have snuck in while I was napping. She likes to draw people, you see."

"No, that's all right," said James, who didn't really care about the hobbies of an eight-year-old. He had other things on his mind. And he didn't feel like wasting time skirting around the subject. "Is Lily all right?" he demanded.

"She is fine, as far as we can tell. She is asleep right now."

"Still?" James asked, disappointed, and he sank back into his pillows.

The boy shrugged. "I guess so. Unless she's woken up again, like you."

"Was she awake before?" James wanted to know, offended that he hadn't been awakened for the occasion if she had been.

But the boy shook his head. "No. But she was unconscious before. Now she is just asleep. Mama can tell the difference."

"Oh." James considered this for a second. "Can I see her?" If she was sleeping, that was a good sign.

"Sure. Just as long as you are feeling all right."

James scrambled out of bed. "I'm great. Let's go. Where is she?"

The boy grinned and led James out of the room. The room where Lily was resting was only a few steps down the hallway, but even so James felt a little dizzy walking the distance to it.

"She's probably still asleep. But if she wakes up or if you need anything, I'll be right down the hall." The boy pointed, and James glanced in the direction of his finger. It looked like the hallway led to a small kitchen.

"All right," James agreed.

"I'm Paolo, by the way."

The name sounded vaguely familiar to James, but he wasn't sure why. "I'm James."

Paolo grinned again. "I know." Then he walked away.

James hesitated outside the door. He wrapped his fingers around the handle and sucked in a breath of air. He shouldn't have been hesitating—he should've just burst in and rushed gallantly to Lily's side spouting romantic poetry or…something. But he couldn't. He couldn't get the image of Lily in the alley out of his head. Limp. Bloodied. White freckled skin tossed cold on the ground and screaming red hair splayed everywhere.

She'd been so pale. So pale. And so…so…

James turned the door handle roughly, slipping into the room and shutting the door firmly behind him. It was dim inside; the shades were drawn and little light peeked in around the edges.

And there was Lily, tucked in bed. James forgot to breathe for a moment. He stared at her for several long seconds, terrified, and then realized—there. The sheets were moving up and down, just slightly, with each of Lily's slow and steady breaths.

James exhaled and relaxed, and his limp and relieved limbs carried him over to the bed, where he sat down and regarded Lily's sleeping form. She'd recovered some of her color, but she was still paler than James had ever seen her—quite a feat, considering how pale she was normally anyway.

But she was _alive_, and that was all that mattered.

It took some moments before James realized he was shaking. Was it relief? Was it fear? Was it shame?

"I'm sorry, Lily," he whispered. "I should have been there sooner. I could have saved you. I should have saved you from all of it."

James wanted to put his arms around her, but he didn't want to disturb her, so he just settled for leaning over and burying his face in the pillow next to Lily's head.

He felt something brush the nape of his neck.

"Don't be such a nincompoop, James. You did save me."

SCENEBREAK

James was mysteriously missing. The house elves reported that he'd disappeared the previous night around midnight, but they didn't know where he'd gone. James's father, of course, could have pulled some strings at the Ministry to find out where he'd Floo-ed to, but James's father hadn't come home to hear about it. The Minister hadn't been home in three nights.

Sirius was lounging around in James's room, partly searching for clues as to where James had run off to, but mostly trying to hide from Mrs. Potter, who was vaguely hysterical. At the moment, Sirius was sitting on James's bed, playing with a small purple bouncy ball he'd found in James's dresser. He threw it across the room and watched as it bounced off the far wall and came flying back at his face. He caught it before it hit his nose and threw it back across the room.

He couldn't quite get the conversation with Melody that morning out of his mind. _Liar_, he thought angrily, and threw the ball across the room again with extra force. _Bloody beautiful stupid liar_. He couldn't believe how long she'd been lying to him. Or how wrong he'd been about all her secrets.

He'd _known_ that she was hiding something, but he'd never imagined anything like this. This was…well, this was bloody ridiculous, that was all. Blackmail for marriage…could it be any more sodding archaic? Only someone as beautiful and reckless as Melody could have gotten herself screwed up in something so ridiculous.

Sirius threw the ball across the room too hard this time, and without much aim, and instead of hitting the wall it banged on top of James's dresser and knocked several things to the floor.

"Oh bugger," Sirius muttered, and hauled himself off James's bed to go have a look. He'd knocked off a stick of deodorant, an empty container of pumpkin juice, and a package of razor blades. He tossed the pumpkin juice container in the general direction of the trash, and restored the deodorant and razor blades to their approximate places on the dresser. As he did so, he noticed a small, square…something…on the dresser wrapped in black velvet. Sirius wasn't one much for containing his curiosity or respecting James's personal space, so he lifted the…whatever it was…up and pulled away the velvet wrapped around it.

Inside was a very small, familiar-looking mirror.

SCENEBREAK

"Lily!"

"Hi, James."

"Lily, I—I mean you—you were—"

"I know."

"But now you're—you're not—"

"I know."

"Lily, I tried to—"

Lily lifted her hand and put two fingers on James's lips. "I know," she whispered.

James's head fell back onto the pillow next to hers. Lily ran her fingers through his hair. She wanted to wrap her arms around him, but she was still feeling strangely limp and weak and—tired. _So_ tired. She let her eyes flutter closed again and enjoyed the feel of James's warm face so close to hers. James turned his head and kissed her cheek—her earlobe—her neck—and she couldn't keep her eyes closed anymore.

"I just woke up," she protested. "I don't have the energy for kissing."

James grinned and kissed her forehead, then sat up. "Couldn't help myself."

Lily lifted her hand and rested it against James's cheek. "I can't say I blame you."

And then it just slipped out. She must have come to this decision while she was sleeping, because she didn't remember ever agreeing to it while she was awake. Maybe the near-death experience was making her a little loopy. Maybe she was hallucinating. Maybe James was hallucinating, and she was just visiting him in his hallucination. Whatever the case, she said it. And once she had, she wondered why she'd waited so long to.

Maybe she was stupid. Maybe she was scared. Or maybe she just realized—what was the point in living, if you didn't have someone to live _for_?

"I love you, James."

James let the moment hang. A big, stupid grin worked itself across his face.

"Finally," he said, and leaned down to kiss her.

Lily was still tired, and her head felt extra-dizzy, and she didn't kiss James back with as much fervor as she would have liked, but even so…it was good.

SCENEBREAK

The ice cream was not helping. Mrs. Evans abandoned her pint of Ben and Jerry's and shuffled upstairs to Molly's room, where Lily had been sleeping. She sat down on Molly's bed and sighed, staring over at Lily's half of the room, where clothes and books and half-empty nail polish containers were still scattered everywhere, and tried not to ponder the concept of never seeing her daughter again.

Instead she imagined Lily walking through the door and smiling at her before plopping down on her bed to catch up on some reading. Or maybe paint her toenails and chat. It didn't matter. Just as long as Lily was still alive and well…or alive, at least…as long as she wasn't….

Mrs. Evans squeezed her eyes shut and let her head fall into her hands. _Please, God. Oh, please. Not again. I'd give anything. Just let her be alive. Let her be all right. I have to see her one more time…hug her…tell her I love her…even hear her say 'hello' again…._

"Hello?"

Mrs. Evans jerked her head up. Now she really _was_ imagining things. The room was entirely empty.

"Hello?"

There it was again. Was Lily…speaking to her from heaven?

"HELLO? Oy! Anyone there?"

But…that sounded like a boy. _That _didn't make any sense.

"Can anyone hear me? If you can, please say _something_."

Mrs. Evans was unsure whether to respond. She looked around wildly, but saw nothing. _Should you respond to invisible people? _she wondered. _Is it appropriate to reply to voices that are obviously in your head?_

"Bugger," said the voice, and Mrs. Evans frowned.

"I beg your pardon, but that's rude."

"Hey! Hullo, who's there?"

Mrs. Evans wondered again if she should reply. This was all very strange. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't speak with invisible people. If you want to continue this conversation, then you should show yourself."

She heard laughter. "Mrs. Evans! I recognize your voice now. I'm not invisible. I'm just—not really there."

"I beg your pardon?" Now she was sure she was talking to herself. Although…although the voice did sound oddly familiar.

"Where are you? Is anyone else with you?"

"I demand to know to whom I'm speaking. If you're a voice in my head then—please, shut up." Although she didn't really think she was talking to an imaginary person any longer. The voice did sound _very_ oddly familiar.

More laughter. "You're not imagining things, Mrs. E. This is Sirius. Sirius Black."

"Oh, thank God. I thought I was going crazy. Where are you? You can step out of the closet now, or…wherever it is you're hiding."

"No, I already told you, I'm not there. Look…where are _you_ exactly? You said you were alone. Can you close the door to whatever room it is you're in?"

"Yes. Why?"

"You wouldn't want a Mu—ah, that is—someone to walk by and see you talking to an invisible person, would you?"

"No, I suppose not," Mrs. Evans agreed, and she got up and closed the door to Molly's room.

"Great," Sirius said, having heard the door close. "Now—and this is going to sound a bit odd—you have to find me."

"Find you? Are you lost?"

"Well—I don't know. See, I'm actually talking to you through a looking glass—a small mirror, you see, that lets you communicate with people long distances away. Kind of like the fellytone or…whatever it is you use…only the mirror lets you see who you're talking to. So I need you to look for a small rectangular mirror somewhere in this room. Actually—look for a velvet pouch that the mirror could be in, because right now all I can see is blackness, and I think the mirror on your end must be wrapped up in something."

Mrs. Evans spotted such a thing on the floor, sticking out from underneath Lily's bed. She bent down and picked it up, and pulled away the velvet to reveal a small mirror, in which Sirius Black's young, handsome face was present.

Sirius laughed again when he saw the expression on Mrs. Evans's face.

"Good to see you again, Mrs. E."

"Er—hullo there, Sirius. This is very…odd."

"Is it? Well, yeah, I guess. A bit. Not quite as odd as sticking your head in a fireplace, though, is it?"

Mrs. Evans couldn't help agreeing. "No, I suppose not."

"Look, Mrs. E, I know this is going to sound strange and all, but I was wondering if you'd seen James lately?"

"James? _Lily's_ James? Well no, of course not. Why would he be here?"

Sirius frowned. "I dunno. See, that's the problem. No one's really sure _where_ he is. I found this mirror in his room and hoped that whoever had the other half of it would know where he went. Actually, I was expecting Lily to be on the other end. Is Lily there? Do you think she might know where James is?"

Mrs. Evans thought of Lily and her stomach lurched. The expression on her face must have said it all, because Sirius didn't wait for her to reply before he spoke again.

"What happened? Is Lily all right?"

"I—I don't know, Sirius," Mrs. Evans said, her voice very tight. "Lily went missing last night. No one's seen her for at least fifteen hours."

Had it really been that long? Had she really been keeping track of the hours in her head? She hadn't stopped to think about it before she said it, but she counted the hours again quickly in her head and realized she was right.

"Oh…bugger," Sirius muttered. "Sorry," he said quickly. "Look, I don't know exactly how long James has been missing, but it seems like they've both been gone about the same amount of time…so wherever they are, maybe they're together, eh?"

"But how could that be? How could James get to America without anyone knowing? How could Lily get to England? It doesn't make sense."

"I don't know. You're right—I mean, it doesn't make sense for them to be in the same place, but if something really bad were to happen to Lily I don't think James would let an ocean stop him from getting to her. There are a lot faster magical ways of getting overseas then there are Muggle ways."

Mrs. Evans's face paled. "You don't…think something bad has happened to Lily, do you?"

Sirius sighed. "I really don't know. Her disappearing doesn't sound _good_—I can't imagine her running off without telling you where she was going—but she did run off on me and James last summer. We spent two days looking for her before she turned up."

"I don't think that's it, Sirius. She disappeared in the middle of a movie. She just got up to go to the bathroom, and the next minute she was gone. There wasn't a way for her to even get out of the apartment without walking by all of us, and none of us saw her leave, so…how could she…?"

Sirius frowned. "Well, she is a talented witch, Mrs. E. If she wanted to get away without any of you noticing her, there were lots of things she could have done to accomplish that. Did she seem upset when she left?"

"A little, I guess. But it's the holidays. We're all having a rough time getting through our first Christmas without—with—" Mrs. Evans's face crumpled up, and she slanted the mirror away from her so Sirius couldn't see.

"It's all right, you don't have to explain," he said hastily. "Look, Mrs. E, I'm going to let you go. But if Lily turns up—or you happen to hear anything about James—let me know. Just look into the mirror and say 'Sirius' and I'll be here. Or have one of them let me know. I'm sure it'll be all right. Lily's a tough girl, she can take care of herself."

"I hope you're right, Sirius," Mrs. Evans murmured, and then his face faded from the mirror and he was gone.

SCENEBREAK

Lily and James were interrupted by Lin and Bridget, who burst into Lily's room without warning.

"You're awake!" Bridget cried.

"You're alive," Lin murmured

"_Finally_," Bridget continued. "I feel like we've been waiting out there for _ever_. Once we found out James had gone to see you, we had to come visit you too. _He_ said you weren't awake yet, but I knew once James was here you would wake up, and now you _are_ awake, so see? Ha! I _told_ you I was right," she said, sticking her tongue out at Paolo, who had just entered the room.

He scowled. "And I told you both to wait out there," he said, pointing down the hall. "I know that you want to make sure she is all right, but it is more important now that he be with her than both of you."

"Plus it's rude to enter a room without knocking," James interjected, annoyed.

Lily put her hand over his. She was still weak and dizzy-feeling (perhaps as much from James now as anything else), and she lacked the strength to sit up, but before she fell asleep again she wanted to deal with this.

"It's okay. But…Lin? What in the world are you _doing_ here?" she asked, and then her eyes drifted to the Bridget. "I'm sorry," she said, frowning. "I don't really know you."

"I'm Bridget DeBeauvois, Third Year Gryffindor," Bridget said, walking closer to Lily and sticking out her hand, which Lily shook limply. "I'm the only reason Lin didn't scream herself to pieces and send the rest of Gryffindor House into a coma."

"You should talk," Lin snapped. "You woke up half the neighborhood with _your_ screaming."

Bridget's cheeks burned, and she turned around to face Lin, opening her mouth wide to protest.

"Girls, _please_," Paolo protested. "Lily needs rest. You should leave her, and wait until she is feeling better to answer her questions."

Lily's focus shifted to him now. "Who are you? Where…where am I?" she asked sleepily. She could feel herself beginning to fade.

"My name is Paolo Veranzo. You are in my family's apartment. But more questions can be answered later. For now, you should sleep. Come on," he said, gesturing to Bridget and Lin. Bridget openly pouted as she left, but Lin just looked at Lily with her deep dark eyes and nodded before walking out of the room.

"I am sorry," Paolo said. "I will not let them bother you again."

Lily nodded, and let her eyes fall shut as Paolo left and closed the door behind him. _Paolo_, she thought. _Why does that name sound familiar?_

"Lily," James whispered. "Do you want me to—"

"No," Lily said softly. "Stay."

So he did.

SCENEBREAK

Molly was kind of searching for Lily. Mostly she was trying to avoid the apartment, where now both Lily's mother and Molly's parents were going frantic. She'd invited Petunia to come with her, but Petunia seemed content to lock herself in the guest room and call her boyfriend in England to complain about what a miserable time she was having in America. She only seemed mildly distressed that her sister was missing.

Molly was on the other side of distressed. She was exasperated. She needed something—_anything_—to get her mind off the worry, to soothe the buzzing tension that had slowly been working its way through her shoulders, up her neck, and into her head. Her family had stayed up all night, worrying, and Molly had managed only a few hours of sleep herself. She could _really _use some of the good stuff now, but she hadn't brought enough money to cover it. So, instead, she walked.

She walked a good ten blocks before her legs really started to burn. Usually her legs wore out much quicker, but today apparently she had enough nervous energy to keep her going. Why was it that whenever she saw Lily, the Evans's were on the brink of or in the aftermath of some crisis?

A couple blocks later, Molly's energy started to run out. She needed to stop and rest and think. More importantly, she needed _caffeine_.

There was a little bakery about a block away that sold the most fabulous espresso. Molly had just enough money to buy a cup, and jogged across the street toward the door, eager to escape the cold. The bakery was wonderfully warm, and smelled of sweets and cinnamon and sharp black coffee. Molly happily pulled off her gloves and loosened her scarf as she took her place in line.

Her eyes scanned the inside of the shop, searching for an empty table, but there wasn't one. There never was. There was, however, a small two-person table currently occupied only by a very cute, dark-haired Italian boy. He had a cup of coffee and a pastry and a copy of today's newspaper spread out in front of him. Molly, however, was not about to let as something as boring as a newspaper get in her way. She smoothed down her hair and stared at him pointedly until he realized he was being watched. When he looked up she gave him her sexy eyes. (At least that was what her best friend Grace called them.)

The boy grinned and set down his paper. He motioned to the empty chair across from him, and Molly nodded, then held up one finger to signal that he should wait a moment, and turned around to place her order. She was glad she'd decided to go with the tight bell bottoms today. They made her butt look especially nice.

She paid for her espresso mostly in change and went over to sit down across from the Italian boy.

"Hello," she said brightly, smiling as she shrugged her coat off. _If only this top was a little more low-cut_. The boy didn't seem to mind, though. He was still regarding her with interested eyes. "Thanks for letting me share your table."

"No problem," he said. He had an accent. Molly melted for accents.

"So you're really from Italy?" she asked, somewhat abruptly. _Not smooth, Molly. Oops_.

He laughed. "How could you tell?"

"Well, what can I say? It's a gift."

"How lucky for you. My only gift is that I speak two languages—and one of those not so well."

Molly couldn't help grinning. He'd left himself wide open. "I'd say you have a fair few more gifts than that," she said, and used the line as an unabashed excuse to give him a once-over.

He laughed again. "You are even more forward than I am. How am I supposed to play it cool and smooth if you are looking at me like that? You make me blush."

"You don't look like you're blushing to me," Molly said, and kept her gaze on him as she took a sip of espresso.

"Well, if I am not blushing, then I am still surprised."

"Okay, so maybe I'm being a little more forward than usual, but I need a good distraction. There's nothing wrong with a little flirting, is there?"

"What do you need a distraction from?" he asked, looking concerned.

Oh great. A _sensitive_ Italian guy. The last thing Molly needed was actual emotional involvement. She sighed. "It's complicated. I'd really rather talk about you."

His eyebrows shot up. "My life is complicated too," he replied. "What is so complicated about yours?"

Molly was beginning to lose her sexy eyes. "Do you always try to get involved in the personal lives of strangers…or just us really attractive strangers?"

"Maybe this is just my way of getting tongue tied. Maybe when I am nervous, it is easier to let the other person talk."

"You could have just asked me about my favorite movies if you wanted me to talk."

He nodded. "True, but I do not know many movies. And…you have the look of a person who needs to talk."

Molly's sexy eyes faded. "Really? I thought I had the look of a person who wanted to flirt."

"Yes. You were hiding it very well. But you need—distracted, you say. You are trying not to think about something. Maybe it would be better if you talked about it. Then it would not all be in your head."

Molly's flirtations did not usually end up this way. Was she particularly unattractive today? Or just…really distressed-looking?

"Are you sure you really want to hear some stranger's problems? It won't take that long to explain…but still…."

"_Si_. If you need to talk, then I will listen."

Molly sighed. This was _so_ not the way she'd wanted this to work out. "Well…if you really care…"—he nodded, and she sighed again before continuing—"my cousin was visiting from England for the holidays. And…well…on Christmas night, she kind of…disappeared. It's been over a day since anybody's seen her."

He stared at her for a long moment. Molly blinked at him. He looked stunned, which she guessed was a reasonable reaction, but…there was something about his expression. She thought he looked a little more stunned than necessary.

"On…Christmas night, you say?"

"Yes. Right in the middle of a movie. It was really bizarre."

"Was it very late at night?"

"Not _really_ late, but…a little late, I guess." She tilted her head at him slightly, confused. She couldn't read the expression on his face.

"This cousin," he said, his eyebrows drawing together into some unreadable expression, "she wouldn't happen to have the long red curly hair…would she?"

SCENEBREAK

The next time Lily awoke, it was to find herself wrapped in James's arms. All in all, it wasn't a bad place to be, but her memories of how exactly she'd gotten there were a little fuzzy. She let them drift back to her slowly, and somehow that made it less of a shock to realize that she'd told James she loved him—and also that she'd died.

Because she _had_ died. For a long, strange, fluttering moment, she'd left her body behind, and the only thing that pulled her back was James. She couldn't explain why or how—she wasn't even really sure what had happened. She just _knew_.

She remembered the flash of green light—the _Avada Kedavra_—and remembered, in that instant between life and death, sending out a prayer. But what had she prayed for? Was it salvation? Was it life? Was it justice? Was it James? She couldn't remember anymore.

Her hand went absentmindedly to her necklace. She'd developed a habit of fiddling with it when she was lost in thought. She was surprised, though, when she touched it, at how different its texture was. The pendant had always been smooth, and the chain slinky and delicate under her fingers. But now it felt…rough. Scratchy. Unusual.

Her eyebrows creased and she pulled the necklace upward to examine it. It was no longer the fine gold chain and pendant she remembered. Instead it was a dull, grainy, metal-gray color, and Lily, deeply perplexed, pulled the pendant and chain above her nose for closer scrutiny. She felt it tug against the back of her neck, and then in one quick, astonishing moment, the chain snapped, and the two ends of it slid off of her neck and dangled merrily in front of her.

Lily stared at the necklace with her mouth gaping open. She must have gasped or jerked when the necklace snapped off, because James stirred beside her.

"Wha's going on?" he mumbled. "You okay?"

Lily stared at her once-beautiful necklace, now dull and broken and tarnished, and emitted a noise of what she thought was affirmation. She must have sounded odd, however, because James rolled toward her and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"What's that?" He squinted at the chain in Lily's hands.

"My…my necklace," Lily murmured. "It…died."

_Is there a better word for it?_ she wondered.

"_Died_? What do you mean, died?" James pushed himself onto his elbows to have a better look at it. "That's not your necklace," he decided, after squinting at it for a moment.

Lily sat up, annoyed, and tried to ignore the dizziness this caused. "Yes it is. It's just…changed…is all."

"Whoever attacked you must've switched your necklace for this one. That _can't_ be yours," James protested, sitting up beside her.

--_gasping for breath—enormous pressure on the—gasping, tugging—chest from—pulling, jerking—some dead weight—yanking, gasping, jerking—what could be—lolling, tugging—pressing down—shaking, yanking, pinching—so hard—wrenching, gasping, still gasping—then a jolt—a jerk—what—?_

Lily's fingers curled around the necklace, and suddenly she was gasping, her hands at her chest, her throat, her mind racing—heart pumping—what--?

"Lily, what's wrong? Lily!"

Lily gasped violently and turned her head toward James, suddenly noticing his hand on her back—by her cheek—

"Nothing," she panted, trying to catch her breath. "It was just—I—it's nothing."

A small crease appeared between James's eyebrows. "Lily…"

"We should take this back to Schmundertoe," she said, curling up the chain in her hand. "I have to get it fixed."

"Fixed? Lily—are you really sure it's yours?"

"_Yes_. I've never taken it off before. It _can't_ come off, remember?"

"Until just now, you mean."

"Until just now, yes," Lily agreed. She turned the pendant over in her palm. She wanted to wonder about what happened, but was afraid of what she might remember.

"And no one could have switched—"

"_No_, James."

Silence for a moment. James put a careful hand on Lily's shoulder. "Lily," he said gently, "you were unconscious for a long time. You were dy—well, when I found you, you were—"

"Dead," Lily interjected. "I know."

"Lily, you weren't—you couldn't have been—I mean, _now _you're—you're not—"

"Not dead," Lily agreed. "But I was for a little while. Until you came."

James frowned at her. "Lily, I don't understand."

"Me either," she agreed, running her fingers over the chain one more time before closing her fist around it and looking up at James. "But we have to go. We have to go find my mother, and then we have to go back to England."

"Your mother? Is…is she all right? Did something happen to her?"

"No, she's fine. At least as far as I know. But she'll be worried sick about me. And when I say we have to find her, I just mean…I'm not exactly sure where my cousin's apartment is. I'm still not really familiar with this city." Lily bit her lip and tried not to feel too embarrassed. "Of all the stupid things to get in the way of going home…."

James leaned over and kissed her temple. "We'll find her."

Lily let her head plop on his shoulder and held up her necklace, staring at the tarnished chain. She hadn't taken it off for over a year, and now…well, now it was…_ruined_.

"I hope so," she whispered, and let the chain fall onto the bed beside her.

Her neck felt naked without it. Bare and exposed and…oddly unprotected. She grabbed James's hand and closed her eyes against the sudden, inexplicable sense of loss.

SCENEBREAK

Melody didn't want to be at home. She had too many awkward thoughts in her head, and sitting around watching the Muggle telly wasn't a very good way to sort through them. Plus there wasn't a darn good thing on. She was watching a very long commercial for what was apparently a very special set of knives, and she hadn't really been paying attention, except to note that the payment plan for the knives was set at a low monthly price of just $19.95! (_plus shipping and handling_)

Mostly she thought about Sirius. And Lucifer. They were so bloody opposite Melody was beginning to wonder how she could stand to like them both. Not that she _really_ liked Lucifer, of course. Only…only he was more tolerable than he used to be. That was all.

Melody sighed and brought her knees to her chest, curling around like a cat to rest her head on the arm of the chair. _This always looks more comfortable than it actually is,_ she reflected, wiggling about a bit to work the sudden crick out of her back. She couldn't quite see the telly from this angle, so instead she watched the glow it gave off flash across the carpet.

The telly was one of the things her mother and stepfather had bought after Melody had started helping them out with money. They had a bit larger house now, too, and weren't scrambling month to month to try to find enough money for food and clothes. That had been all Melody's doing. That had been good, hadn't it? Even with all the trouble it had caused…wasn't it still worth it?

After all, did it really matter who Melody married? Wasn't her family more important than herself? _Wasn't that the logic that had gotten her here in the first place? _

Money was such a stupid thing to have to worry about. Melody hated money. She hated that her mother had to worry about it, hated that her siblings had to suffer because of it, and hated, hated, _hated_ the lengths people would go through to get it. Like Hans. Bloody hell, she hated Hans. He had no idea—_no idea_—what he'd done to Melody. Maybe he thought he did, but…

Never mind the bastard.

Then there was Lucifer. Lucifer who had so much money he never had to worry about it, except when he had to think about how to make more money. Shouldn't she hate him as well? He was part of the same frivolous, stupid, greedy world Hans had been. And Catalina, too. What was Catalina doing wasting her time with those idiots? But no...Melody couldn't hate Catalina. At least not any more than she could hate herself. Catalina had her reasons. Maybe love had been one of them, once. Was it possible she really had loved Hans?

Anything was possible, Melody supposed. There was a reason her father had talked about Hans the way he had. With affection, respect, humor, and…love? Was it love Melody's father had regarded Hans with, or just…nostalgia? The memory of love. When she was little she'd been so sure it was love. Were you wiser about love when you were little? Or just more gullible?

It used to be so easy to say "I love you." Melody had loved her parents, her friends, her teachers, her babysitters, her kitten, her stuffed animals, her bloody local librarian…did it mean less, the more people you loved? Or did it make any difference at all? When you got older, you tended to use the word love less. Until you became a parent, she supposed. Then you had the words "I love you" practically floating out your arse. How terrifying it must be to be a parent. So full of love, but so full of worry that something will happen to the person you love. To the person who, for the first time, you have total responsibility for. To care for. To protect.

Besides your husband, of course. Theoretically, anyway. Perhaps? Supposing you had a husband, that is. One who wasn't a total ass. Or a drunkard. Or…what have you.

But no. Melody didn't want to think about husbands right now. Not husbands or marriage or having babies. It was too much to process.

She suddenly realized how tired she was. Not tired physically, but…emotionally. She'd been running for so long. Running on fear, panic, guilt…trying to get out of this damn mess…and now, theoretically, she was out on the other side. She should have been able to relax.

But she couldn't. She still felt like she was fighting against something. What, though? Was it marriage? Was it money, still? Her conscience, maybe? Or was it Lucifer? Or...Sirius?

It had felt so good to give in, finally. To let it all out. To confess it all to Sirius.

Well…almost all.

Why hadn't she been able to tell him _everything_? No, that was stupid. She knew why. She couldn't stand the thought of him thinking she was just using him. Because she wasn't. First of all, it was more complicated than that. Second of all, her original stupid reasons for decided to finally confess her feelings to him didn't hold up anymore. She didn't need him for anything…she just _wanted _him. And she'd always wanted him. And wasn't that enough?

But the bloody fight they'd had yesterday morning…why did it seem like she was always fighting with him? Was it all her secrets that were keeping them apart? But they didn't have those anymore. Not really. She needed to explain this to Sirius. She couldn't keep fighting with him like this. She didn't have the stamina for it. She couldn't take him doubting, questioning, criticizing anymore. And maybe he was right. Maybe he had good points about everything. Maybe she was bloody stupid to have stayed and had lunch with Malfoy.

But she didn't want Sirius to _harangue_ her for it. She was feisty and spirited and enjoyed a good healthy row every once in a while, but she was just…so…tired. She needed someone on her side for once. She needed someone to take care of her.

She needed Sirius to take care of her.

Suddenly she wanted to see him very, very much. She wanted to apologize, wanted everything to be all right. But most of all, she wanted him to wrap his arms around her and _tell_ her everything would be all right. Never mind that neither of them knew if it would be all right. Sometimes…sometimes there were just things you needed to hear.

Like…she needed to hear that he loved her. He did, she thought, but she still wanted him to say it.

Melody uncurled and sat up, sighing. She'd barely been home for a day, but she needed to leave again. She'd stayed up all night trying to process her thoughts, and now that they had some sort of direction, she wanted to follow them. And the farther her thoughts guided her away from Lucifer Malfoy, the better.

_He could take care of you_, her mind whispered. Melody's mind rattled at the thought of giving in. Of trusting. Of allowing someone else to take the burden for her.

_Bugger off_, she told herself. _So could Sirius_.

_Yeah_, the other voice whispered nastily. _But he hasn't exactly offered, now has he?_

_Shut up_, Melody told herself, and stood up. The voice went silent, but still…it was there. She hurried out of the living room and tried to ignore herself.

The real question now was…where should Melody go to find Sirius? In London he'd said he was going to go meet with his parents, so perhaps he'd gone home with them…but just because he'd gone home with them, it didn't mean he was still _there_. He was much more likely to end up at James's house. James's house wasn't really on the way to Sirius's house from Melody's, but it was still closer than Sirius's place, and besides, it never hurt to stop off at Potter's Cottage for a visit.

Melody went upstairs to collect her traveling cloak, wand, and broomstick. Once she'd fastened her cloak and pulled on the pair of nice new flying gloves Sirius had given her for Christmas, she took out her wand and regarded herself in the mirror.

"Inconspicuous," she said to herself. "Just think blend." She was trying to remember one of the few spells Moody had tried to teach them during Auror Training. It was fairly tricky, and it had to be performed silently, which made it slightly trickier.

She gathered her thoughts about her and lifted her wand, silently casting the spell as she tapped herself on the head.

She felt rather like she was being covered in runny egg yolk, which was a bit unpleasant, but the effect of the spell was lovely. Melody watched as her body took on the appearance of the things around her, brightening to a faint blue color until she roughly resembled the paint on her walls.

Satisfied, Melody stuck her wand back into her robes, and, clutching her broomstick, made her way to the window.

SCENEBREAK

Lily was unexpectedly reunited with her cousin. Molly came bursting into the bedroom, half-hysterical, throwing questions at Lily faster than she could answer.

"Lily! Dear God, you're all right. Where were you? What the hell happened? Who the hell is _this_? Is this your boyfriend? Isn't he supposed to be in _England_? What the hell is he doing here? Where the _hell have you been_? Your mom's going completely insane. Why did you just leave like that? _How _could you just leave like that? I'm glad you're okay. But I can't believe you're _here_. How the hell did you end up here? Do you even know this boy? I thought you didn't know anyone in New York, and—holy shit, Lily, you scared the _hell_ out of everyone!" Molly sat down on the bed and gave Lily an abrupt hug, which she awkwardly returned.

James was looking a bit awkward, scratching his head and trying to slide out of bed. This was particularly tricky, Lily expected, because she was sitting on part of his leg.

"Well, first things first," Lily said. "Molly, this is my boyfriend James. James, meet my cousin Molly."

"Er, hi," James said, and gave a little wave.

"Hi," Molly said briskly, and turned back to Lily. She cupped a hand around one side of her mouth and stage-whispered to Lily. "You weren't kidding when you said he was cute."

James's face reddened considerably.

Lily cleared her throat. "Thanks, Molly."

"Anyway, what are you doing here? You haven't answered any of my questions."

Lily looked at James, feeling a bit panicked. They hadn't exactly figured out what they were going to tell her family yet. She certainly couldn't tell them the _truth_. Especially not her clueless Muggle relatives. Her mother and sister (whether Petunia liked it or not), at least, had some grasp of the wizarding world.

Paolo cleared his throat from the doorway. "I think," he said carefully, "it would be best if she did not answer all those questions right now."

"Why the hell _not_?" Molly demanded. "Who says it's any of your business, anyway? How the hell do you even _know _her?" She turned to Lily and jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at Paolo. "How the hell do you even know him?"

Lily opened her mouth, but wasn't sure what to say, and no sound came out. How did she know him? She'd never met him before, of course, but _still_—she had this strange little inkling—it was something about the _name_—she knew she'd heard it before, she just couldn't think _where_….

"I think you should listen to my son," said another voice from the door. "And please stop using those words. There are young children here."

Molly looked like she wanted to argue, but one look from Mama and she shut her mouth.

"I hope you're not talking about us," said another, louder voice from behind Mama. Bridget DeBeauvois managed to push her way into the room. Lin slipped in silently behind her. "If something's going on, I think we have a right to know about it."

"Who the he—who are _they_?" Molly demanded, looking even more confused. "Are they English, too? How the heck did all these people get here from _England_? Lily, you didn't say any of your friends were in town. Why are they—I mean, how are they—" She spent a moment looking very lost for words, and then turned on Lily and pointed her finger straight at Lily's face. "You need to start explaining all this to me."

Lily looked helplessly at James, and then at Mama. Mama mercifully took control of the situation.

"Calm down, please," she said, and Molly looked too befuddled to argue. "These three need to go home." She indicated James, Bridget, and Lin. James wrapped his arm around Lily's waist, as though in protest, but Mama ignored him. "And you need to be with your family," she said to Lily. "And you," she added, looking at Molly, "will have everything explained to you as soon as that happens. I would like to go with you and help explain."

Molly nodded silently, but Bridget, Lin, and James all burst into protest. Mama shushed them all quickly, and spent a few long moments staring back and forth between Lily, James, Lin, and Bridget. "Okay," she said finally. "We will all go meet Lily's family together. And _then_ you will all go back to England."

SCENEBREAK

Sirius couldn't do anything useful, so he panicked instead. He went to the Owlery inside Potter's Cottage and sent off frantic owls to Remus, Peter, Mimi, and Melody. He had remained calm while talking to Mrs. Evans only because he hadn't wanted her to have an emotional breakdown. (He couldn't handle another female emotional breakdown. He'd been experiencing an alarming number of them lately, and they needed to stop.) He reflected though, as the owls flew off into distance (except for Melody's, which for some reason decided it would be nice to fly down the staircase instead), that perhaps the message _JAMES AND LILY IN MORTAL PERIL, PLEASE COME AT ONCE_ was only going to cause more panic.

But at least it conveyed a sense of urgency.

Speaking of which, very urgent footsteps were now making their way up the stairs toward the Owlery. _That's odd_, Sirius thought. _Why would Mrs. Potter be running up here at this time of night?_

The owl that Sirius had just sent off to Melody flew in and settled itself comfortably on its perch. Sirius opened his mouth to curse the damn thing, but noticed with curiosity that it was no longer carrying its letter. Owls didn't just randomly drop their mail and come back to rest in the Owlery. How odd.

The frantic footsteps reached the top of the stairs and came to an abrupt halt.

"Mortal peril? What d'you mean, _mortal peril_?"

Sirius turned around, and his whole face split into a grin of relief. "Melody! You got here fast." He was even forgetting how annoyed with her he was. It was such a relief to have someone here he could panic with.

Melody rolled her eyes. "That's because I was already here when you sent the owl, dummy. Now what's this all about?"

Sirius ignored the fact that his girlfriend had just called him a dummy, as well as the fact that he had no clue as to why she would be here in the first place, and walked across the Owlery to kiss her. Apparently Melody objected to this, because she pulled her lips away.

"I thought you were mad at me," she said, frowning.

"I am," Sirius agreed. "But with James and Lily in mortal peril, right now I'm just glad you're alive."

"Sirius, what is all this mortal peril business? Are Lily and James really—"

But Sirius didn't have time for silly questions. He had a point to prove. He grabbed Melody's face with his hands and kissed her again. Apparently Melody objected less this time, because she dropped her broomstick and stood on her toes to kiss him back.

He was still furious with her, of course. She never should have stayed to have lunch with Malfoy. She never should have lied to him about all of that business with her uncle. And she never, never should have tried to exploit Sirius for his money.

She hadn't actually admitted this, of course. She'd denied it quite believably. But he knew how Melody's mind worked. She could be mercenary when she wanted to be. Completely task-focused, without regard for her or anyone else's emotions. And that disturbed Sirius a little. He could never use his friends for his own personal gain.

Although according to Melody, it wasn't personal. Well, it wasn't for _herself_. It was all for her family. And if that was true, then at least she wasn't being self-serving. At least she knew where her loyalties were. It was just the methodology she used that disturbed Sirius.

But…God. When she wanted to be, she could be completely, utterly beautiful. Absolutely fun and goofy and carefree and just…happy. He missed that side of Melody. He felt like he hadn't seen it for a long time.

And that was why he'd gotten her the other Christmas present. He just…hadn't had time to give it to her yet. He was waiting for the exact right moment.

And this…well, this was definitely not it.

This was definitely a moment for Sirius to enjoy the very healthy physical aspect of their relationship. Melody was becoming very excellent at kissing. She'd been good before, of course, but now she was learning just exactly what to do to make Sirius—

_Holy—holy—holyhead HARPIES, _he thought, before thoughts escaped him entirely. Any appropriate thoughts, anyway. Melody's hands had apparently decided to go exploring, and somehow they'd ended up under his shirt. And then down by his pants. And then—oh, then up again. She appeared to be having some trouble moving around in there. Sirius considered taking his shirt off entirely.

Then the smell of fresh owl dung wafted to his nose.

This was _entirely_ the wrong place for a snog, he realized, and reluctantly pulled his lips away from Melody's.

"What—what's the matter?" she asked, slightly short of breath. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Ah, no," Sirius said, but guided her hands away from his chest and out from underneath his shirt. It wasn't that he minded, exactly; he was just having a little trouble concentrating with them there. "I was just thinking—maybe we ought to continue this somewhere else."

"Oh," Melody said, and then wrinkled her nose. Apparently she'd caught the aroma of fresh owl droppings as well. "Good point." She carefully gathered up her broom and took Sirius's hand as they left the Owlery.

"Are those the gloves I got you?" he asked.

"Of course. They're wonderful."

"Good."

They were silent as they descended the staircase. When they reached the bottom, Melody stopped and tugged at his hand, turning him toward her. "Sirius," she said, frowning, "not that I'm complaining or anything, but…aren't you supposed to be mad at me?"

"Oh, I am," he assured her. "I'm still quite furious with you."

Melody's golden-brown eyes widened. "Oh."

"Yes," Sirius agreed.

"But then…why are we…"

"Having a major snog?" Sirius supplied, and Melody nodded. "It's actually quite simple. See, something bad is happening to Lily and James right now, as far as I can tell. Or—something bad has happened to one of them, anyway. And I just figured—if Lily and James can't keep out of trouble, then there isn't much hope for the two of us, so I had better get around to telling you how I feel before it's too late, and if something happens to either of us at least you won't go on thinking I hate you."

"I've never thought you hated me."

"Oh. Well, that's good then."

"I just thought you were angry with me."

"Well, I am a bit, yeah. But you know…I thought you might need some reassurance that I still love you."

"That you what?"

"What?"

Melody frowned. "Sirius. You heard my question."

"And I think you heard me pretty clearly, too, so why is there confusion?"

"I thought maybe I was imagining things."

"Imagining what? That I said I still loved you?"

"Yeah. That. That's it. That's the one."

"Well, why wouldn't I?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know. See, the problem I'm having here is, I don't remember you officially telling me you loved me for a first time. So for you to say you still do kind of implies that you thought I was aware that you loved me in the first place, and…why are you giving me _that _look?"

"I told you ages ago that I loved you. Apparently you didn't want to hear it then, though, and you kind of just…stomped on my heart instead."

"You don't have to be so dramatic about it. I was just trying to protect you."

"Protect me from _what_?"

"My uncle, of course. But all of that's over now, right?"

"According to you it is."

"It is," Melody said, softly but harshly. "But I still maintain that you've never told me you love me."

"I did though. At the end of last summer."

"You did _not_."

"I did so!"

"_When_?"

"In the library. Here at Potter's Cottage. When you rejected me, remember?"

"Yeah, no, I remember that. But I don't recall you ever saying the words 'I love you.'"

"Well I did."

"You said you were crazy about me. You said you had feelings for me. You never said the word love."

"I'm sure I said the word love."

"Well, not in regards to _me_, then."

"Are you _sure_?"

"I think I'd remember that, Sirius. It's only the kind of thing I've been waiting my whole life to hear. Not that it's, you know, really important to me or anything."

"Hm. Well, this is kind of awkward. Are you absolutely _sure _I never—"

"_Yes_, Sirius."

"Oh. Well, then." Sirius brought a hand to her face. "Melody?"

"Yes, Sirius?"

"There's something I should probably tell you."

"Yeah?"

"You're bloody gorgeous."

"Why thank you, Sirius."

"And I'm in love with you."

SCENEBREAK

The next hour was a complete and total blur. There were a lot of hysterics, Lily recalled. She walked in the door of Molly's flat to discover her mother, aunt, and uncle giving the police a detailed physical description of her. Her mother went crazy and nearly crushed her with a hug. Molly's parents sat down at the kitchen table, sagging with relief. Petunia just rolled her eyes and poured herself another glass of wine.

The policemen were polite but annoyed, and left quickly to address another, more serious investigation. Mama took control, directing traffic until they were all either clustered or seated about the kitchen table, and launched into a semi-logical explanation concerning Lily's whereabouts for the last forty-eight hours. Lily didn't remember anything she said. She was too busy trying to battle the feeling of overwhelming guilt and sickness churning in her stomach. Every few minutes or so, when she felt a little better, she would glance at her mother's face, and that would start the guilt and illness all over again.

_How_ could she have done this to her mother? How could she put what was left of her family through this again? It was all her fault. She never should have gone upstairs.

It was a ridiculous thing to think, but she couldn't help feeling responsible. She was a witch, damn it. Shouldn't she have been able to tell danger was coming? Shouldn't she have been able to escape? Shouldn't she have done bloody _something_ to prevent it?

She groped at her neck for her necklace, but it wasn't there. She became sadly aware that the mangled little chain was now curled up in her pocket. She groped for James's hand, and fiddled with his fingers instead. He held her hand reassuringly, though at this point Lily thought that reassurance wasn't quite enough. She needed…security. She needed to _really_ feel safe. She needed her mother to stop looking like…like…_that_.

Lily became aware that Mama was discussing the return of Lin, Bridget, and James to England. James was currently protesting his inclusion in this group.

"I'm staying with Lily," he insisted, and Mama frowned.

"She should be with her family. So should you. And where will you stay? It is rude to invite yourself."

"I'll sleep on the floor in the hall if I have to. I don't care. This is where I want to be."

Molly's parents looked as though they were about to invite James to stay with them, but Lily spoke first.

"You should go back," she said softly, and everyone looked at her. James stared in open shock. She squeezed his hand before continuing. "And I should go back with you." She looked at her relatives as apologetically as she could manage. "I'm sorry. It's been wonderful to see you, and I want to share the holidays with you, but….I need to be back home," she finished quietly.

"Sweetie," her mom said, "we ought to talk about this before—"

"No, mum," Lily said, even more quietly. "I can't stay here."

Mrs. Evans frowned at her daughter for a moment, and then took a minute to consider her, and James, and then to consider her family, and Petunia (who was still clutching her glass of wine), and then she looked back at Lily again and sighed. "All right," she agreed. "But however you get there, do it _safely_, and let me know the moment you get back. Petunia and I will return after New Year's, as planned."

Petunia's eyes widened considerably over the top of her wine glass. Her face twitched a little, as though she were trying to fight back a—smile? Lily decided to ignore her sister.

"Thanks, mum," Lily said, and looked over at Mama.

"We thank you for your hospitality," she announced. "We should all be going now."

Lily glanced at the clock. It was well past midnight. By the time they got to a Floo Port and got back to England, with the time difference, it would be mid-morning.

"Oh, no," Mrs. Havernaugh protested. "You don't have to leave so quickly. If any of you would like to stay for the night, you're more than welcome—I'm sure we've got plenty of room—and if you're hungry we can fix you something before you go—"

But her protestations were cut short by a general desire to return home as quickly as possible. The Havernaughs tried to give them cab fare to the airport, not understanding, of course, that no airport was necessary, but Mama assured them she had it all taken care of. She herded Lily, James, Lin, Bridget, and Paolo (who, for whatever reason, had insisted on coming along) out of the apartment complex and down several side streets to the nearest magical community.

When they reached the International Floo Port some time later, Paolo's reason for coming became apparent.

"I want to go with you," he told them. "Please, Mama, don't look like that. I have been saving for years trying to get back to Europe, and—I think this is the best chance I'm going to have. No, Mama, I'll come back, I _promise_. But I have to go do this."

Lily was amazed at the amount of communication Mama could engage in without speaking. Mama stared Paolo down for a few moments, and then, reluctantly, her gaze softened. "Be _careful_, Paolo," she warned. "If anything happens, your sister and brothers—"

"I know, Mama," Paolo said, and leaned over to kiss her on the forehead. "I will do everything I can."

Mama looked oddly distressed, and Lily wondered what was going on that she didn't know about.

And then, suddenly, it all clicked. "Paolo from America" Paolo. "Paolo seeking revenge for the death of his father" Paolo. Paolo with his wonderful Mama and his brothers and little sister—_Melody's _Paolo!

"Oh, my God, you're _Paolo_," Lily blurted out, and everyone turned to look at her oddly.

"_Si_," Paolo agreed, looking at her as though maybe she hadn't quite recovered from her death experience. "I am Paolo."

"Are you feeling all right?" James asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, but…you…I _know_ you," she informed Paolo, whose expression only became more confused. "I mean, I don't _actually_ know you—we've never actually met, but—you—you're Melody's Paolo. You know Melody," she said dumbly.

Paolo's eyes widened. "Melody? You mean—Melody Cauldwell. From _England_?"

Lily nodded, still feeling rather dumbstruck.

Paolo laughed. "How incredible! Do you think I will see her when I go back with you?"

"One way to find out," James said, holding up their recently purchased bag of Floo Powder. "We need to get going before the Port closes on us."

He tossed the powder onto the fire, and one by one they stepped into the flames.

SCENEBREAK

Melody and Sirius stayed up most of the night. When they shuffled into the kitchen the next morning, bleary-eyed, grumpy, and propelled mostly by the thought of breakfast, it was to discover that Peter Pettigrew had arrived during the night.

"Sirius!" Peter cried, abandoning his eggs. He jumped out of his chair and rushed over to where Sirius was standing, right inside the swinging door that led to the kitchen. Sirius regarded him through one half-open eye.

"Morning, Wormtail," he mumbled. "Have a good trip?"

"A good trip? Are you insane?" Peter demanded. "You said James and Lily were in mortal peril! I had to sneak out of the house at four this morning and flag down the Knight Bus to get here—and I didn't even come _here_, I went to _your_ house first—made the mistake of waking up your mum, too—and when I finally got _here_, you weren't even _awake_, so how d'you expect me to be, eh?" He was looking rather twitchy, Melody thought.

"Calm down, Pettigrew," she said, yawning. "No need to get so worked up before breakfast." She shuffled to the table and plopped down, requesting several sweet, unhealthy muffins.

"Sorry about that, old pal," Sirius said, patting him on the back. "I may have overreacted just a tad."

"A _tad_?" Peter repeated. "FOUR IN THE MORNING, PADFOOT! I ought to—to—bite you!"

"Come now, Peter," Melody said from the table. "No need to start spreading the bubonic plague before breakfast."

Peter turned and glared at her, his nose twitching in annoyance. When he turned back to Sirius, it was to discover that Sirius's teeth were bared, and looking rather more canine-like than they had a moment ago. Peter's eyes widened as Sirius's ears became black and pointy and his mouth began elongating into a snout.

"Care to run that by me again, Peter?" he said, his voice low and rumbly.

"I don't think there's any call for _that_, Sirius!" Peter said, his voice a bit squeaky.

"Play niffe, boys," Melody said, talking around a bit of poppy seed muffin. She swallowed. "No need for manslaughter before breakfast."

Sirius growled at her, and she rolled her eyes.

"HELLO? Is anyone in HERE?" The door to the kitchen suddenly swung open, hitting Sirius smartly in the back of the head.

Sirius yelped, and his features rapidly returned to normal.

"Oh my God!" Mimi gasped. "Sirius, are you all right?"

"Mmpff," Sirius said, in what seemed to be a positive tone of voice.

"Maybe we should—should get you some ice," Mimi said, and in an instant a house-elf appeared beside her with a packet of ice.

Melody leapt up from her chair and walked over to Sirius, pulling out her wand. "I don't think that's necessary." She tapped Sirius on the head with her wand and cast a silent spell to dull the pain.

"Oh," Mimi said softly, looking down at the packet of ice in her hands.

"Ow," Sirius whined, rubbing the spot where Melody had tapped him with her wand.

Melody rolled her eyes. "That didn't hurt, don't be such a baby." Sirius pouted at her, and she rolled her eyes again. "Fine, then use the stupid ice if you think it will help."

Mimi narrowed her eyes at Melody's back as Melody walked back over to her seat. She threw the ice across the kitchen into the sink. "I was just trying to be _helpful_," she snapped. "And I don't think ice was such a stupid idea."

"Sorry," Melody said, her eyes widening. "I didn't mean to make you mad, I just—"

"Just thought I was being stupid."

"Er—well—what's the point really, if you've got a wand?"

"You don't have to solve _everything_ by magic. And you don't have to insult me about it, either. We've had a very long night of it, and I'm tired and hungry and grumpy and don't need you acting all—superior."

Melody's eyebrows raised until her face was set in a rather unfriendly expression. "Well, you don't need to get all _defensive_, I was just—wait. We? Who is 'we'?"

"I was visiting Remus. We came here together."

"Remus is here? Well where is he then?" Sirius demanded.

"Right here," Remus said, coming in through the other door to the kitchen.

"What took you so long?" Peter asked.

"What, can't a fellow go to the bathroom?"

"Apparently you shouldn't," Mimi said. "While you were gone your girlfriend got harangued for wanting to use an ice pack."

"_What_? I did not _harangue_ you, and—wait, girlfriend? What d'you mean, 'girlfriend'?" Melody demanded.

Mimi and Remus both went rather red.

"Remus, you dog!" Sirius said, grinning.

"You would know," Remus said, grinning back.

There was a sudden _pop!_, and then there was a house-elf in the kitchen tugging on Sirius's pant leg.

"Sir!" he squeaked. "Master James is back, sir! He is coming in through the fireplace, with Miss Lily."

The teenagers wasted no time in hurrying out of the kitchen and into the great room, where an enormous Christmas tree sat sparkling against the bay window, and where James, Lily, and three rather less familiar people were standing in front of the fireplace brushing soot off their clothes.

"Lily!" Melody screeched, and threw her arms around her best friend.

"Melody! What are you doing here?" Lily asked before releasing her. She looked around and frowned in confusion. "Mimi—Sirius—Peter—Remus—why are you…I mean, this is wonderful, but how are you all here?"

"It's all Sirius's fault," Mimi said, giving her a quick hug. "He sent us these." She fished around in her pocket for a moment, and then produced the owl she'd gotten from Sirius and handed it to Lily.

"'James and Lily in mortal peril, please come at once'?" Lily read, and then groaned. "Sirius…are you _serious_?"

"What?" Sirius said. "Are you trying to tell me you weren't in mortal peril?"

"Well, I—I mean—but how could you possibly—I was—you haven't—um…well, no. I can't say that I wasn't in mortal peril. But still—that doesn't explain how you could've known about it."

"You mean you were really in danger?" Mimi said, her face growing pale. "I thought—I thought Sirius was half-joking."

"He _was_ half-joking," Melody said, and then noticed that one of the strangers behind Lily and James seemed to be staring at her. She glanced at him, and then glanced again. Her eyes widened in recognition, and dark, handsome Paolo grinned his sexy Italian grin.

"Lily," Mimi said, frowning, "who exactly is with you? And—um—why?"

"Oh!" Lily said, turning around and blinking at the three people behind her as though she'd forgotten about them. "Well, _why _they're here might take a while to explain, but for now…this isLin and Bridget," she said first. "They're in Gryffindor. And this is Paolo. He's from America. Paolo, meet Peter, Remus, Sirius, Mimi, and—well, I guess you already know Melody."

Paolo grinned even wider and nodded. "It is good to see you again."

Sirius stared back and forth between Melody and Paolo. "Wait. This is Paolo? The one who sent the letter that got us in that horrible fight? _This_ is the Paolo from last summer?"

"Fight? What fight?" Paolo asked, looking concerned.

Melody, however, was off in another world. She stood staring at Paolo in dumbfounded shock. "Hi," she said finally. "This is Sirius," she said, pointing.

"Ah," Paolo said, and Melody saw the recognition flash in his eyes. "I take it things worked out then?"

"Mm," Melody agreed, nodding. She was still staring at him. Why was she still staring at him?

Apparently Paolo didn't mind, though, because his grin came creeping back.

Sirius, apparently bothered by this, stomped across the room and put his arm around Melody's shoulders, pulling her toward him rather roughly.

Melody looked over at him. "Hi there, Sirius," she said vaguely, before her gaze slipped back to Paolo.

"Hang on a minute," came the very demanding voice of Bridget. "No one's bothered to explain to us yet how the hell you two know each other." She shoved her way in between Lily and James and stared back and forth at Melody and Paolo.

"It's kind of a long story," Melody said faintly.

"She went to America with her uncle and met him there last summer," Sirius said flatly.

"Oh," said Bridget.

An actual expression crept its way onto Melody's face. Confusion, she thought. That was it. "Um," she said, still staring at Paolo. "Not that I mind, but…what are you doing here, exactly?"

"I told you I would come," he said. "But, of course, this is not the way I had planned." He shrugged and grinned again.

Melody's eyes widened. "_Oh_," she said. "Your—your father."

Paolo nodded, looking serious again.

"_Hang on_," Bridget said. "That doesn't explain _anything_. I haven't understood a bloody thing that's gone on for the past three days, and I didn't drag myself halfway around the world for nothing. Somebody had better sit down and _explain_ this all to me."

The older teenagers all looked over Bridget's head at each other.

"Well," Lily said slowly, "you do seem to have gone through an awful lot of trouble. And—I'm afraid I still don't understand how you got to America in the first place. Maybe we had better sit down somewhere and work this all out." She looked at James.

"Indoor gardens," he decided. "But first—is anyone else hungry?"

Several people were about to assert their hunger, but a voice from the top of the stairs stopped them.

"_FIRST, _YOUNG MAN, I THINK YOU HAD BETTER EXPLAIN _WHERE THE HELL YOU'VE BEEN _THE PAST THREE DAYS, WHO ALL OF THESE PEOPLE ARE, AND—_WHY IN GOD'S NAME IS LILY WITH YOU? _ISN'T SHE SUPPOSED TO BE ON _ANOTHER CONTINENT_?"

James took a big gulp before turning around and looking up at the stairs.

"Mum! How smashing good of you to join us. We were just about to have a nice long talk about everything that's been going on. Now, before you kill me—are you sure you wouldn't like to offer these nice people some food?"

SCENEBREAK

Bellatrix limped into the apartment. The Dark Lord's latest assignment had been neither easy nor fruitful, and doubly bad because Siegfried, the useless bastard, hadn't even bothered to show up for it. Bellatrix was just glad the Dark Lord wasn't blaming her for his absence—and also because it appeared he hadn't heard about that nasty business in America. What did one dead Mudblood matter, anyway?

Except—except that Bellatrix hadn't felt quite right for days. Whatever that sodding necklace had done to her, it had done it well. She felt like the hairs on her arms were almost constantly raised, and the other night when a thunderstorm had rumbled through London—bloody hell, she hadn't been able to sleep.

She limped her way to the bathroom, hoping to find some salve or lotion to rub on her scratches. Instead she found Siegfried, passed out by the toilet, an empty bottle of bourbon lying next to his fingers. Splatters of puke decorated the toilet seat.

Bellatrix had been out for nearly two days running for her life, fighting a chimaera, watching two of her best friends from Durmstrang get positively _mangled_, and Siegfried had been lounging around the apartment drinking Muggle bourbon and getting pissed? Oh, _no_. Fuck no.

"You bloody—useless—BASTARD!" she screamed, and gave him a good solid kick in the groin.

He wouldn't understand why, but he would hurt like hell there when he woke up.

Bellatrix grabbed the first bottle of ointment she saw from the cabinet and limped toward the bedroom, feeling nearly satisfied for the first time in days.

A/N: Do you see what I mean now? This chapter was so bloody useless. The next update will be…hell, I don't know, around Christmas? Take your best guess. Get out a twelve-month calendar and stab your finger at a date. Maybe that's it.

This is pretty much the last chance I'll have to update for…ever. I shouldn't even be doing this right now. I should be practicing for marching band tryouts. Therefore, it will be YOUR FAULT if I bomb my solo during auditions. You can carry that weight on your shoulders, because I certainly don't intend to take any responsibility for my failure. (In case you're not particularly perceptive today, I'm feeling rather pissy. So if, at the moment, you're feeling offended rather than amused, then I'm not sure you have enough functioning brain cells to be able to handle this story and maybe you should just give up right now.)

A steamy, bubbly, frothy, creamy, coffee-y, milky THANK YOU (no, not a cappuccino, but a thank you) to everyone who is still bothering to read this story and who doesn't completely hate me after reading this stupid chapter. If you still care, you deserve a medal. If you don't still care, why the hell are you reading this?


	22. Splice and Stone

A/N: Oh look, I haven't died! Isn't that miraculous? Anyway…here is the next chapter. A couple things actually happen in between all the blithering nonsense. I'm amazed and flattered that you've made it this far, so congratulations to you. And bullocks to me…I've been writing this story for six years now. (When will it ever end?)

Summary of last chapter:

Lily dies, except that she doesn't. James, Bridget, and Lin discover her rather lifeless in an alley behind a building that Melody's old friend Paolo just happens to live in. Bridget's screams wake Paolo up, and he invites them (more or less) into his home, where his mother attends to Lily for several days while she recovers. The big highlight here is that Lily finally tells James she loves him, which, though important for the progression of the story, isn't exactly a big shocker or anything. Lily's cousin Molly fortuitously runs into Paolo at a coffee shop and miraculously discovers that Paolo knows the whereabouts of her cousin, and Lily is once again reunited with her loving family (minus Petunia). Lily, James, Bridget, and Lin—along with their new friend Paolo—return to England.

Meanwhile, Melody has confessed (almost) all of her transgressions to Sirius, which of course leads to a big fight because of the few minor (yet extremely important) tidbits Melody has chosen to leave out (and of course Sirius calls her on it, because he's _psychic_…not really). So once again Sirius and Melody's relationship is strained (like that's anything new), and Melody goes to one last lunch with Lucifer Malfoy with a heavy heart. Lucifer tries to convince Melody that, first of all, he's not trying to convince her of anything, and secondly, that Sirius just isn't grown up for her, which of course (besides being completely true) is a total load of poppycock.

But Sirius and Melody's relationship seems to be a bit more on the mend near the end of the chapter, when they have a fabulous snog session in the dung-infested Owlery of Potter's Cottage, where Sirius has been sending out frantic letters to all of his friends informing them that James and Lily are (probably) in mortal peril. These owls bring the rest of the Marauders (plus Mimi) to Potter's Cottage, which makes for a nice little reunion when Lily, James, Bridget, Lin, and Paolo arrive.

In other news, Siegfried has descended into a drunken stupor and his relationship with Bellatrix has pretty much gone to shit.

On that exceedingly cheerful note, enjoy this next chapter, which, as usual, has taken way too long to post and doesn't accomplish nearly enough in the way of plot for the amount of pages it's taken up.

Cheers and happy reading.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Two

Splice and Stone

Lily was trying to recover, but she wasn't very successful. Every time she closed her eyes to go to sleep she was overwhelmed with an inexplicable feeling of dread, until she started shaking and sweating and couldn't begin to think about sleeping anymore. Then she would get out of bed and pace the room, fingering her dull, dead necklace, trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with her.

They'd talked it over. Lily, James, Mrs. Potter, the whole group. They'd sat around the Potters' dining room table for hours trying to piece together exactly what had happened and how everybody had ended up at Potter's Cottage. So far, the only conclusive things they had come up with were that Sirius was an idiot for sending out those distressed owls, someone definitely had it in for Lily, Lin was probably some sort of Seer (but not a kind of Seer anybody had ever heard of), Dumbledore—who had come to collect Lin and Bridget midway through the conversation—knew far too much for his own good, and none of them had gotten quite enough sleep.

Hence, Mrs. Potter sent them all to bed and declared that they would talk things over in the morning.

The problem with this, of course, was that it practically _was_ morning. Lily could already see the haze of sunrise creeping over the trees. Maybe it would be a beautiful sunrise, but Lily didn't intend to watch it. She intended to sleep.

Lily lay down on the mattress once more, pulling her sheets far over her head and burrowing one side of her face into the pillow, nice and comfy, just as she liked it. She waited impatiently for sleep to come, but her brain wouldn't shut up. Lily hated that. She hated when her body was tired but her brain kept ticking. This was how she always got during exam week—and particularly how she'd gotten during the weeks leading up to her O.W.L.'s. She hadn't gotten more than three hours of sleep a night, she'd studied so much. It had been dreadful. And now the N.E.W.T.'s were coming up, and Lily couldn't imagine what—oh God. Why was Lily thinking about N.E.W.T.'s? She was supposed to be _asleep_.

Lily rolled over and buried the other side of her face into the pillow. Maybe this would help. Maybe her brain would calm down. Maybe she would finally sleep.

She really _needed_ to sleep. Not just to curb her exhaustion, but to allow her brain to process things. Her thoughts were far too jumbled for her to work through the events of the last few days in any conscious manner. Lily needed everything to settle down inside her head so her subconscious could fiddle around with her thoughts sort them out a bit better before she woke up to wrestle with them again. That was what she needed. That was what she wanted.

It was not what she was getting.

She suspected the overwhelming feeling of dread came from the knowledge that, if she did go to sleep, her sleep would be restless and full of dreams. Nightmares, rather. But for once, Lily welcomed the idea of dreams. Maybe in between the nightmares she'd have another necklace dream. Maybe she'd figure out what had happened to her necklace. Or why she was still alive.

But would she have the necklace dreams, now that the necklace was in this state? Every time Lily looked at her necklace she got a pang in her chest—like she'd lost something very, very dear to her. If she looked at it long enough, it made her want to cry. If she looked at it even longer, she did cry, and clutched it to her chest and thought of James, and cried harder.

Could the necklace really be so strongly connected to James? It almost made sense. Schmundertoe had told them it was connected to James in some way, hadn't he? James had given Lily the necklace, after all. More importantly, while Lily was being attacked James had woken up in a panic and known exactly where to find her, and James certainly wasn't any sort of Seer.

Lily suddenly had the extreme urge to talk to James. Her eyes flew open and she rolled over, staring at the wall by her bed. James wasn't on the other side of it (Mrs. Potter had more sense than to put love-struck teenagers in adjacent rooms), but his room was certainly in that direction. Maybe if she stared at the wall and stared at her necklace and sort of…_thought_ to him hard enough, he'd wake up and come to Lily's room to see what all the fuss was about.

Lily tried this for about five seconds before giving up, feeling ridiculous. _Wizards don't have ESP. James is probably sleeping, for heaven's sake_.

She rolled back over and sighed, holding up her hand to stare at the dull, silver, tarnished-looking pendant dangling between her fingers. She rubbed her thumb over the "L" shape, hoping that would at least make it shinier. It didn't. If anything, in the pale early-morning sunlight, the pendant looked more tarnished. Lily stupidly tried again, thinking that maybe this time her thumb would have a different effect, but this time her rubbing didn't appear to do anything. Lily did it again anyway, just to see what would happen, and nothing really did, but she kept doing it, because somehow the action was soothing, and the pendant did start to feel slightly smoother under her fingers, even if it didn't look any prettier.

With this repetitive, soporific action, Lily drifted to sleep.

* * *

Moaning. Fingers. Gray foggy swirls bending around her, swirling, billowing, consuming. Hands, reaching out. Faint cries, agony. Dark shadows, gray blotches…movement. Grabbing, touching. Shadows stretching out, grabbing…the sidewalk bending downwards, buildings stretching inwards, towering, tall, blocking out the light…bright light…creating big shadows, stretching, gray hands, pulling, grabbing…and the moaning…moaning….

Lily didn't know where she was. The shapes didn't make sense, her movement didn't make sense. Was she dreaming or was she…somewhere else?

Suddenly, in between the moaning, a—gasping, crying. Off to Lily's right. Lily turned slowly, sluggishly. A woman, crying. Lily squinted. It was all gray shadows, long and dark and…

A woman's face began to materialize. Familiar, like Lily's own. Lily brought long shadowy hands to her own face—slowly, bendily—and frowned. No. It wasn't Lily's face. But familiar, like it had once been.

Laurelle. She materialized out of nothing—out of grayness—and suddenly stood before Lily, a wispy gray ghost of a girl, her hands clasped together, hair falling down around her face desperately—she was crying. Gray blurry tears bubbled out of her eyes, free-flowed down the gray balloons of her cheeks—how—Lily wondered—could you cry after death?

Laurelle opened her mouth, reached out her hands, but—the closer they got to Lily, the more insubstantial they appeared. They weren't hands, just shadow and thought and spirit remains; they couldn't touch her. Laurelle cried out—something, something—but she had no voice, she was dead, just—spirit—gray, ghostly—Lily couldn't hear. But Laurelle, with her hands—gray, ghostly, nothingness—pointed at Lily. Something on Lily.

Lily looked down, frowned, didn't notice as Laurelle started to fade. There was the necklace, still gray, still dull, but in this place of shadows—of nothingness—it looked _real._ Solid. The necklace was substantial still. Lily looked back up. The Spirit-Laurelle was clutching her throat, gasping—hadn't she been strangled to death?—and she reached out her hands one last time (they faded into wisps as they got near) and she opened her mouth, slowly, silently, and then—

Then came the _moan_. It bubbled from deep inside Laurelle's spirit, like a low rumbling burp of eternal agony that churned Laurelle to pieces. It floated almost palpably on the air, a great bubble of warm, agonizing filth, the heat tarnishing Lily's face; the _noise_ of it ate away at her body, scraping across the tips of her toes, of her gray shadowy ears, and it all swirled inside her, billowing—the moan, the burp—the sickening heat—pressing against her, from the inside out, at her millions of little gray-cloud molecules, threatening to pull Lily in every direction at once, burst her apart…. She would become insubstantial, like Laurelle. The necklace would be left behind, sinking like a lead weight into this cloudy ground. Lily would be failed by the necklace, just as Laurelle had been. Her molecules would band together just enough to create that shadow spirit, a restless, helpless, insubstantial Lily, and she would reach out for the necklace, too, with that same moan—for she would be nothing—nothing without it—she was nothing without it—

Laurelle's moan faded, and Lily shuddered. She'd felt for one moment that she really would burst apart, and---

Other moans came. As Laurelle's drifted away, others came. Stronger. More despairing. From farther away, but louder somehow. More demanding. They wanted it. They _wanted_ it.

They were spirits, shadows of people, wisps of emotion, and they were all one emotion. They were the _want_. The _desire_. Absolute _greed_. Lily could hear it in the moans, they were desperate, terrible—they made her ears vibrate until they were bleeding—her heart was about to burst—her arms and knees and shoulders shook, threatening to snap—shatter into a million pieces—the moans were pulling her apart, destroying her, grabbing at her, ripping her to shreds—she was—diminishing. Being gnawed at, pulled away at, her molecules stretched out—stretching—blowing—expanding—she was like a balloon—going everywhere at once—and—straining—eventually—she would pop and—she had nothing to hold on to, her hands were wispy, insubstantial, she couldn't clutch at the necklace—it was lead—it was a weight—she was too wispy now, she couldn't hold it up any longer—the necklace was too real—too heavy—it started dropping---no, falling—_through_ her—her body—her insubstantial body, and—

It _sank_. It tore through her, ripping, piercing, grinding her pulled-apart bones, thin blood bubbling from the cuts—

Blood? How was there blood, there was no body—she was just a—a ghost—ghost-Lily—right? She—

The pain came all at once. From everywhere. Every inch of her body ached. Every inch of her body was being torn, massacred, sliced, broken, expanded, pulled, destroyed, everything, all at once, and she—

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAH! AAAAHHH!"

The screaming seemed to come from everywhere. It bit into Lily's ears with palpable pain. She had never been aware before that simple screaming could damage you. But this did. This was pain like she had never known. It made her head feel like it was going to fly apart, her ears like they would burst and bleed, and—

Her head. Her ears. Dear God, her head. Was she a real human again? Lily's hands flew to her head, her hair, her neck, her arms—oh Lord, she had a body again. She wasn't dying. Wasn't. Wasn't being ripped apart by the souls of people who—

"AAAA—"

The screaming stopped, suddenly, and Lily's eyes flew open. She was panting, sobbing, frightened, shaking, and suddenly she realized she was the one who had been screaming. James had her by the shoulders. He was looking at her, terrified, and when Lily's brain began to piece together what was going on, its only solution was to burst into loud, painful, and uncontrollable sobs. Lily didn't shake—she jerked. She spasmed. James tried to put her arms around her and she kept slamming into him, but he didn't stop. He clasped his arms around and held her tight and even when she slammed them both into the wall he didn't let her go.

Lily didn't notice Sirius and Melody and Mimi and Remus and Peter all standing over her bed looking horrified until much, much later.

* * *

Lily and James were alone together. Lily was shaking, but just slightly. More like shivering. Much better than before, but still alarming.

She hadn't been able to put the dream in words. The others still had no idea what was wrong with her. She'd just clutched at the necklace and gasped out the words "bad dream" earlier, and James had made everybody else go away so he could try to calm her down.

She was calm now, but still terrified. James had her wrapped up in blankets, as though somehow the warmth could stop this shivering, shivering that came from her thoughts trying to turn her inside out. But the blankets didn't really help; now she was sweaty and shivery instead of chilly and shivery. But at least she was wrapped up in something. At least her body wasn't threatening to suddenly burst in every direction at once.

The thought of the dream sent a huge shudder through her quaking system, and Lily turned to smother her face into James's shoulder. She didn't even realize James was crying until his tears started dripping onto her neck.

This calmed Lily down considerably. She jerked back and stared at James, whom she had rarely seen lose composure.

"James?" Lily put her shaky hands to his face and tried to wipe his tears away, but they kept coming, free-flowing.

"What can I do, Lily?" James asked, his voice low and rough and choking. "What more can I do for you? I've done everything I can think of, and I—it's—not enough."

That almost undid Lily again. That almost sent her spasming completely apart. Almost.

Instead, Lily put her shaking hands to James's head and brought it to rest on her unstable shoulder. She wrapped her quivering arms around his neck, burying one hand lovingly into his atrociously messy hair, and, for the first time, held him.

* * *

They had to go to Schmundertoe's. That was the only halfway decent solution any of them could come up with, and so with only a mildly decent explanation to Mrs. Potter, they set off for London. At first, everyone wanted to go, but James did not like this idea and somehow bullied everyone else out of going except for Sirius, who ended up being very useful.

Lily's shakiness still hadn't gone away, and she had a tendency to stumble at odd times into odd objects, or, occasionally, just fall to the ground completely and stare dizzily into space until she could collect herself. The only explanation anyone had gleaned from Lily was something about her necklace, and this worried James immensely. Ever since he'd found out the necklace had any kind of power, and that it refused to leave Lily's neck, he'd felt immeasurably guilty for giving it to Lily without having any clue what it was. Of course, he still had no clue what it was, but now at least he had a better idea what it was capable of.

But if that—that—_thing_—was causing this, then it could burn in hell for all James cared. If Lily hadn't been so possessive of it, James would have snatched the thing out of her hand and destroyed it days ago. But it almost felt like…without it, Lily would have been in even worse shape. Without it, Lily would cease to exist at all.

That thought scared James more than Voldemort.

And so they were going to the only person who might be able to give them some answers about whatever this magical…_thing _was. James could no longer think of it as just a necklace. It was so much greater and more terrible than a simple piece of jewelry.

And in some inexplicable way, it was tearing Lily apart.

They half-walked, half-hobbled down the street, more like one big glob of human than three separate people, James and Sirius on either side, supporting Lily, with Lily staggering drunkenly between them. James hoped that was what people thought when they saw them—that Lily was just very, very drunk, and there was no cause for alarm.

Schmundertoe's shop was open today, so there were no bricks to hop and no tin cans to tap—they just had to find the right street, and open the door, and hope to God there weren't any other customers, because if so…who knew what would become of Lily?

As they reached Schmundertoe's shop and Sirius threw open the door, James wondered vaguely why they weren't taking Lily to St. Mungo's. But it was a fleeting wonder, as Lily staggered into the shop and very nearly knocked over a display of rather expensive-looking watches.

Schmundertoe was assisting some customer at the ring counter in the back of the store, and looked pleasantly over at the three newcomers to give them a warm greeting. He wasn't even halfway through saying hello before he recognized them, and recognized that there was something very, very wrong with Lily, and then everything happened very quickly.

Schmundertoe politely but firmly excused everyone else from his shop and promptly closed things up. James had never seen an old man move so fast. Schmundertoe hurried over to Lily and stared at her, noted the chain of the necklace dangling down between her fingers, and then after a moment nodded, with complete understanding, as though simply looking at Lily provided him a complete explanation of why she was here instead of at a proper hospital.

"Come on, come on," he muttered, distracted now, thinking, and James and Sirius helped Lily to the back room, where Schmundertoe had taken them to inspect the necklace the first time they visited his shop. Schmundertoe conjured three large, comfortable chairs for each of the teenagers to sit in, and James and Sirius scooted them all very close together before helping Lily into the middle one. Schmundertoe hurriedly summoned several objects from across the room and arranged them on his desk, flicking his wand this way and that in agitation, trying to get things in the right position as quickly as possible.

"Now then," Schmundertoe said, donning his large, extremely complicated spectacles, the ones that allowed him to see magic. "Please allow me to examine the necklace."

Lily looked halfway delirious now. James wasn't sure she even knew what was going on. He scrambled for the necklace, locked tight inside her fist.

"No," Lily gasped, her eyes flying wide open. "Don't take it."

"I'm not going to take it, I'm just going to look at it," Schmundertoe said kindly, and far more calmly than James could have managed. He felt like yelling at her. _It's killing you, you idiot, just let it go!_

But he couldn't say that, because he wasn't entirely sure it was true.

"Then hold out your hand, my dear," Schmundertoe said softly, "and you won't have to let it go."

Lily looked unsure, and then closed her eyes and shuddered again, as though some terrible memory was overtaking her. Her fist balled around the necklace tightly.

Schmundertoe looked at James and Sirius urgently. "Please. I have to see it."

"I think it's her dream," Sirius said quickly. "She woke up in the middle of a nightmare and she's been like this ever since. We don't even…she couldn't even tell us what the dream was, she—"

Before Sirius finished speaking, Schmundertoe turned around and unlocked a small cabinet, from which he took a large white bowl shimmering with a sort of silvery-looking liquid.

"A Pensieve," Sirius murmured, and Schmundertoe nodded.

"Lily, my dear, please look at me," the jeweler said, and Lily peeled open her eyes and blinked several times to get them to focus. "I want you to extract your memory and put it in this Pensieve."

"I—I don't know—" Lily gasped, still shuddering terribly. Her face was now an awful sort of gray, and sweat dripped down her cheeks like tears.

"Put your wand to your forehead. Help her," he snapped at James and Sirius. "And bring the memory to the front of your mind. I know it will be difficult. But—think about forcing it to the front of your head, and then just…pull it out with your wand."

Lily looked like she might cry, but she got her wand out, and James helped guide her shaking hand to her forehead. Lily closed her eyes and the shaking increased until she was practically vibrating, and the three men could do nothing but stare while Lily's face twisted around in agony, until finally, in one swift movement, she jerked her wand away from her head, a long silvery string of memory dangling from it, and threw it in the general direction of the Pensieve. Both the wand and the memory landed in the bowl, and Schmundertoe quickly extracted the wand and shook excess memories from it before handing it back to Lily.

Lily looked suddenly calmer, and most of her shaking subsided, but her face was still that awful, pale gray, and the flow of sweat around her brow didn't seem to have ebbed. She still looked as though she might collapse, and though the extraction of the dream may have eased her mind, it exhausted her body further. Lily let her head fall onto James's shoulder and she breathed heavily, apparently suffering from the effort to keep her body upright.

"I must see the necklace. Please," Schmundertoe said urgently, and Sirius gently lifted Lily's left hand, in which the necklace was clutched, and sat it on Schmundertoe's desk. "Just open your hand," Schmundertoe said gently. "I promise it won't be taken from you."

James thought Lily must have been half-unconscious and unable to hear much of anything, but her fist relaxed and uncurled. Sirius and James both sank back into their chairs with relief, but Schmundertoe wasted no time.

He immediately ran his fingers along the length of the chain, looking concerned, bothered, confused. He finally hit the part he was looking for—the ruby, James suspected, or whatever it was, that held the core of the necklace's magic.

Schmundertoe hurriedly moved his collection of magnifying glasses over and peered through the lenses, lined up for greatest magnification, holding his wand at the ready. He began tapping and prodding until great sparks flew. The more Schmundertoe prodded, the more concerned he looked, the more distressed, until his face was pale, his brows were furrowed, his face was covered in sweat. All in all, he was beginning to look a lot like Lily.

James and Sirius could do nothing but sit and stare and wonder. At some point Lily's eyes fluttered open again, and her right hand groped for one of James's, and now James held that hand in between both of his, squeezing it every so often, trying to be reassuring, but he knew that he couldn't really help. Lily's attention was focused elsewhere. All of their attentions were. Nobody could tear their eyes away from the necklace, which was sparking, sparking…occasionally glowing…but still dull, still mysterious, still…

"AAH!"

With a great shout, Schmundertoe was blown backwards across the room, and Lily, James, and Sirius felt the jolt of an electric shock that made their hair stand on end. Blinking, the teenagers all stared at each other for a moment, and then Sirius realized Schmundertoe was having a difficult time getting up, and ran over to help.

On any other day, at any other time, the sight of the four of them with their hair sticking out every which way—especially Lily's—would have been hilarious. Sirius would have started laughing, Lily would have cracked some dumb joke about how James's hair didn't look any different, and they all would have had a good chuckle to break the tension in the room.

But not today. Schmundertoe hurried back to his work, puffing and panting, so intent on figuring out what was wrong that he didn't even bother trying to smooth down his wild white hair. After a few more minutes of feverish work, more panting, and more sweating, Schmundertoe finally looked up at the teenagers, pushing his magic-seeing spectacles back up on his head so he could look each of them in the eye. He waited until Lily's eyes had focused, recognizing that she was still dizzy and shaking and only half-there.

"This is not going to be easy," he said finally. "And I cannot tell you what is the matter until we are through, because I do not need anybody panicking."

James and Sirius nodded quickly, and Lily closed her eyes and squeezed James's hand hard, which they all took as some level of consent.

"All right," Schmundertoe said quickly. "You and I"—he looked at Sirius—"are both going to have to perform a very complicated spell, which you have approximately three minutes to learn. And you two"—he looked at James and Lily—"are going to have to do absolutely everything I say without questioning it, or things may suddenly get much, much worse."

James, Lily, and Sirius all nodded and stared.

"Right," Schmundertoe said briskly. "You come with me." He pointed at Sirius. "You two—turn your chairs so they face each other and hold _this_ between you." He meant the necklace.

James quickly scooted both their chairs around so they were facing each other, and clasped his right hand over Lily's left, so that they were both holding the necklace. Sirius and Schmundertoe left the room.

James could hardly stand the sight of Lily, looking pale, sickly, exhausted, practically like she was about to—

"Do you think…it's going to be…okay?" Lily asked. It took great effort for her to get the words out. Too much effort.

"Yes," James said tightly. "I think Schmundertoe knows exactly what he's doing."

"Yes," Lily agreed, then panted for a moment before continuing. "But…the question is…does…Sirius?"

Even with the nightmare memories gone, Lily still looked like she was in such _pain_. She tried to crack a half-smile anyway, but that smile didn't help. Instead it made James want to crawl under Schmundertoe's desk and die, because he had a terrible feeling that Lily was about to.

Although honestly, it didn't make a damned lick of sense, did it? She'd already died once, or so she said…but then later she'd said that the necklace died…so…could it be that the necklace, instead of letting Lily die, had…died itself? And…now it was trying to take back that life from Lily?

What the bloody hell was going on here anyway?

James hoped to God that Schmundertoe knew what he was doing, because if he didn't and the necklace decided it would be fun to electrocute them all again, they could all very well end up dead.

* * *

Melody found Paolo sitting in the indoor gardens, brooding.

After Lily, James, and Sirius had run off to London, none of the teenagers had known quite what to do with themselves. Peter, Mimi, and Remus were unsuccessfully trying to distract themselves with a game of Exploding Snap. Mrs. Potter was compulsively cleaning the living room. Melody was wandering around aimlessly. And Paolo…well, here Paolo was, sitting underneath a cherry blossom tree, staring at a Japanese garden full of flowers and bonsai trees with a pretty little stream running through it, lost in thought.

Melody sat down next to him and waited for him to acknowledge her presence. There was no point disturbing him, especially if he had something really important to think about. Melody stared at the stream, full of rocks and dark little fish, and tried to let her mind clear. She didn't want to spend any more time worrying about Lily. Lily was in London, and there was nothing Melody could do to help her. Granted, there was nothing James and Sirius could do to help her either, but at least they would take care of her. Melody trusted them with that much.

She _did_ trust them, didn't she? That was a funny thought, after so many months of distrusting Hans, Lucifer, Catalina, and everyone else she'd met at those society functions. She'd also distrusted her friends with her secrets, distrusted Sirius especially. But now Sirius knew. He knew everything. (Mostly.) She'd come here to tell him absolutely everything, to apologize, to tell him that she trusted him and loved him and that she wanted everything to be okay.

She wasn't sure it would be that simple, but the simple realization that she _did_ trust him was an important one. She hadn't thought about it much the past few months, but she realized now that _that_ was the fundamental difference between Sirius and Lucifer Malfoy. She trusted Sirius completely, implicitly, undoubtful...ly. With Lucifer, she wasn't sure she could trust a damned word that came out of his mouth. And that was no basis for a relationship or a marriage.

Lucifer said that Melody would choose him, in time. He had said that she would _want_ to marry him, and that he would never coerce her into it. She supposed that was how he expected to build up her trust. And it was true enough that so far he had demanded nothing of her but her presence, and even that he had not demanded, simply requested. And he was smart enough, surely, and well-mannered, and surprisingly enough he had a sense of humor, and perhaps would not be offended by Melody's honesty, but…_oh_, he still sent shivers down her back. The way he thought of marriage. Just a rational, practical contract. No love necessary. No lust, even. Melody couldn't live like that. She needed that emotional connection. That was part of what she loved about Sirius, wasn't it? His complimentary need for emotional connection. Physical connection.

Melody supposed she had barred them from moving much farther past the physical connection, hadn't she? They had said they loved each other, but they were still having a difficult time of it. That was all Melody's fault. She hadn't trusted him with her secrets. Maybe he felt like he couldn't trust half of what she said anymore. He was good at calling her out when she was lying, but still. You shouldn't have to call out your girlfriend for lying, should you? That also was a violation of trust.

So Melody just needed to earn his trust back, that was all. She needed to remember what it was like to put total faith and trust in someone else. She was a little out of practice. But that would come in time, wouldn't it? If she could just stay with Sirius. They could work things out, they could build up a real relationship again, they could—

"I have to leave soon."

Melody was sitting next to Paolo. She had forgotten. "Why?" she asked, startled.

"I have to do what I came to do."

"Oh. Your father. That's right."

Paolo nodded, but he didn't look at her. He just stared off past the Japanese gardens, which gave way to a grove of orange trees. Sometimes, Melody noted, the indoor gardens didn't make a whole lot of sense.

"I have to find his killer. I'm not sure how I am going to do this, but I will. I am here now. I have to."

"Do you have any idea where to start?"

"When I first told you of the Lestranges, you said you knew them. Can you tell me where they live?"

"I—well, I don't know them, really. I know…of them. I can probably help you find where some of them live, but—Paolo, do you really want to do this?" she blurted out.

Paolo looked at her intensely. "It is my father, Melody. I have to do this."

Melody's stomach squirmed. "But—I mean—what are you going to do when you find this Lestrange, exactly? If you do find him?"

"I will find him."

Melody hesitated. "Right. But—but listen, Paolo. I mean, what are you going to do when you do find him? You're not going to…I mean, you can't…"

"I must avenge my father, Melody. I must make things right."

"But you can't—you can't _kill_ him. Can you?"

Paolo's mouth set into a thin, hard line. "What would you do to your father's killer, if you had the chance? Is there anything you would not do to stop a man who would kill, and kill, and kill again?"

Melody couldn't look him in the eye anymore. "My father's killer was You-Know-Who. There are a great many wizards who would like to do to him what I would like to do to him."

"And _he_ commissions disgusting cowards like this Lestrange to kill good men, just for sport. You think this man is any less deserving of punishment?"

"But Paolo—please, think about it. If you use the Killing Curse—" Melody's words got tangled on the way to her mouth. She couldn't imagine Paolo—sexy, beautiful, kind Paolo—ever being vicious enough to use that curse. "It's Unforgivable," she whispered. "And I know you know that," she said quickly. "I know. It's just…it's not just the law that gets broken when you use it. It's like a…stain. On your soul. You can't ever take it back. It…it would change you." Melody brought her eyes back to his. "You are so good, Paolo. You were always so good to me. I can't imagine you…"

Hard lines etched themselves across Paolo's face. Concern, understanding. Determination. "I understand what you are thinking. I know. I have thought about this many times. But I promise you Melody, I will never use the Killing Curse."

"But—if you want to kill him, you—"

"My father had a dagger. Ancient. Enchanted." Paolo pulled up the leg of his pants, and a metal blade glinted wickedly. Paolo removed the blade from its leather scabbard. "I will not even have to draw blood to rid the world of my father's killer. One prick and he will be turned to stone."

He held it out carefully to Melody. She wrapped her fingers around the hilt and tried not to move as Paolo gently removed his hands from underneath the blade. "Is there any way to reverse it? Turning people to stone, I mean."

Paolo shook his head. "None that I have heard of." He grinned then, more wickedly than Melody had ever seen him. "Especially not when the victim is broken into a thousand pieces and thrown into the sea."

"Have you ever…used it?"

"Of course. I had to practice."

"On…on what?"

Paolo's expression softened. "On a dummy. On pillows. I had to practice throwing it."

"But on anything…living?"

"Ah, that. Yes, Melody, but never in a terrible way. Never on a person." Melody must have still looked distressed, because Paolo's expression softened further and he gave her a small smile. "On rats, Melody," he said gently. "Rats that got into the apartment and scared my sister."

"Oh," Melody said, relaxing a bit and considering the dagger in her hand. In one way, she couldn't believe Paolo had this, but in another…she understood exactly why he wanted to use it. "And this was your father's?"

"_Si_. It was given to my family centuries ago, a great gift from one of the Emperors of Rome."

"A Roman Emperor? Are you serious?"

Paolo grinned. "It is the proud part of my family's heritage. My father's ancestors, some of them were the great personal bodyguards of the Emperor."

"Which emperor?"

Paolo grinned. "Well, there were several. My family was full of good warriors, good bodyguards, and for decades my ancestors served in the Praetorian Guard, a special group of soldiers selected as bodyguards of the Roman Emperor. They all had to be Italians, and they lived in the city of Rome. They were elite, paid more than any of the other soldiers, and carried the legacy of the great emperor Augustus, who was the first to have them formed." His chest puffed out a little in pride, but then he grinned at Melody and deflated somewhat. "Of course, the relationship between the emperor and his personal guard was not always perfect."

"Oh?"

"There is a long history of the Praetorian guard assassinating the emperors they were supposed to be guarding."

Melody laughed. "I'm sorry, that shouldn't be funny."

Paolo gave a little half-grin. "Well, some of the emperors should not have been emperors. The first killed by his own guard—it was Calligula, I think—was crazy. He wanted to make his horse a consul, I think, and told soldiers to bring back seashells from battle as…prizes of war."

Melody really laughed now. "That's terrible. No wonder they killed him."

"_Si_. The members of the guard had hard choices to make."

Melody looked at Paolo with new respect. He was not just talking about the guard anymore. "So," she said, examining the dagger with newfound interest, "which Emperor gave your ancestors this dagger that can turn things into stone?"

"Titus. I think history calls him one of the Five Good Emperors."

Melody frowned. "I don't know that I've heard of him."

Paolo grinned. "Well, they probably don't teach Roman history very well in England. If Shakespeare didn't write a play about it, why bother learning it, right?"

Melody stuck her tongue out at him. "Just because Julius Caesar is the first emperor who comes to mind when I think about Rome doesn't mean I don't know _anything_ about Roman history."

"Oh, really? Well then you should be able to tell me whether or not Caesar came before or after Titus."

"That's not fair, I don't even know when Titus was the emperor."

"It was in the first century A.D."

"All right. Well…Caesar is more famous, so I'm going to guess…after?"

Paolo really laughed now. "He came long before. Before Antony and Cleopatra, even. And you have heard that legend?"

"Yes," Melody said, feeling slightly more annoyed now.

"And you should know, too, that Caesar was not truly an emperor. He began ruling as one of three—"

"I know, I know, the first triumvirate, right? I'm not completely clueless."

Paolo grinned. "That's right. And he—"

"Hey now, what are you, a walking textbook? Tell me more about the dagger." Melody held the object up for emphasis. "This thing has to be like…two thousand years old, right? That's insane. I can't believe it stayed in your family so long."

"Well, it is an object of great value. You cannot simply let these things slip away."

"No, I suppose not."

"Besides, it is more valuable than simply a gift from an emperor. The way my father told it, the emperor didn't even know what he was giving away. It had somehow ended up in his collection, probably put there by some wizard who was afraid of what he had and didn't want to be suspected of magic. It is likely the emperor had never used it before, and did not even know what it could do."

"But your ancestors found out."

"Yes, quickly. They recognized it for what it was—a legend at the time. Though I doubt many have heard of it now."

"Well what is it?" Melody pressed.

"It's called _Il Pugnale di Medusa_."

"The…dagger of Medusa?" Melody guessed, and Paolo nodded, grinning. Melody frowned. "I thought Medusa was part of a _Greek_ myth."

"_Si_, she was. But the Romans conquered Greece, did they not?"

"I suppose they did."

Paolo grinned. "So there you go." His smile faded somewhat. He reached his hand out and Melody gently rested the dagger on it. "And now I must use Medusa's suffering to ease my father's. Wherever he may be."

Melody looked at Paolo long, hard, seriously. "Paolo?" she managed after a while.

He looked up at her briefly. "Hm?"

"Be careful."

* * *

Sirius and Schmundertoe returned more quickly than Lily and James anticipated.

"All right," Schmundertoe said quickly, nervously. He flicked his wand at his desk and it sailed across the room, smashing into the far wall. Schmundertoe didn't seem to notice. "Listen very carefully, both of you. I want you to hold the necklace up between you so that the pendant is sticking upward. You must both be holding the necklace—this is very important."

Lily and James fumbled with the chain, Lily's hands still shaky, with both their hands and the necklace now a little sweaty because Lily and James had clasped their hands together over it. Lily and James wound the chain around their fingers and each gently grasped the small cursive "L," so that it stood upright in the air between them.

"Good," Schmundertoe said, looking more and more nervous. "Now please, listen—listen. I want you to hold the pendant up so that it is in between your lips. And in a few moments when we cast this spell, you are going to press your lips together with the pendant in between you. All right? But—NO NOT YET!" Lily and James jerked backwards. Apparently they had started leaning in too soon. But they were all nervous, jumpy, all wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, and Lily was prepared to do whatever it took to feel normal again.

"This is very important—very important," Schmundertoe continued. "We must do this at the exact right moment. You cannot kiss too soon, not too late. It must be at the exact _moment_ we cast our spells, and we both must cast at the same time. Do you understand?"

Lily and James nodded quickly. Lily, still feeling tired—_so­_ tired—tired and shaky and terrified—managed a glance over at Sirius. He was clutching his wand very tightly, but surprisingly he looked like the least nervous one in the room. It was extremely reassuring, in that moment, to see Sirius standing there so straight and motionless and confident, not looking terrified but rather grimly determined, his mouth set into a firm resolved line, his wand already cocked in preparation.

James was doing everything he could, but surprisingly it was the sight of Sirius that calmed Lily down enough to listen to Schmundertoe and prepare herself for whatever was to come.

Lily looked back at James. Their eyes met slowly. Whatever happened, she knew, they had done what they could. James had done more than enough. And Lily wanted to tell him so.

But just as she opened her mouth to do so, Schmundertoe spoke again. "All right," he said, and wiped his hands on his pants before gripping his wand carefully. "Are we ready?"

No one spoke. Lily and James stared at each other. _I love you_ was poised on Lily's lips, but she never got a chance to say it.

"All right, ready? Good—now. NOW!"

Lily jerked when she realized he'd said now, and leaned forward, vaguely aware that on either side of her Sirius and Schmundertoe were waving their wands wildly, and that suddenly two sparks of light burst from the tips of their respective wands, racing right for her—racing for her and James as they leaned—leaned—

Lily wanted to watch, but in the split second before the two bursts of magic light reached her she became terrified, and squeezed her eyes shut against whatever was about to happen, and crashed her lips against James's, the firm metal of the "L" pendant smushed awkwardly between them.

And in that moment, Lily was glad she'd closed her eyes, because suddenly the spell exploded between them, and bright light shot even through Lily's eyelids, and swept into her body, and suddenly—

Warmth. Warmth bubbled out of nowhere, sending happy tingles spreading all over Lily's body, and she seemed to be growing—blossoming—and then a thousand of the tingles, tingles, at her lips, and they moved into her and poured down her throat, blossomed in her chest, and then flowed, flowed—down into her legs, up into her head, through the tips of her fingers, down the length of her frizzy, half-electrocuted hair—

Lily wasn't even aware that James's arms were around her or that they had their mouths open, still pressed against each other, until she realized that their kissing had pressed the necklace pendant into her mouth, and although kissing James felt good, having half a necklace in her mouth was a very strange sensation indeed. Lily pulled away, slowly, and awkwardly pulled the necklace out of her mouth. _Ew_, she thought, and opened her eyes finally, to see James's eyes staring back into her own. She had a hundred other things she wanted to say and do, but for some reason the first thing she said when she registered that James's face was still only inches from hers was, "I love you." Which, coincidentally, was the first thing James decided to say, at approximately the same moment, and the chorus of their voices sent another rumbling of tingles moving inside Lily, and she couldn't help wrapping her arms around James's neck and kissing him again, ignoring the still-damp necklace chain now dangling from her fingers.

The kiss was cleaner this time, _sans_ necklace, but still made Lily feel warm and happy and complete, even without—

Wait. What was going on? One second Lily was a total mess, feeling like she might collapse at any minute, and the next second she was kissing James like they were all alone in a broom closet and everything was fine. And furthermore, suddenly she _felt_ fine?

Lily had half a mind to pull away from James and glare at Sirius and Schmundertoe and demand to know what was happening. But the strange thing was—she couldn't. She deeply thought about doing this, but somehow none of these thoughts made it anywhere close to her nerves. The desire to move didn't quite send the right pulses to her hands to _make_ them move. Or to her lips, for that matter. Or to her eyes, which she kind of wished would pop open so she could at least see if Sirius and Schmundertoe were all right. Or if they were still even there. She kind of got the feeling they weren't.

But then the world closed in around her, and Lily forgot there were other things and other people she should be thinking about, and let the happiness bubble inside her, and her cheeks flush from excitement, and she let James pull her into his lap and she wrapped herself around him and forgot everyone and everything, especially the little gold necklace chain that was still dangling from her fingers, drizzling itself halfway down James's neck.

* * *

Sirius couldn't believe he'd done it. Just one spell, and it was exhausting. But it was a spell he'd learned in less than three minutes, and it had actually _worked_. Sirius still didn't know exactly what it had done—although Schmundertoe promised to reveal everything as soon as Lily and James were done snogging, which according to the jeweler could last anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour. In the meantime, Sirius and Schmundertoe were enjoying nice refreshing cups of tea, and planning to take very restful naps, because quite frankly the spell had exhausted both of them.

It had been part Cheering Charm, part Love Spell, part of a unity spell and some sort of inanimate object spell, a splicing spell and a couple other spells Sirius really didn't understand and Schmundertoe hadn't had time to explain, but he promised Sirius that if his intentions were good and his wand movements right and he could silently cast it with all the right words floating around in his head, it would work.

And apparently, it had. Although, even though Schmundertoe had tried to warn Sirius about the effect the cheering charm and the love spell would have, Sirius still had not been entirely prepared for the way Lily and James…_attacked_ each other.

The most Schmundertoe would say about the spell was that the cheering part and the love spell part were mostly there to help along what the _real_ effect of the spell was supposed to do—which would have been helpful knowledge, if only Sirius knew what the spell was _really_ supposed to be doing.

But right now, Sirius didn't have to worry about that. He just had to worry about finishing his tea and stretching out on one of the large couches Schmundertoe had conjured for a nap, and try not to think about what exactly it was Lily and James were doing in Schmundertoe's office.

* * *

The game of Exploding Snap was rather half-assed, although somehow Peter managed to be winning extraordinarily. On a normal day, Mimi might have cared more, but today Mimi had far too many problems occupying her brain, not the least of which included Lily and Remus's werewolfish-ness. Funnily enough, however, she wasn't expending energy worrying about either of those. Instead she was thinking about the Fourth Year, Lin, and her…her…gift?

Was it a gift to see visions of people who were about to die? Or, at the very least, visions of people who were in mortal peril. If Lin was a Seer, Mimi had never heard of one with such unusual powers. When most Seers prophesized, they did not remember their prophecies. They went into a sort of trance, and only the people who were around to bear witness actually heard the prophecy.

Then again, Lin wasn't exactly prophesizing, was she? She was having visions. Mimi itched for her Divination books. As far as she knew, she was the only one of her friends currently taking Divination—or at least, the only one of her friends currently present at Potter's Cottage who was taking Divination. Otherwise she might've asked the boys if they remembered anything about Seers just having plain old visions. Premonitions, perhaps. Mimi vaguely remembered something about this, but they had studied it in Fourth or Fifth Year, Mimi couldn't remember which, and it clearly hadn't been a very extensive study of premonitions, or…whatever it was Lin was having, otherwise surely Mimi would remember.

Much of the study of Divination now was active—reading palms, tea leaves, that sort of thing, and practicing with the crystal balls, examining the movements of the stars, working with different sorts of charms and pendants and things to try to divine where the objects had been and where they might end up. The textbook part of the class was almost entirely devoted to studying the works of Cassandra Trelawney and trying to decode the meanings of various prophecies.

Bugger. None of that was helpful right now. Mimi took her turn at Exploding Snap, but racked her brain for answers. She vaguely remembered something about…pain…about extreme pain, or other extreme emotions, opening the mind to different…levels of perception, was it?

Yes…yes, something about…times of extreme emotion…if you were…how had it been phrased? Something about wizards…going through times of extreme emotion…became more…in tune?...aware?...of the extreme emotions of others, almost like…every emotion was on a wavelength, and if you could tune into the right wavelength, you could pick up people's emotions. And Lin…maybe Lin was just tuned in right now. On the right frequency, she could pick up other people's emotions and…and in her case, that translated to visions.

Did that make _any_ sense?

Mimi didn't know, but she decided to discuss it with the boys and find out.

* * *

Lily and James's surge of hormones ebbed, and they pulled away from each other, still tangled up in one of Schmundertoe's large, comfortable chairs. Lily felt drowsy. Her lips were puffy and throbbing, but in a good way. She was flushed from her head to her feet, but that felt good too. Even so, Lily's head was a bit out of sorts. She looked at James, and his expression suggested he was feeling a bit out of sorts as well.

Lily took a moment to gather herself, and registered that, for the first time in days, she felt completely fine. She could feel the necklace still wrapped around her fingers. Good. She still had it. That meant she still had the opportunity to feel perfectly satisfied as she threw it away.

Wait. What?

Lily brought her hand out from behind James's neck, and the necklace still dangled happily from her fingers. The chain glimmered gold in the room's light, and—wait. No. _What_? Lily shook her head. She had no idea what was going on here. All she remembered was stumbling into Schmundertoe's, feeling very distressed about…something…and then suddenly she was having a massive snog with James, and now her necklace looked like it was back to normal, and…

"What the bloody hell just happened?" James demanded.

Ah. So apparently Lily wasn't alone in her confusion. She didn't look at James, though. She kept staring at her necklace. "I don't know," she replied, frowning. "But we should go find Schmundertoe."

She attempted to get out of the chair, which was more difficult than it seemed.She had somehow gotten her legs wrapped around and kind of—under—James, and both her feet had fallen asleep in the process. Lily ended up sort of tumbling out of the chair and onto the floor, and James laughed at her. Lily glared at him as he got up and helped her to her feet.

"Yeah, sure, laugh at the girl who just gave you a good snog." Lily began stomping her feet as they walked across the room.

"I wasn't laughing _at_ you, I just…Lily, _what_ are you doing?"

Lily was hopping up and down and cursing. "What? Both my feet fell asleep."

James waited patiently while Lily hopped and cursed and shook both her legs out and hopped around some more. "Better now?" he asked when Lily appeared to have finished.

"Yeah. Let's find Schmundertoe." She slipped her left hand into James's and held the necklace up with her right, staring at the evil little thing and wondering how something so small and innocent-looking could cause so much trouble.

* * *

Bellatrix had a new mission: find Siegfried. It wasn't an official mission—not from the Dark Lord or anything—but Siegfried hadn't been home to sleep in several days, and Bellatrix was beginning to worry. He had been home occasionally—that much was obvious from the way the liquor cabinet continued to empty. But Bellatrix was somehow never there when Siegfried came home to raid the cabinets, and so she was never there to try to intervene, to talk some sense into him, to make him stop.

She missed him. It had never occurred to her before that she might miss him. She had been so furious with him lately that all she wanted to do was curse at him and hurt him, and she had begun to forget that they shared more than just fabulous sex. The only problem was that Bellatrix wasn't quite sure where to start looking for him.

Although Bellatrix and Siegfried spent most of their time together, there wasn't really any place they frequented. They were far too busy trying to carry on their normal lives, plus follow the orders of the Dark Lord, for that sort of thing.

So Bellatrix did the only thing she could think of. She showed up at Siegfried's cousin Rodolphus's flat and demanded to know if anyone had any idea where the hell Siegfried might be.

* * *

Lily stared at Schmundertoe with her mouth hanging blatantly open. Her brain simply refused to process what Schmundertoe had just told her.

Apparently, her soul had been spliced. Lily hadn't been aware that it was possible for something like that to happen, but according to Schmundertoe, it was. This brought back a vague memory of something Schmundertoe had said the first time she'd met him. Something about people preserving their souls in inanimate objects; Dark magic…Hoaxes, they were called. Or…Cruxes. Or…Horxes. Never mind. That wasn't important. What _was_ important was the state of Lily's soul.

According to Schmundertoe, it was all back together again, safely inside her body, coexisting peacefully, and...wait—_co_existing?

Lily's brain tried to remember what Schmundertoe had said about this as well. She tried to remember everything, in fact, because right now it was all sort of a jumble.

When the Avada Kedavra spell hit her, Schmundertoe said, the necklace had tried to absorb its impact, but the spell was too strong for the necklace to handle. Instead of being able to absorb or stop the spell, the necklace had grabbed a piece of Lily's soul as it was separated from her body. And the rest of her soul, hovering somewhere in space, apparently hadn't wanted to be separated from the little bit of the soul her necklace had captured.

At least, this was the idea Schmundertoe had come up with after demanding to know everything that had happened, and after viewing Lily's dream—along with James and Sirius—in the Pensieve. He thought that the spirits in the dream who had tried to attack Lily's necklace were trying to grab it because it contained part of her living soul, that was in some way connected to her living body, and though all those souls were still in existence, none of them were what you could call living.

"But then…why didn't I feel so terrible right after I was attacked? Why didn't I feel like I was going to fall apart until this morning?" Lily asked.

Schmundertoe blinked at her from behind his large, round glasses. "Did you feel all right when you woke up? After you were attacked, did you feel normal?"

Lily thought. "I felt tired. Exhausted."

"But then she got better," Sirius said. "Didn't you? I mean, you seemed all right."

"She seemed distracted," James said. "She couldn't focus."

Lily agreed. "All I could think about was this." She held up the necklace.

Schmundertoe nodded.

"I don't understand," Lily blurted. "You said the necklace had no mind of its own. You said it was just an inanimate object. So how could it—how could it know to do that? To my _soul_?"

"You said it carries memories, didn't you?" Sirius said. "Could that have anything to do with it?"

James seemed to agree with Sirius. "Right. If it's not alive it can't _learn_, exactly, but at least if it can hold on to memories, it could be sort of...charmed not to repeat failed spells, couldn't it?"

"Yes," Schmundertoe nodded. "That is what I was thinking."

"That doesn't explain anything," Lily snapped. "I still don't understand how the necklace could have done what it did. It would have to have been…been charmed to recognize that spell, right? To react to that spell in a certain way? And…if I didn't do anything special to the necklace except _wear_ it, how could it become connected to my soul closely enough to…steal a bit of it?"

Schmundertoe considered for a moment. "I'm not sure how closely an object would need to be tied to your soul to splice part of it. And I don't know exactly what the necklace did or how it did it. All I have are guesses. However…I think you make a good point. I think the maker of the necklace would have had to be aware of a spell like _Avada Kedavra _in order for the necklace to have any kind of protection against it."

"But that's not possible," Sirius said.

"And why not?" Schmundertoe asked.

"Because the necklace was made by Godric Gryffindor," Sirius pointed out.

"That's right," Lily agreed, understanding Sirius's meaning. "The Founders lived a thousand years ago. _Avada Kedavra_ hadn't been invented yet."

"You don't think so?" Schmundertoe asked.

The way he said it made Lily unsure. "Well…the first known use of _Avada Kedavra_ wasn't until the 1300's."

"First _known_ use," Sirius muttered.

Schmundertoe considered. "I think there are a lot of questions you need answered. I don't think I can answer them for you."

"But?" James prompted.

"However," Schmundertoe said, smiling, "now that the necklace is off your neck, I wonder if you wouldn't mind leaving it with me for a few days."

"Here," Lily said, her arm shooting out. "I wouldn't mind leaving it with you forever."

Schmundertoe was surprised. "This necklace was made to protect you. And it did. It saved your life."

"No," James said flatly. "The necklace was made to protect _someone_. We don't know who."

Lily nodded. "That's true. Who can say if the necklace was ever meant to last this long at all?"

Schmundertoe's smile grew a little sad. "Any magical object that lasts a thousand years was probably intended to, Miss Evans."

Lily suddenly felt guilty for being so quick to give her necklace away. "Even so," she said, standing quickly, "I have no trouble parting with it. At least for a few days. Or…however long you need it." She held it out over Schmundertoe's desk, letting it dangle until Schmundertoe finally held his hand out and accepted it.

She stood and watched as Schmundertoe pulled his wand out and conjured a key out of midair to open one of his desk drawers, where he stored the necklace in a plush little jewelry box. "I will take good care of it," he promised, and only then did Lily sit down.

Lily hesitated a moment with her question. "What did you mean about my soul…co-existing?"

Schmundertoe had to hesitate before answering. "The spell we performed was meant to pull the piece of your soul the necklace seized out of the necklace and put it back in your body. I couldn't have managed a spell that fused the two pieces of your soul back together."

"You mean I couldn't have," Sirius said.

Schmundertoe looked at him very sharply. "We had no time to prepare. Neither of us could have done any better than we did."

"He's right, Sirius," Lily said. "I'm all in one piece again. I…think."

"Your soul will put itself back together eventually."

"Eventually?" Lily echoed.

"Sooner rather than later. I promise." Schmundertoe was trying to sound reassuring, Lily thought, but her stomach still twisted around unpleasantly. Awkward silence descended, and Schmundertoe considered Lily for a moment before continuing. "You won't feel any pain," he promised. "At least, not any physical pain. But there will be…mood swings. Sudden, inexplicable. Some moments of dizziness, or fainting spells perhaps."

"Oh, great," Lily muttered.

"But once it's all over, everything will be back to normal."

James, Lily, and Sirius just stared.

"Well. Your soul will be back in one piece, at any rate."

"Thank you," Lily said softly.

"There is one other thing," Schmundertoe said, just as the teenagers were glancing at each other, thinking that now might be a good time to leave. They all froze and stared across the table at the white-haired old man who seemed to have all the answers—even though he had just finished saying that he didn't.

"Yes?" Lily said.

"I think, if possible, you should try to meet the maker of this necklace."

Everyone stared at him.

"You mean Godric Gryffindor?" James said blankly.

"Well…yes," Schmundertoe said. "I know that it seems a little far-fetched, but…well, the first time I examined the necklace I thought I picked up traces of a time-travel spell. I'm not sure what it will amount to, but once I have had time to examine the necklace properly, to strip down all the enchantments and figure out what they can be used for…it may be possible."

Lily stared at him. "Travel back a thousand years to talk to one of the four founders of Hogwarts to ask him about a _necklace_?"

Schmundertoe did not hesitate. "Yes. If you ever want to know how it was created or how to properly use it, you need to do this. If you can."

Lily got a bitter taste in her mouth. "I think at this point I'd rather destroy the necklace than figure out how to…_use_ it."

Schmundertoe frowned. "Even so…in order to do that, you would need to talk to its creator. It would be very difficult to destroy an object of such power without understanding how it was made."

Lily nodded. "All right. We'll think about it. If it's possible."

Schmundertoe nodded as well. "Very well. Lily, I think you had better go home and rest."

Lily nodded again, although she had a feeling that, even if she did go home, she would not be able to rest.

* * *

When Sirius stepped out of the fireplace into Potter's Cottage behind Lily and James, Melody was waiting for him. With Paolo.

Melody greeted Lily and James first, appropriately expressing her relief and happiness that Lily had returned safely. But Lily was exhausted, so she and James excused themselves rather quickly. Melody gave Lily a hug and told her to feel better, but Sirius could tell she wasn't overly concerned that Lily wanted to go rest. She was up to something.

When Lily and James were gone, Melody turned to Sirius. "I hope everything's okay," she said, tipping forward onto the balls of her feet nervously. She managed to look hesitant and impatient at the same time.

"It's better than it was." Sirius said. He didn't feel like asking her what she was up to, but he also didn't want to make small talk, so he just stared at her and waited for her to say what she was waiting to say.

Melody looked at him for a while, her golden brown eyes dancing over his face, her teeth biting down with some concern over her bottom lip. Paolo hovered awkwardly in the background.

Finally Melody made up her mind, and she walked over to Sirius and took one of his hands in hers. "Sirius, we need your help."

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her, and Melody's eyes flickered in realization. "Paolo," she amended, "needs your help."

Sirius looked at Paolo. Paolo wasn't quite as tall as Sirius, but he was still quite a bit taller than Melody, and he looked confident. A sort of priggish confidence, though, wasn't it? He looked like one of those smooth-talking prats, the kind who would lead a girl on and never commit and only go back to them when he needed them for something.

Sirius didn't particularly like Paolo. He hadn't much liked Paolo's participation in the conversation last night, either. He'd been full of touchy-feely philosophical comments, with that prat-ish Italian accent (which _had_ to be put on; he spoke English just fine, damn it), like, "Maybe it is not about any power of any necklace. Maybe it is about the bond that these two share." As if he knew anything about James and Lily. So what if he brought them in out of an alley where Lily was supposedly dying—well, whoop dee doo. How capital for him, and didn't he deserve tea and crumpets?

Sirius felt like snorting derisively, but decided that this would be inappropriate, since Paolo hadn't said anything recently worthy of a derisive snort.

Instead, Sirius settled for tightening his grip on Melody's hand slightly, and raising his eyebrows as if to say, "Well?"

Paolo hesitated. He was coming up with some touchy-feely bullshit to say, Sirius could just tell. Sirius prepared his nose for derisive snorting.

"Please," Paolo began. Sirius let that one slide. "This is very important to me."

Sirius snorted mentally. What a prat. Did he think anyone actually _bought_ that accent?

"I need you to help me find a man," Paolo continued.

Sirius decided to play along. "What man?" he asked, trying to sound melodramatic without Melody realizing he was trying to sound melodramatic.

Paolo looked at him very long, very seriously, his large bushy Italian eyebrows furrowing in concentration, as if to say, "Look at us! We're big furry Italian eyebrows and we take ourselves way too seriously!"

Sirius had to concentrate hard not to snort in laughter this time, and he hoped the furrowing of his own eyebrows would say, "Yes, we're taking you very seriously," and not, "My eyebrows are silently laughing at your eyebrows because your eyebrows look like miniature ferrets."

He was having a little too much fun with this. He glanced over at Melody. She was looking at Sirius very seriously. Very hopefully. Very earnestly. Sirius was, frankly, a little astonished. Could his own girlfriend really be ridiculous enough to buy into all of this? _This _was supposed to be sexy Italian Paolo, with the ferret-like eyebrows and absurd accent and melodramatic missing persons report? What was wrong with girls these days? How could Melody _possibly_ take any of this seriously?

Wait, no. Scratch that. It was _Melody_. Of _course_ she bought into all of this. She _lived_ for this kind of ridiculous melodrama. No wonder she was so obsessed with Paolo.

Sirius was glad he wasn't that much of a prat. It was a good thing Melody had finally come to her senses and chosen to go out with a real man.

Or…something along those lines.

Anyway. The ferrets on Paolo's forehead were still staring at Sirius with a sense of solemn urgency, so Sirius decided to play along.

"Well," he said reasonably, "what's this man's name?"

The ferrets twitched. "Rodolphus Lestrange."

Sirius's own ferrets—eyebrows—shot up. (_His_ eyebrows didn't look like small fuzzy creatures that had been pinned down somewhat haphazardly to his forehead. Surely not.) He felt a small amount of concern for Paolo. Rodolphus Lestrange was not the sort of person Sirius wanted to help anyone seek out, not even someone who was as big of a prat as Paolo.

"Why do you need to find him?"

There was a big moment of melodramatic hesitation in which Paolo looked at Sirius, and then over at Melody, and then Paolo and Melody had a Moment, and then Melody looked back at Sirius, and then back at Paolo, and then both Melody and Paolo looked over at Sirius, and Sirius did not pay much attention to any of this because he was still staring at the ferrets perched on Paolo's forehead. They were twitching. One of them climbed slightly father up Paolo's forehead as Paolo turned his gaze back to Sirius, apparently preparing for a big confession.

Sirius waited for it. This was going to be good, he could tell. The ferrets were getting very tense about it.

"He killed my father," Paolo said.

Sirius couldn't help himself. He snorted. Or maybe _snorked_ is more appropriate. Either way, a very rude sound of amusement shot out from Sirius's nose, and the ferrets had the good sense to look surprised.

So did Melody. She squeezed Sirius's hand angrily—well, more like tried to crush his bones beneath her delicate, pretty fingers—and Sirius started to regain his wits. "What?" he asked Melody, and she frowned at him, offended on Paolo's behalf.

"What's the matter with you? Do you think this is funny?"

Melody did not have ferret-like eyebrows. She, in fact, had very beautiful eyebrows, eyebrows that were thin and graceful and artistically angled over her large, jewel-like, golden-brown eyes…eyes that were currently looking at him like he'd just spilled a pan of bubotuber pus all over himself.

"Oh," Sirius said, clearing his throat. "I was—I mean—there was a—thing—I had an allergic snorting—reaction to the, um—thingies in the, er—air."

Melody continued to look un-amused, and shook her head at him slightly, scoldingly, back and forth as if to say, _Why do I waste my time with you, you immature prat_?

Really, though, what Sirius thought she should be saying was, "Gee, Sirius, I'm glad you don't take yourself too seriously because this Paolo fellow is a real downer."

Sirius noted the thin pursing of Melody's mouth, the angry line of…anger…between her eyebrows, and the burning sensation of annoyance (that was just emanating off her very being) filling the air, and decided that maybe now was not the time for jokes.

"Sorry," he said briefly, and looked back at Paolo. The ferrets—eyebrows—looked somewhat more at ease.

Paolo was all business. He had clearly lost all hope of sympathy from Sirius, and the ferrets had stopped twitching at him with what possibly was supposed to have been anguish. (But really, with eyebrows like that, who could tell?)

"Can you tell me where to find him?"

Sirius realized, with a sinking sense of doom, that, yes, he could tell Paolo where to find him. His conscience strolled into his brain briefly and sat down, evaluating the situation. _Nice time of year for vacationing_, his conscience noted. Sirius guessed that that was a sign Paolo probably shouldn't be going on any life-or-death missions right now. _He could try Majorca_, the conscience suggested. Then it got distracted and started to wander off. No, wait—it stopped a moment to stare at something. The ferrets. _How peculiar_. Then, with little more than a final glance at the ferrets and an offhand glance at Melody (_stick with it, she's pretty_, the conscience suggested), it started humming to itself and wandered off again, closing the door behind it.

Great. Well, _that_ had been illuminating.

"He lives in London," Sirius said. "I'm not sure where exactly. His cousin is sort of engaged to my cousin, so…." He thought for a moment. His conscience came storming back in, furious. _I said Majorca, damn it, MAJORCA!_

Sirius decided to ignore this. His conscience was rarely in its right mind, and even then it was little known to be prophetic. "Last I heard they were living somewhere in Knightsbridge. There's a pub near there, The Boar's Leg. That's where I'd start."

Paolo nodded. The ferrets bristled in anticipation. "Thank you."

Melody let go Sirius's hand and went across the room to tell Paolo good-bye, looking very sad and anxious and warning him to be careful, finally giving him a hug before he disappeared into the fireplace.

Sirius didn't say anything, didn't even bother to be jealous. He just stared at Paolo's ferret-brows the whole time and wondered, vaguely, if he wasn't a little bit out of his mind.

* * *

Rodolphus was a very amiable host. Bellatrix had appeared at his flat in the afternoon, when he was preparing for a party, and he had graciously invited Bellatrix to stay. His friends were pleasant enough—some of them she was familiar with, and some of them not—and all of them appeared to know how to hold their liquor, which was a pleasant change.

It was frustrating, though, to have to sit through an evening of party games and conversation when she was really burning to know where Siegfried might be. Bellatrix had hardly had time to broach the subject with Rodolphus before the first guest showed up, and she thought it would be uncouth to pursue the subject as long as there was company over.

So Bellatrix sat patiently through the evening, drinking, laughing, engaging in meaningless small talk and warding off the unexpected advances of one of Rodolphus's old Hogwarts friends. She waited as the guests trickled out to go on their various ways, waited as the last guest lingered, throwing increasingly inebriated passes at Bellatrix before Rodolphus finally showed him out the door (though of course his level of drunkenness was nothing compared to what Bellatrix was used to with Siegfried), and waited patiently for the right moment for conversation as she helped Rodolphus clean up a bit, and then sat at the kitchen table as he fixed them each a nightcap. It seemed implied that Bellatrix would stay at Rodolphus's flat for the night, seeing as it was already very late and Bellatrix had no one to go home to—that much, at least, she had managed to get out before the first guest had arrived.

"So," Rodolphus said, handing Bellatrix a drink and joining her at the table. "When was the last time you saw Siegfried?"

Bellatrix sighed and took a drink. "It's been a few days. We've been fighting, though I'm not sure how much he remembers of these arguments, considering the state he's usually in when they happen."

Rodolphus considered this unfortunate circumstance. It was very evident, Bellatrix noted, that he and Siegfried were related. They both had the same dark coloring, the same mop of thick curly hair—though, thankfully, Rodolphus kept his neatly trimmed. Their noses and chins were a bit different, but overall their face structure was similar, and their eyes—well, Rodolphus's dark brown eyes were eerily reminiscent of Siegfried's, though they lacked the cloud of confusion that was nearly always present in Siegfried's eyes. These days, anyway. He had been different before…so much different.

Bellatrix took a long drink of her nightcap and closed her eyes against the burning sensation. _Too much at once_, she decided, and took a moment to gather herself before looking back up at Rodolphus.

The way he was looking at her unnerved her a little.

She had forgotten how Rodolphus had liked her, once. The summer after she left Durmstrang, she had spent a lot of time with Siegfried's family. Rodolphus had always been exceptionally friendly—moreso than Siegfried liked. Bellatrix had never put much stock in it (she'd always just thought they were joking around), but looking at Rodolphus now she realized Siegfried may have had a point. Since Siegfried had descended into his drunken stupor, she had become much more aware of the way men's gazes lingered on her figure, her hair, her dark eyes and fantastically enormous eyelids and lashes.

Rodolphus looked at her now plainly, unreservedly, unashamed. He wanted her.

Siegfried hadn't looked at her like that in so long.

Something besides gin burned inside Bellatrix, and, more vehemently than usual, she thought, _To hell with Siegfried_.

She looked back at Rodolphus, enticingly, and for a long moment they stared at each other and forgot what they'd been talking about. Then Rodolphus leaned across the table, and Bellatrix seized the opportunity to meld her mouth into his.

In less than five minutes they were on the floor, and Rodolphus's hands were sliding over her, and Bellatrix pressed herself against him and tried to forget all about Siegfried.

* * *

Fog curled through the streets of London. Paolo blessed the weather. He didn't like the idea of someone sneaking up behind him in the fog, exactly, but he did not want anyone to see what was about to be done, either.

He had found the bar. He had seen Lestrange. Lestrange was a drunk—a terrible, hideous drunk—and Paolo's only regret was that he wouldn't be sober enough to understand who was killing him. But it would be done, at last. At last Paolo's father's killer would be undone.

Paolo slipped into the shadows by an alley and lit a cigarette, waiting. He didn't smoke normally, but it didn't matter. He just had to look like he was doing something. He stood.

She emerged eventually. Paolo watched her. Tight skirt, fishnet leggings, heels. Lestrange's whore. Lestrange had gone off with her the last two nights, and last night Paolo followed them. He had waited while Lestrange went upstairs with her, and when they had come back down, Lestrange had slobbered out that he'd be coming back for more. So Paolo came back, again, and again, and waited.

The fog thickened. Paolo stood patiently, smoking. The whore looked nervous, shifting from side to side, pacing back and forth, antsy in the fog. The few passersby either stumbled or walked past silently, heads down, minding their own business. It was a slow night of this part of London, hampered further by the fog. A Jack the Ripper sort of night, wasn't it?

Paolo fingered the hilt of his dagger and almost grinned. He'd moved it to a scabbard around his waist for the night, hidden by a long shirt. It would be faster, less noticeable than pulling the weapon out of his boot, even in the fog...plus he wanted the satisfaction of plunging the dagger in as quickly as possible. Paolo didn't need any fanfare or long speeches.

He just needed it to be done.

* * *

Rodolphus and Bellatrix had been making love for several days. Rodolphus would go out in the morning, go to work, and when he came back they'd make love. Afterwards they'd go out looking for Siegfried, fail to find him, and come back and make love again. It helped lift Bellatrix's depression.

Plus Rodolphus wasn't slobbering drunk when they did it, and that was a nice change.

Still, though. Bellatrix missed Siegfried. She couldn't exactly explain why, nor could she explain why she insisted on going off looking for him every night when he was clearly content to live without her. But even when Bellatrix slept with Rodolphus, even when she fell asleep in bed next to him with sticky sheets wrapped around her legs, her last waking image was of Siegfried, rowing through the massive icy lake around Durmstrang, taking her out to the island where _they'd _first made love, where they'd first discovered each other, where they'd made promises to each other that still burned behind Bellatrix's eyes when she thought about it long enough, where for the first time Bellatrix had looked at a boy and thought that it might not be so odious to spend the rest of your life with one after all.

Damn it.

Bellatrix paced the room, agitated. Rodolphus was an hour later than usual. Not that it mattered. Not that she had any say over his life. She'd only really been a part of it for a few days. But…still.

Rodolphus burst in suddenly, his cheeks flushed with chill.

"Bella, get your coat, we've got to go."

"But—"

"Come on, I found him."

Bellatrix didn't waste time arguing. "Where?" she asked, once they were both in the hallway.

She was a little disappointed they hadn't had time for anything else. She had been hoping for one last quickie before…well, never mind. She'd get Siegfried back now, and she'd sober him up, damn it, and that would be that.

Rodolphus led her down the stairs. "Bar a few blocks from here. I didn't see him actually, just went out for a few drinks after work. But I asked around, a few blokes said they'd seen him. Said he's been coming in for drinks for about a week now, stumbling round the bar, then running off with the same prostitute every night."

They were in the street now, making way, but Bellatrix halted. "_Prostitute_?"

Rodolphus turned back to her impatiently. "Well," he said flatly, "I don't suppose you can judge him too harshly for that."

Bellatrix stared at him. She thought quite wildly otherwise, and didn't appreciate his implication that—

She turned around and marched right back up to the apartment door, with every intention of going back up to Rodolphus's flat and gathering her things and leaving all the bloody Lestranges behind her forever.

Rodolphus stopped her hand on the door handle. "Bella," he said softly, near her ear. A faint scent of gin wafted over from his breath. At least it wasn't firewhisky. _At least he isn't drunk_. Rodolphus's hands closed over her arms and for a moment Bellatrix wondered if maybe he didn't really think of her as a prostitute. _It's just been you and Siegfried_, she thought of telling him. _I've only ever been with you and your damn cousin_. Though it could have been far more.

But then Rodolphus's lips landed on her forehead. _Prostitutes don't get kissed that way_, she guessed. She wouldn't really know, would she? But it was…nice.

Rodolphus's hands ran up and down her arms, caressing. "Bella," he said again. He brought his lips near her ear again, whispering. "If it had been anyone else but my cousin…he would have been out of your life a long time ago."

Tingles ran over Bellatrix's flesh, and she couldn't tell if they were good or not. Rodolphus kissed her, and for the first time it occurred to her just how much she might have betrayed Siegfried.

She let Rodolphus kiss her long and hard. It would be the last time she would let him.

So she told herself.

* * *

Lestrange came. He stumbled to the prostitute, happy, drunk. She looked relieved to see him, and took him quickly inside.

Paolo continued smoking and waited more. He would wait until Lestrange came out, wait until he was alone. The fog was thick enough now, if Paolo walked up behind him and stuck the dagger in, no one would even realize what had happened until Paolo was long gone.

It was a good plan, he thought.

He let the fog swirl around him and avoided thinking otherwise.

* * *

It was getting harder to see in the fog. Bellatrix and Rodolphus hurried through the streets, looking for the address before it became impossible to find. Bellatrix tripped over an uneven bit of sidewalk and swore. Her words were absorbed by the fog. She couldn't tell if there was anyone besides Rodolphus around to hear them.

They found the street and rushed down it as the fog closed in around them.

Paolo had to move to the other side of the street; it was getting too hard to see. He waited, more impatiently, and fingered the hilt of the dagger. Perhaps he'd left too much time for premeditation. Perhaps he'd—

Wait. There was the door creaking open. He heard giggling and drunken babbling. That was Lestrange. It had to be. The door opened and closed again, and Paolo waited and listened as footsteps shuffled in his direction. The dagger was out now, the hilt cool and smooth in Paolo's hand. His body vibrated, nervous, tense, angry—fearful.

He could see the figure. Unsteady footsteps. Lestrange stumbled closer, until Paolo could see his outline…then with more detail…then, suddenly his face. Paolo's body tensed further, poised, agonized. So this was it, wasn't it? This was the last time the face of his father's killer would meet the world. In a few seconds, that face would be stone. Paolo would come back to claim it later, and before long that stone face would be shattered and lying at the bottom of the sea. Or the Thames. Didn't matter.

Paolo didn't have time to process his thoughts. Lestrange stumbled toward him—toward him—yet further—glanced in his general direction—dismissed him—stumbled onward—Paolo looked at his back, regarded him for a second, and then—

The blade plunged in sickeningly smooth, sickeningly sweet, and by the time Paolo pulled it out there was no blood, just a small, vertical gash in the large stone statue standing in the middle of the street, shaped in the perfect image of Paolo's father's killer. Rodolphus Lestrange was dead.

Paolo stumbled backward, staring, trying to comprehend the moment.

But there was no time. Over the shoulder of the stone Lestrange appeared a pair of dark, heavily lidded eyes, and a woman's scream sliced through the fog like a scythe. Paolo covered his ears and stumbled backward, then turned to run, hoping she hadn't gotten a good look at his face.

The woman screamed out something incomprehensible—then again, this time a—a name—

"_RODOOOOLPHUS_!" she screeched. An odd, sickening jolt of satisfaction lurched through Paolo as he started running away.

Before he got much farther down the street he heard another voice, a man's, clearer, more imposing, angrier, and—

"_AVADA KEDAVRA_!"

* * *

The dagger fell out of Paolo's hand and clattered against the sidewalk. His neck snapped awkwardly to the side as he fell, and his cold glassy eyes stared in the direction of the apartment building where the whore worked.

No one noticed through the fog. No one noticed anything until the next morning, when the prostitute, stumbling out of the apartment building, dead with exhaustion, fishing through her purse to find the money for a pack of cigarettes, tripped over Paolo's body. She stumbled forward, heels clacking angrily on the ground, and turned back to glare at whatever heap of trash had been left outside her building.

When she saw the dead body, she didn't know whether to scream or cry or run away. She'd seen dead bodies before, but never like this. Never just lying in the middle of the street, the face a wide-eyed expression of confusion, as though the boy had been surprised to death. But at least it wasn't someone she knew. At least it wasn't one of her own.

She didn't scream, or cry, or run away. She couldn't think of anything to do but stand there and stare in wonder at the handsome young dead boy, who stared just as wonderingly back.

* * *

Once again they'd all ended up at Potter's Cottage for New Year's—the whole group, plus Peter's girlfriend Sophie. There was no big party this year, of course, but Mrs. Potter enjoyed entertaining them all the same. She had a lovely meal prepared, and they all sat around the dining room table acting like civilized adults for once, making actual conversation. Lily and James ended up sitting opposite from each other, next to the seat at one end of the table that Mrs. Potter occupied. Melody, Remus, and Peter shared Lily's side of the table, while Sirius, Mimi, and Sophie filled out the other. Mr. Potter's chair at the other end of the table was conspicuously empty.

It was odd, Lily reflected, that the Marauders all happened to have girlfriends at once, and that three of them happened to be dating girls who were all friends with each other. How common was that? It was nice, of course, but unusual. And…disturbingly convenient, in a way, that they all got along with each other the way they did.

Lily paused for a moment to reflect on that.

Well, perhaps they didn't get along quite as well as they liked to think they did. Certainly all was not perfect in Melody and Sirius land…and Mimi and Melody had only just made up…plus, it seemed, Mimi had only just got over Sirius, which made Lily wonder how stable she felt about her new relationship with Remus—who seemed to have some reservations about it himself, but probably, Lily thought, with good reason. Peter and Sophie seemed to get along swimmingly, although Sophie seemed, understandably, a bit out of her element in the presence of Peter's ridiculous friends.

Lily and James were actually doing quite fine, excepting the fact that Lily had just died and come back to life and had her soul spliced by an inanimate object and then put back together again by a boy who once made up a dance called the Potato Waltz and a man who made watches for a living.

The mood swings were a bit much, though. Lily went from hysterical laughter to hysterical tears sometimes in less than a second, and then jumped from that mood to anger, and from there to a very calm, philosophical state of being. It didn't make sense, and it was driving Lily up the wall. At the beginning of dinner Lily had been talking and joking with James about something, and Mrs. Potter had, perfectly innocently, handed her the bowl of mashed potatoes. When Lily reached over to take it, she accidentally knocked over a salt shaker with her elbow and ended up crying for a solid minute into the bowl of potatoes, which had to be replaced.

But never mind all that. It was still strange to think how they had come together like this. Would Lily have known a year ago that it would end up this way? Maybe so. Lily could still remember the days Mimi giggled over all the Marauders and debated which one she wanted to date first. That had been—how long ago had that been? A couple years, hadn't it?

Dear God—no. Really? Years? It had been _years_ ago that James had spilled his bottle of ink down Lily's front and Lily had sat in the Ravenclaw Common Room fuming while Mimi prattled on about all the cute boys she was thinking of dating? Years…goodness. They'd come such a long way, it seemed, and still at the same time…not at all. It had taken two years just for everyone to admit that they liked who they liked and for them all to enter into real relationships, finally, without childish reservations.

Not that they still weren't childish in many ways, but…but well, here they were anyway. They were growing up fast, Lily thought. It had only been six months ago that Lily had worked in the coffee shop with Ethan, so innocent and flirtatious and…well. It had been only…only six months ago that her father…her family…she…

One of Lily's mood swings claimed her violently, and, due to some unlucky timing on Melody's part, a second batch of mashed potatoes was ruined.

* * *

"Look, why can't I bid one?" Sirius demanded, frowning furiously at his hand of cards.

"Because you _can't_," Lily sighed, doodling impatiently in the margins of the score sheet with her quill.

"But I only _want_ one."

"I _know_ that. That's the _point_."

"Melody got to bid one."

Lily groaned and smacked herself in the head with the score sheet. "Melody's not the dealer. She can bid whatever she wants."

"But that's not _fair_."

"I _know_. That's the _point_."

"Well that's just silly."

Lily stared at him. "Look, Sirius, why d'you think the game's called Oh Hell?"

"…because it was invented by a fiery redhead?"

"For the last time, Sirius, I did _not_ make this game up. My cousin taught it to me while I was visiting her in America, and if you say that again I'll—I'll"—Lily grabbed frantically for her wand and pointed it at Sirius's face—"I'll hex your nose off!"

Melody instinctively grabbed her nose. "Don't do that, Lily," she said, her voice muffled. "It'll never sit quite right again."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Melody, you have a perfectly fine nose."

"Do not."

"What happened to her nose?" Sophie asked curiously. She'd been rather quiet at dinner, but had become a bit more talkative since the teenagers had moved into the Potters' great room—where the Christmas tree still stood, bedecked in all its glory—and begun a Muggle game of cards Lily was attempting to teach them. The cards themselves were rather odd; the Potters didn't have a normal deck, so they were using Peter's Exploding Snap deck instead, and had only charmed them to look like regular playing cards. Every once in a while, one of them would still unexpectedly explode, adding an extra element of surprise to what, in Lily's experience, was already a rather heated and violent game. (Perhaps, though, it was just her cousin's family that got so heated about a simple game of cards.)

"Melody's nose got cursed off during Potions class a couple years back," Peter explained.

"Snape did it," James added.

Sophie giggled. "How'd you get it back on?"

Melody did not look amused. "Madam Pomfrey put it back on. But I just don't think it's the same. It's never felt right since then."

"That's ridiculous," Mimi protested. "You have a beautiful nose."

Melody attempted to act like she didn't know she had a perfectly fine nose. "Still doesn't feel right."

"I think you're making this up. You've never mentioned it before," Remus noted.

"So what? Just because I've never mentioned it doesn't mean I haven't _thought_ it."

"But if it matters that much to you, you think you would've mentioned it by now," Remus pointed out.

"Well maybe I did mention it. Maybe I just didn't mention it to _you_."

"Sirius, has Melody ever said anything about her nose to you?"

"What?" Sirius was still engrossed in his cards. He looked up and glanced around. "Melody…very pretty nose," he mumbled, and then stared down at his hand again.

Lily, having recovered from her brief fit of anger, picked up the score sheet again. "Sirius, what's your bid?"

"One," he said decisively, closing his hand.

"You can't do that."

"I just did."

"Take it back."

"No."

"_Sirius_."

"Fine. Three."

"I—" Lily stared at him for a moment. "Okay."

Sophie burst into a stream of giggles. They stared at her.

"What?" Lily asked.

"Oh, c'mon…that was _funny_."

"What was?"

"You and Sirius…it just…the way you said it. I…oh, never mind."

Melody tossed her hair over her shoulder. "If you thought that was funny, clearly you haven't known Sirius long enough."

"No, I guess I haven't," Sophie countered, with an ill-disguised eye roll. Melody ignored this and pretended to be concentrating very hard on her playing cards. Lily saw Peter grab Sophie's hand and squeeze it briefly. _Awwww_, Lily thought.

"Guys," she said, looking around at her group of friends—her wonderful friends—and putting her hand to her heart as a sudden wave of affection struck her. "Isn't it great how we're all here like this? Together again on New Year's?"

They looked at her oddly.

"I mean, it's just so wonderful we can all be together again. Even in times like these, it's good to know we still have our friends. And—and we can still trust each other, and love each other, and be together."

Her friends were beginning to exchange worried glances.

Lily abandoned her cards for the moment and grabbed James's and Mimi's hands, as they were sitting on either side of her. "I just—I just wanted you all to know—I really love you guys. I mean, isn't it great there's still so much love in the world?" Lily felt herself tearing up. It really was beautiful that they all managed to be here together to celebrate the coming of a new year, with the hope that it would be better than the last. _So_ beautiful.

Melody stared blankly at Lily and then turned her gaze on James.

"Isn't there some kind of medication you can give her for that?"

Lily laughed. "Oh, Melody! That is so _like_ you. I love your sense of humor."

Melody looked at James again, alarmed. "No…really."

Peter fidgeted and scratched his head. "Um…isn't it someone's turn now?"

"Oh, Peter, you're so right. Sirius, it's your turn. Don't forget you bid three. Take this trick if you can. And good luck to you. You know I'm always rooting for you, right?"

Melody stood abruptly. "Can someone come get me when Suzy Sunshine disappears? I'm going to go…get a glass of water."

Sirius grabbed her hand and pulled her back down. "Don't worry. I'm sure in two minutes she'll be in a spitting rage again."

"Now, Sirius, why would I ever do that?" Lily asked, looking at him endearingly.

"I think I want to change my bid again."

"What? Don't be silly, dear, you can't do that."

"_Dear_?" James demanded.

"Oh, don't be offended, Jamesie-poo, it's just a harmless term of affection."

Both of James's cheeks burned bright red. "Lily," he said tightly. "I thought we talked about you never calling me that."

"Don't be embarrassed, Jamesie-poo. These are our friends. They understand how we feel about each other." Lily patted James's hand reassuringly, but for some reason he recoiled in horror.

All of Lily's friends were now convulsing with inexplicable laughter. Lily put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Now what's so funny?" she demanded.

She wasn't quite sure what was going on in her head, but it was filled with a sort of cloudy happy bubbly haze. Somewhere underneath that haze she was aware she was making an idiot of herself, but as long as that haze lasted, she was just too happy to care. Her friends were so…_wonderful_! Why shouldn't she tell them how she felt?

"Please can we just play the game now?" Mimi pleaded.

Lily suspected one of her friends would have answered, but they were all trying too hard to suppress their laughter to speak. There was, she thought, something to their laughter. After all…maybe "Jamesie-poo" was a bit much for public.

"Well, if Sirius would stop trying to change his bid we could get on with the game," Lily pointed out. That seemed like a reasonable enough move. What _were_ Lily's friends being so ridiculous about? After all, it wasn't like she was sitting here saying things that were completely outlandish…they were all perfectly _true_. Just because they were slightly inappropriate for the situation, it…

Oh God.

Very suddenly, Lily came back to herself. She stared around at her circle of friends, and, in a moment of horror, realized what she'd been saying.

"Um…please excuse me," she said, and left the room rapidly. A collective burst of laughter followed her, as did James. They ended up in a room with a couple couches and a piano.

Lily sat on the piano bench and put her head in her hands, letting her hair tumble down around her face to hide her flaming cheeks. "Oh my _God_," she moaned. "James, what's _wrong _with me?"

James knelt in front of her and patted her knee reassuringly—because, she supposed, he could reach nothing else. "Come on, everyone understands."

"No they _don't_. Not really."

"Well…it is kind of hard to get used to. But still, Lily. No one blames you."

"Maybe Melody's right. Maybe I should try to find some pill or potion or…something…." She lifted her head from her hands and stared at James, considering. "Do you think it would help?"

James shrugged. "I'm not really sure. But…this shouldn't last so long, should it? Just another day or two, right?"

"I guess."

"So everything will be okay."

James looked so sure, Lily didn't feel she had a choice except to be sure about it herself.

"Yeah. But—arrrgh, I still can't believe I called you _Jamesie-poo_."

"Yes. Please don't ever do that again."

Lily grinned. "I'll try to restrain myself."

"Ready to go back out there?"

"Mm. I think so."

James took Lily's hand and led her back into the chaos.

* * *

The game of Oh Hell lasted well into the evening, until half the deck had exploded and Sirius gave up in frustration. Sophie was by far the best player; when they stopped playing she was forty points ahead of everyone. Afterwards they shifted to the indoor gardens to talk and roast marshmallows around a conjured fire. Around midnight, a pile of sleeping bags appeared by one of the pine trees they were sitting near, and around three o'clock the teenagers finally decided to use them.

It was in this state that the owl found them the next morning.

A letter fell on Lily from above, and the owl screeched and nipped at her ear before she jerked awake. She emitted something that sounded vaguely like, "Blaawffghh?" and groped around for the letter.

"Wha--?" James, who was sleeping next to her, propped himself up on his elbows and looked around blearily.

"'S a letter," Lily mumbled, fumbling with the seal.

"Fmm oo?" James asked. Presumably this meant, "From who?"

"Jussa minute." Lily rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and scanned the letter. "Schmundertoe," she yawned, handing the letter over. "Wants to see us." She flopped back down on her pillow, and the owl hooted impatiently.

"Got a quill?" James asked, sounding more awake.

"Hm?"

"He wants a response."

"Oh."

The owl hooted and flapped its wings.

"Ah. Thanks," James said, taking the tiny quill attached to its leg. Apparently Schmundertoe was on top of things. He scribbled a quick response and gave it to the owl, which hooted in response and promptly flew away. Then he plopped back down next to Lily. "That was quick of him."

"Mm," Lily agreed. "Wonder what he wants us for?"

"I dunno, but we're going to see him in two hours."

"But that's…soon."

"Yeah."

"I don't wanna get up."

"Me either."

"Shut _up_," grunted Melody, from the other side of Lily.

"Sorry," Lily whispered.

She and James snoozed for a few more minutes and then slowly rose, preparing to venture once again to London.

* * *

It was just barely ten o'clock when Lily and James set foot in Schmundertoe's shop. Sirius was, surprisingly, not with them. He had heavily resisted Lily and James's attempts to drag him out of bed, and eventually they'd decided it would be easier if Sirius just didn't go.

"Fill me in when you get back," he'd mumbled, then rolled over and gone right back to sleep.

Schmundertoe seemed surprised but also oddly relieved that Sirius wasn't with them. "It will be easier this way," he told Lily and James, somewhat cryptically, before taking them to the back room of his shop once more.

"Now then," he said, after they'd all been seated. "I'll get right to the point." He pulled open a drawer and took out a black velvet jewelry box. Lily's heart palpitated oddly. She hadn't expected to see the necklace again so soon, and wasn't quite sure how she felt about it. "I discovered a very powerful time-traveling spell in this necklace, one that I think you will be able to use."

"But—but—" Lily spluttered. "Do you really mean you want us to go back to the time of the Founders and as Godric Gryffindor about this necklace?"

"I meant it then just as I mean it now. I think you must. And I think that in order to do so, you will need someone who can help you better than I."

"What do you mean?" James asked. "You understand the necklace better than anyone at this point."

"I'm flattered you think so, though I daresay Miss Evans knows a bit more about it than even she is aware."

Lily fidgeted uncomfortably. "Never mind that. Who do you think we should see, if not you?"

"Someone who knows a bit about ages past, Miss Evans. Someone who understands about time."

"And about enchanted necklaces?" James suggested.

Schmundertoe grinned. "I will help you out as far as performing the spell with the necklace goes. What you will need more guidance on is how to act once you get where you are going. The language was a little different back then, you know, as were the mannerisms and style of dress. You're going to need some help, and there is only one man in the world who I think could even come close to teaching you all you are going to need to know."

"_Who_?" Lily demanded, suddenly impatient.

"Nicholas Flamel."

* * *

A/N: Well then. That's fun, isn't it? Moving right along…

A flowing, gushing, spurting, bubbly, burbling, babbling, winding, gurgling THANK YOU (no, not a brook, but a thank you) goes to all my reviewers for putting up with me this long. And also of course for being extremely understanding about the lack of personalized responses to the reviews from last chapter. Of course I still read them all and appreciate them most heartily, but um…college is hard. And…I'm lame. And…that's all I have to say on the subject.

Next chapter: Something happens. Probably.

Anticipated posting date: The future. Most likely sometime before I die, but also hopefully before I, you know, graduate from college.

What to expect: More sub-par writing coupled with a bunch of character development that totally cripples the plot. Lots of Lily and James, some Mimi and Remus, and a little Emo! Melody. Also probably time traveling and Nicholas Flamel, if I'm really feeling on top of things.

Cheers,

Sierra Charm


	23. Meddling

A/N: Well, here we are again. I was composing the most brilliant author's notes in my head this morning as I was cooking breakfast, but now I've forgotten what I wanted to say, so mostly I'm going to say what I say every chapter: I don't like this chapter, and this time I really mean it. It's all just nonsense. (Well, the whole story's nonsense, but this chapter is really nonsense.) I mean, one of these days I'll write a chapter I actually like (you know, like…the Epilogue. I'm looking forward to writing that; should be good times). This chapter is not nearly as good as next chapter, which I like far better (mostly because I haven't written it yet). This chapter is basically all fun setup for next chapter, in which everything actually happens. So if you were expecting anything exciting or plot-oriented to actually happen in this chapter…shame on you. You should know better by now.

In other news (and this should have everybody rolling in the aisles, providing you've been reading this story longer than six months), I have a grand goal for this summer: finish "Eyes" before the last Harry Potter book comes out. Tee hee hee, isn't that funny?

Well at any rate, it's summer and theoretically I have time and it's going to be a lot of work but really…it's just something I have to do. After this chapter, there are two chapters left plus an epilogue (which theoretically should be shorter than the chapters but knowing me it'll be longer). And then…that's it. No more. No more fanfic for me. (Everrrrrrrrrrr.) I've got to get on to writing all my own stories and maybe actually make some money doing this writing thing I love so much.

So, that said, here's the summary from last chapter:

Lily and James discovers that Lily's soul has been Spliced, and with the help of Schmundertoe and Super!Sirius, they get it put back together. Well, mostly. As it happens, the putting-back-together of Lily's soul is going to take a while, and while her soul mends, Lily goes through a series of quite unpredictable mood swings that carry over into this chapter. Meanwhile, Paolo decides to go off in search of his father's killer. He shows Melody an old weapon he has—the Dagger of Medusa—that can turn things to stone, and explains how he plans to kill Rodolphus Lestrange with it. Sirius gives Paolo a vague idea of Lestrange's whereabouts, and he ventures off to London. Paolo ends up finding and tracking Siegfried Lestrange instead, although he does not realize this, and—as it happens—Bellatrix and Rodolphus are looking for Siegfried as well. They all happen to find him on the same night, and unfortunately for Paolo, Bellatrix and Rodolphus see him kill Siegfried by turning him to stone. Rodolphus kills Paolo as he tries to run away. Back at Potter's Cottage, all the Marauders and their girlfriends hang out and play a card game, which is briefly interrupted by one of Lily's mood swings, and then Lily and James receive an owl from Schmundertoe summoning them back to his shop. They go the next morning, and Schmundertoe says that he has found a time travel spell on the necklace that he believes they should use to go back in time and talk with Godric Gryffindor about the necklace's origins. He recommends to them the one person he believes will be able to give them a good sense of what the time period will be like: Nicolas Flamel.

All right, brilliant! I think that's all for now…cheers and happy reading.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Three

Meddling

Nicolas Flamel was a crazy old man. When Lily thought of eccentric old wizards puttering around in quaint cottages somewhere with stacks of books up to the ceiling and brightly colored sparks of magic floating around everywhere, apparently she thought of Nicolas Flamel. She wasn't quite sure where or when or _why_ she'd been thinking of eccentric old wizards in cottages, but that wasn't really as important as the fact that she was currently sitting in an eccentric old wizard's living room.

He muttered to himself frequently, often using curse words and foreign languages and possibly curse words in foreign languages, but it was all so jumbled Lily couldn't really tell.

"Where the bloody hell is the—aha—and where in the _hyprsnugthcr _is the _allfwrtthcz_? _Alu kwoaubh ilxzizyfgn…_I thought I left…_pero nada está aqui…_need sugar and…_aaIEE _clockclick _rAAAwrrginsschnaPP coo!_"

That last string was Mermish, or so Lily guessed. She was a little too surprised to be sure. She sent an alarmed look toward James. He raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

They were seated on a sofa that was jammed in between stacks of books, a coffee table, and a small, comfortable-looking chair drowning in scraps of half-scribbled-on parchment. A small path had been cleared to the fireplace just several feet away, where a small cheerful fire burned in the grate. A white and orange cat lay basking in the warmth of the fire, purring, as Nicolas Flamel puttered around the cottage cursing, although theoretically he was fixing a pot of tea. Opera music warbled in the background.

This was one of the fine moments in Lily's life that made her wonder what in the world she was doing with it. How, exactly, had she gotten to this point in time, and why, exactly, was she sitting through it? People were dying, people were missing, people were frightened out of their knickers that tomorrow they would be next. War, everyone said, though the papers denied it. Well, bullocks to the papers. What else could you call it? It wasn't like the Muggle wars, with front lines and trenches and weapons of mass destruction. But it was just as frightening, just as terrible. Worse, even, because there was nowhere to send civilians for safekeeping. There was no way to alert the Muggles of their imminent danger, because Muggles had no idea what was happening—no idea that a person like Voldemort even existed—and furthermore it wasn't clear exactly who was in imminent danger and who wasn't. It wasn't as though there was a hit list posted anywhere. And even if there were, it wasn't as though the Ministry of Magic kept a standing army. And it wasn't as though you could trust everyone in the Ministry, either. It…

Well, it was all very bleak, wasn't it? Lily's life had been very bleak lately. She'd lost her father, sister, and brother to the war only six months ago. Her friend Lin had lost her entire village to You-Know-Who's attack. Melody had been lost for two years in a world she had no right to be in, full of disgusting people like her uncle Hans and Lucifer Malfoy, and she never would have bothered with any of it if it hadn't been for Voldemort killing her father. Paolo had gone off looking for his father's killer—another victim of Voldemort's army—several days ago and had not yet returned, not even sent a message to let them know if he was all right. Lily herself had been kidnapped and murdered over Christmas holidays, but she couldn't actually be sure if that had anything to do with Voldemort; it was just _really_ unpleasant to think about.

And yet here Lily was, sitting on a couch in a cottage with her boyfriend, watching a cat purring in the glow of a fireplace, waiting for a crazy old man to stop banging around his house cursing in Mermish so he could tell Lily and James what to do to avoid getting hung or burned or imprisoned when they went a thousand years back in time using an intensely powerful magical object they didn't know how to use in the hopes of tracking down the creator of the intensely powerful magical object they didn't know how to use so he could tell them how to use it, and perhaps they could ask him to stop making it splice people's souls, because Lily was well into her fourth day of inexplicable mood swings now and it was a little more than anyone could handle.

If this had been anyone's life but Lily's—or perhaps just Lily's life without James in it—she would have stared in bedazzled wonderment at the complete and utter ridiculousness of it all, and perhaps would have dared to step in and ask if everyone involved hadn't gone completely barmy, because what sense did this plan make, and what small chance of succeeding did it have anyway?

As it was, however, Lily simply sighed and fidgeted a bit, staring at the contented cat as it stretched out and then curled up again, completely at peace, unlike its owner, who was now over in one corner of the cottage banging around with pots and pans and cursing in a language that sounded vaguely like Japanese.

"James," she whispered, glancing over at her boyfriend, who was for some reason flipping through the pages of a book entitled _Frond Face: How to Rid Your Skin of Bogs of Pimples, Warts, Age Spots, and Other Unsightly Signs of Humanity_. Lily chose to ignore the book. "Do you have any idea what he's looking for?"

"Mm? Yeah," James said, flipping past a chapter entitled 'Nose Hairs are for the Frogs.' "He's looking for his wand."

"Oh."

Then, from a corner of the cottage came a great "A-HA!" and two teacups suddenly splattered into existence in midair in front of Lily and James, landing on the coffee table with a great clinking and clattering.

"Now," Nicolas Flamel said, emerging from behind a stack of books in what was presumably the kitchen. "Over tea. What the devil was it Al thought I could tell you?"

He meant Schmundertoe. Lily thought about how to answer this question as Flamel puttered about fixing the tea, nearly stepping on the cat in front of the fireplace several times as he did so. The cat barely flinched. James either sensed Lily's hesitation or had gotten bored reading about troll acne, because he set his book down and answered.

"We need information as accurate as possible about traveling into the past."

Flamel snorted, flicking his wand at the parchment-drowned chair. The parchment flew off in a great tizzy and Flamel plopped himself into it, ignoring the cascade of papers fluttering down around him. "And I'm a world-renowned time-traveler, am I?"

"No," James replied easily, snatching up a couple cubes of sugar from the dish that had appeared on the table with the tea. He popped one in his mouth and sucked on it a moment. "But you are one of the few people alive who has an extensive living knowledge of history spanning six centuries. At the very least you could give us some sense of what it will be like to enter into an era we are entirely unfamiliar with."

"So we don't get hanged," Lily added dumbly. How could James be so at ease when Flamel was so agitated? _No_, she thought a moment later, _that's a stupid question_. James thrived in this kind of environment. He _lived_ to annoy people.

"What the deuce could I tell you about the time of the Founders, anyway?" Flamel grumbled, pouring honey into his tea and stirring vigorously. "What does Al think I am, a walking encyclopedia? I don't even know what they _wore_ back then—four hundred years before I was born, you know—who keeps track of things that happened four centuries before they were born?—what does Al think—as though I have the slightest idea what the fashions are _now, _let alone a thousand years—I say!" He snapped his gaze toward Lily. "Young lady, do _you_ have any idea what they wore four hundred years before _you_ were born?"

Lily's teacup fell back onto its saucer with a surprised clatter. She glanced at James, and then back at Flamel. "Um…pantaloons?" she guessed.

Flamel snorted and let out a string of derisive-sounding comments in what Lily thought might have been Greek. Distressed, she looked over at James, who was laughing and trying not to choke on his sugar cube.

"At any rate, young lady," Flamel said, recovering, "you'd be wise not to travel that far back in time at all. Never know what could happen."

Lily sighed. "Yes, of course…but that's also sort of the point. We're here to try to get a good idea of what _might_ happen. Isn't there anything you could tell us…anything at all?"

Flamel stirred his tea fervently. "Well for one thing, try to talk as little as possible. You go that far back, English won't be the same, not the same at all. You'll hardly be able to understand most of the normal folk, and even with the wizards it will be tricky. Might want to think about learning Middle English before you go. Er, or perhaps that's Old English…couldn't really tell you which…and—I say—when _are_ you leaving?"

"Erm…tomorrow," Lily said.

"Galloping Gorgons," Flamel sputtered, and he proceeded to mutter a bit in Flemish. "Well, that's out. Just do your best then, if you insist on going. Unless you speak Latin, of course." Flamel perked up at this thought.

Lily had learned a little in grammar school, and understood the Latin behind most of the spells she knew, but it wasn't as though she could go around speaking it, so she shook her head sadly. James, however, and to her great surprise, nodded.

"Yeah, I could get by on it," he said, and Lily stared at him openly. He shrugged at her helplessly "What? Dad wanted me to know it. Said it'd be good for diplomacy."

"Your father thought a dead language would be good for diplomacy?"

James shrugged. "Hey, don't ask me how the man's mind works." He turned back to Flamel. "So you were saying…besides not talking to people…?"

"Don't cast any spells. In fact, if you can manage it, don't even bring your wands. People were suspicious of witchcraft back then, very suspicious, and any sign of it—very tricky to escape prosecution. On the other hand, if you do get caught and burned you'll need your wand…but a thousand years into the past is not someplace you want to lose your wand. Do you understand?"

Lily and James glanced at each other. Like hell they were leaving their wands behind.

"All right," Lily said, "go on. How d'you think we should go about getting around? Finding the people we need to find?"

Flamel shrugged. This did not seem to be a chief concern of his. "Walk," he suggested. "Or find a horse. A thousand years back in time, there aren't going to be a lot of roads, so chances are whatever road you do find is going to take you where you want to go." Flamel appeared to be suddenly distracted by something on his robes. "What—the little—itchy—no good—" He fiddled with the robe for a few minutes before finally flicking off what looked like a piece of lint. He looked up and resumed drinking his tea, as though this were completely normal. Lily glanced over at James, who appeared to have momentarily resumed his reading, this time skimming a chapter on boils.

_Goodness,_ thought Lily, _why are all the men in my life out of their minds?_

"Well—er—then, sir, I guess our last question would have to be about clothing. I know you said," she added quickly, "that you didn't know all that much about it, but…do you know somebody who might?"

Lily didn't really want to go see someone else, but what choice did she have? She couldn't very well turn up a thousand years ago wearing something glaringly out-of-place and expect to get by unnoticed.

"I suppose you could ask my wife," Flamel said thoughtfully. "Oy! Perenelle!"

The cat on the hearth yawned and rolled over, stretching out for a moment before getting up and trotting over to Flamel's chair, looking up at him thoughtfully, ears perked. "You going to be helpful, or are you going to bask all day?" Flamel demanded.

The cat flicked its tail a few times, considering, before jumping into Flamel's lap, and then, quite suddenly, it wasn't a cat any longer.

"Don't be so grumpy," Nicholas Flamel's wife advised, kissing him on the cheek. "It's a lovely day."

Flamel tried to mutter something unhappily, but it came out sounding like a rather cheerful version of "umblewumble" instead.

"So my dears," said Perenelle, beaming over at Lily and James, "going back to the time of the Founders, are you? That sounds delightful. I always did enjoy time travel."

"Lovely?" Nicolas snorted. "Lovely if they get imprisoned or killed or destroy the current course of history…"

"Oh, hush up. That's not possible. If they're going to wreck the course of history, they're going to wreck the course of history, and there's nothing we can do about it now." She beamed at Lily and James once more. "But I'm sure you're not going to meddle. What _are _you going back for, dears?"

Lily and James traded a vaguely uneasy glance. What had Schmundertoe told the Flamels, anyway? Would they not want to help if they knew the truth? Why didn't old people communicate better?

"Well," Lily said slowly, reaching into her pocket, "we're going back because of this." She pulled out the small black box containing the necklace. She both wanted and didn't want to put it on again. What would happen if she did? What might happen to her if she didn't? As Lily opened the box to show the necklace to the Flamels, a mood swing claimed her again and she was overcome by a wave of confusion. Why was she going back in time, anyway? What would that prove? Why did she fear the necklace? It had saved her life! But then why did it almost kill her? How could someone enchant a necklace to save people _and_ kill people? Oh, it just didn't make any sense!

Could the Flamels help her? Could they prevent her from being burned? Why would anyone burn her? What did people have against magic, anyway? Why did it seem like people were always after Lily? What had she ever done to anybody? And why didn't they speak regular old English a thousand years ago? Why Old English? And why the bloody hell did James know Latin, anyway? Honestly, what purpose did that serve? And why _was_ Nicolas Flamel so grumpy? Honestly, it really was a lovely day, and why….

As Lily drowned in this wave of perplexity, both Flamels examined the necklace with interest. Nicolas squinted at it, his eyes sweeping over its form intensely, his face growing slightly paler as recognition sparked in his mind. Perenelle looked at it with wide eyes, leaning closer to get a better view.

"Oooh," she breathed, licking her lips at it hungrily. "_Pretty_."

Lily pulled the necklace back reflexively, surprised, and Perenelle leaned forward further, apparently fascinated by the shine the necklace gave off in the sunlight. Lily moved the necklace slightly to the left, and Perenelle's head followed it eagerly. Lily moved it to the right, with similar results. Why was Perenelle so fascinated with it? What _was _it about this stupid necklace that made people—

"Is that a Gryffindor heirloom?" Nicolas demanded.

_What_? How would he know that? Why did everyone in the bloody universe know more about Lily's necklace than Lily did, and why would Nicolas Flamel of all people—

"Er, we think so," James said, looking concerned at the way Lily's face had suddenly screwed up in frustration. She was so distracted she didn't notice that Perenelle was now batting at the shiny necklace, half-giggling, half-purring as it dangled back and forth, glinting and shimmering brightly in the sunlight.

"If that is what I think it is, then it's a very powerful and dangerous magical object," Nicolas said, his eyes wide and serious. He made this statement as thought it were monumental, but Lily and James were unimpressed.

"Erm…yes," James agreed. "That's why we want to go back in time. To figure out what all it can do, and how to stop it from—"

"But how do _you_ know about the necklace?" Lily burst out suddenly, distressed. "Why does everyone seem to know something about this thing but _me_? Why am I the only one out of the loop? Why is it so powerful? And what good will going back in time do anyway? What if we can't find Godric Gryffindor? What if we end up in the wrong time period?" she wailed.

"Erm…" Nicolas said, alarmed.

"Why do people look at me like I'm crazy when really it's all the people I'm with who are crazy?" She looked over at James, who for some reason had decided that, rather than listen to Lily's rant, he'd pick up the _Frond Face _book again and read about a condition called Mermaid Mumps. "What is it with you and that STUPID BOOK?" she howled.

At that moment, Perenelle decided to grab hold of the necklace, and she promptly got her fingers tangled up in its chain.

"Why does she have my necklace?" Lily demanded. "Why does she like shiny things so much? Why is everyone looking at me like that? Does _anyone_ here have _any _idea what we're doing? Why doesn't life make any sense?" she wailed, and burst into tears.

They all blinked at her dumbly, even Perenelle, who sheepishly detangled her fingers from the necklace and gently set it back in its black velvet box.

"Erm," James said awkwardly, patting Lily on the back. "Don't mind her," he advised the Flamels. "She gets like this sometimes."

"But _why_?" Lily wailed from behind her hands.

They fidgeted through another moment of uncomfortable silence.

Just then, Albus Dumbledore walked through the door.

* * *

Bellatrix was drunk again, splayed out across the floor, a bottle of wine in one hand and the mysterious dagger in the other. She'd been using it to kill things all day…bugs, vermin, the neighbor's cat. It hadn't occurred to her that it would be impossible to change something back from stone. If you could change something to stone, she thought, you should be able to _un_change it.

Not so. There was no hope for Siegfried, who was in the next room, now a lifeless statuary slowly crumbling into a pile of sand. Bellatrix had been able to do little with the several creatures she'd turned to stone, although she did manage to blow up several of the mice. But none of that could turn Siegfried back.

Bellatrix was lost. Her plan for redemption had failed miserably; her only consolation was that the Dark Lord seemed to be largely unaware of her attempt to steal the enchanted necklace, and even if he was aware, he didn't seem to have much interest in it. Bellatrix was a fairly good Occlumens these days, though, so chances were he didn't know. Not that she wanted to _trick _him, of course, but for her own sake there were things he was better off not knowing, and this whole ridiculous escapade was one of them.

That it would result in Siegfried's death, though..._that_ Bellatrix could not have imagined. Siegfried's death didn't seem to be directly correlated to trying to steal the necklace, of course, but…but had Bellatrix not driven Siegfried to do this thing…had she not driven him to drinking and drinking and drinking…if she hadn't pushed him away, hadn't pushed him to the bars and the whores…who knew? If she hadn't done everything she insisted on doing, maybe Siegfried would be here right now, enjoying with Bellatrix this bottle of…of…blast it, what _was_ this bottle of? Bellatrix rolled it over in her hands and squinted at the label, blurry to her inebriated eyes. Chardonnay, it looked like. Good cheap shit. Good for getting cheaply shitfaced.

Not that Rodolphus really needed to worry much about the cost of wine. He had a marvelously wonderful and expensive flat, and had Bellatrix not been depressed out of her mind, she would have been enjoying its luxuriousness.

As it was, however, she had a death on her conscience. She was responsible for a lot of deaths, of course, but this was the first one she'd ever cared about. The Dark Lord would not be pleased. And Bellatrix…well, besides having to deal with that, she…she hadn't quite anticipated it _hurting_ this much. Was this a sign of weakness? The Dark Lord did not approve of weaknesses.

Bellatrix tipped the bottle to her mouth and chugged. The alcohol sent a shiver through her body, and she set it down, rolling onto her back, holding the dagger well over her head, contemplating it through her blurry eyes. It would be so easy…if she just let it fall, she…

Well, what a pointless waste that would be. Bellatrix let it clatter to the floor beside her and put both her hands to her forehead. She was well beyond drunk now. She could feel her insides burning, her head spinning in a rush of dizziness that she used to find exhilarating. Now it all just screamed of wanting to escape. But even drunk, Bellatrix couldn't escape from her thoughts. They weren't gone, they were just distorted. It took more _effort_ to think, certainly, but what else did Bellatrix have to busy herself with? She moaned softly and rolled back over, grabbing the bottle again, squeezing her eyes shut as she took another undignified chug out of it, drink dribbling out onto her chin and her neck as tears trickled out of her eyes.

An unexpected voice came from the other side of the couch Bellatrix was splayed out next to.

"_Bella_," Rodolphus said, sounding unexpectedly soft and concerned. Bellatrix flopped one of her arms over her face to hide her shame.

She heard Rodolphus setting several things down, and then he walked around the couch to crouch down next to her. He lifted her head and set it on his lap before reaching over and gently removing the bottle from her hands.

"You're in a bad way, aren't you?" he murmured, smoothing Bellatrix's hair away from her face. Bellatrix didn't answer, just squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to blubber. "Come on," he said, pulling her off the floor. She let him half-drag, half-carry her over to the kitchen table, where he set her down and gave her a large glass of water. She didn't really want water, but she drank it anyway. It felt better going down than the chardonnay, which was unexpected, and somewhere in her inebriated mind she knew that it was good for her.

Rodolphus left the table briefly and came back with some tissues, one of which he used to carefully wipe off Bellatrix's face. The rest he pressed into her hand, and she used them to dab at the unconscious tears still leaking out of her eyes.

"Look, Bella," Rodolphus said, settling into the chair opposite her with a glass of pumpkin juice, "I know you were with Siegfried for a while. I know you were close. But…he was young, Bella. He was rash. He didn't really know what he was doing and I think in the end maybe you were a little too much for him."

What was he _saying_? Bellatrix only half-understood the words. Her poor, depressed, drunken brain was so worn out from trying to reverse the dagger's spell and mourning over Siegfried that she couldn't quite follow Rodolphus. She wasn't quite sure she cared to. So she didn't say anything, just sipped her glass of water dumbly and wished for the pain to be over.

"You're much more grown up than Siegfried ever was, anyway," Rodolphus continued, looking a little less sure of himself. "But, really Bella—I mean, what I'm trying to say—" He cut himself off and stopped to take another drink of pumpkin juice. "He couldn't take care of you. He didn't know how to."

"He didn't have to," Bellatrix mumbled, vaguely indignant through her stupor. "I can take care of myself."

Rodolphus considered her current state for a moment and raised his eyebrows. He was silent so long Bellatrix noticed, and she snorted unhappily.

"You caught me on a bad day," she muttered, and sucked down more water.

Still, though, as Bellatrix sat there recovering, Rodolphus bringing her more water as needed and even fixing her something to eat, it occurred to her that she'd had more days like this than she cared to think about, and that Siegfried usually couldn't do much to help her because he was in a similar state himself. Things hadn't always been like that, of course, but even so…Rodolphus did seem to be doing a better job of taking care of her than Siegfried ever had.

And what did that mean, now that Siegfried was dead? Did it mean she was finding the relationship with a member of the Lestrange family that she always should have had? Or was Rodolphus just taking advantage of her now that his cousin was gone?

And what did it mean, exactly, that after Rodolphus had fed and sobered her and tucked her into bed with one soft kiss on the cheek, she slept better than she had in months?

* * *

This was it. Doomsday. Melody hesitated outside the indoor gardens for a moment, and then bravely stepped forward to face her fate.

Maybe it wasn't as bad as all that. Perhaps Melody was being dramatic. That happened. But still, what she was about to do would not be fun, and it could or could not turn out to be the worst decision she ever made. She was going to confront Sirius about everything, one last time, lay it all out in the open—everything about Hans, Lucifer Malfoy, and herself—and see what he did with it. No more lies, no more secrets. It wasn't worth it. She missed Sirius. Missed the way they used to be together. Goofy, ridiculous. If this was the only chance she had of getting that back…it was more than worth it to take it.

Sirius was in the gardens somewhere, sulking. Lily and James insisted on going alone to meet Nicolas Flamel, and for once Sirius couldn't manage to weasel his way into going. Apparently the necklace's spell couldn't take any more than two people back in time at once, and Sirius was the odd man out. Melody didn't feel much sympathy for him; after all, she'd been pretty much left out from the beginning, and she was supposed to be Lily's best friend.

But never mind that. There were more important things to deal with. And Lily and James, generally speaking, could take care of themselves.

Melody poked around the gardens until she found him, sitting on a log on the beach.

"Hey you," she said, lowering herself gently onto the log.

Sirius took a moment to look over, and when he did his eyes still had that hazy look about them that came from being lost deeply in thought. He gave her a brief smile and took one of her hands in his, kissing the back of it before turning his gaze back to the fake ocean that lay before them. They sat like that for a long while, watching the waves wash up on shore, and Melody tried not to feel agitated or concerned or worried about what would happen when she finally told Sirius everything she'd decided to tell him. She just sat and enjoyed the feel of his fingers laced with hers. It was astounding, really, how the simple act of holding hands and being able to sit in a comfortable silence with someone could mean just as much as kissing, or talking, or cuddling.

Eventually Sirius finished his train of thought and looked back over at Melody, who let him examine her for a moment before she returned his gaze.

"You look good," Sirius commented.

Melody raised an eyebrow. "As opposed to how I usually look?"

Sirius was unfazed. "You always look beautiful. But today you look…good."

"Oh." Melody supposed that was a good thing. It was good she didn't look queasy or restless or bothered. "How d'you mean, exactly?"

"You look like…you," Sirius said, shrugging. "No make-up, no poofy hairstyle, no ridiculous robes…"

Melody pouted. "I thought you liked me all dolled up."

"You're gorgeous then, of course. But I love you like this, too. When you're just…you."

Melody grinned and took hold of Sirius's other hand. He was so good at being sappy when he wanted to be. But she couldn't let him go on like this or she'd lose her nerve. She sighed and examined their intertwined hands.

"Sirius," she said softly, hoping intensely that this wasn't the last time she'd be able to sit with him like this, "there are some things I probably ought to tell you."

Sirius tensed, and he squeezed her hands. "Yeah," he agreed. "There probably are."

He waited for her to speak, for her to move, for her to look at him. Melody seized up for a moment, terrified. This was it. She would tell him everything and he'd never want to speak to her again. She'd never be able to touch him or kiss him or look at him or—

"You were right," she blurted. "About me. About everything. I…." She could already feel herself starting to cry. No. _No. Not yet._ She breathed out slowly, for composure, and kept her eyes closed as she spoke. She didn't want to look at him. Didn't want to know what he thought of her. Not quite yet.

"Lucifer Malfoy wants to marry me," she said quietly, hoping he wouldn't hear her.

He didn't jerk in surprise or try to pull away from her. Instead he squeezed her hands and stared at her until she opened her eyes. She was surprised to see that he looked worried.

"Melody," he said, his eyebrows creased, his face intense, his posture agitated. "He didn't ask you—I mean, you didn't actually consider—"

"No! No. I mean—God no, of course not, I could never—" she cut herself off and shook her head, disturbingly aware of the way Sirius's reassuring worry made her heart skip, jump, and hop a few beats. "He didn't ask me anything, Sirius. He just said he'd—he'd never blackmail me into doing anything. He said he thought I'd choose to marry him of my own free will."

"And what did he offer you?" Sirius demanded, still suspicious.

"He…." Melody tried not to think of how disgustingly cocky he'd been. Of how he'd spoken of Sirius. Of all the things he'd known about her that she hadn't expected him to know. "He offered me things. Money. Possessions. A chance at power. Anything he could buy, really. But—Sirius, he didn't offer me anything _real_. He just tried to convince me that I was ready to get married, that he could offer me things you couldn't, that _you_ weren't ready, and I—"

Now Sirius did jerk in surprise. "How the bloody hell," Sirius demanded, "does that bastard know anything about you and me?"

Melody shook her head helplessly. "I don't know. He must have found out something from Hans. Anyway it doesn't matter, Sirius, because I'm not—"

"And what the bloody hell does he know about what I think?" Sirius fumed. "What kind of presumptuous meathead goes around telling people what he thinks other people think, especially when he doesn't know a damn thing about those people, and he—"

"Sirius, _please_. It doesn't matter. I'm not going to marry him."

Sirius shook his head and stared at her. "I still don't understand why you even bothered—why you couldn't just leave with me—why you thought—"

"Look, Sirius, I'm still in debt to him. Well, I mean, I'm in debt to Hans, but now he owns everything of Hans's, so I'm in debt to him. It's only because he decided to be benevolent that he's not forcing me to repay everything I owe. If he invites me to lunch, I think it's only right and fair that I go."

"_What_? Melody, have you lost your _mind_? Don't you get it—he—he's not being benevolent, he's just trying to use you—trying to trick you—he doesn't _care _about you, he—" Sirius cut himself off, thinking furiously. "Look, what I'm saying is—it's bullshit what your uncle did to you in the first place. You didn't owe him a damn cent and the only reason you bothered trying to repay him is because he blackmailed you. And now you're saying you owe Malfoy something, when you never took _anything_ from him—never took advantage of him in any way—never knew him, really, until your uncle introduced you to him, and even then that only happened because Malfoy essentially owns your uncle now. But—but damn it, Melody, that doesn't matter, because neither of them own _you_, and you don't owe either of them a goddamn cent or minute of your time, and the only way they can make you repay them anything is if they take you to court over it, which they're not going to do because they don't have shit to build a case on. They're just exploiting you because you're a good person, and trying to make you believe that the people you actually trust and care for aren't going to be there for you when you need them, and—_damn it_, Melody—what does Malfoy know about you and me anyway?"

Melody looked stubbornly at the ground. He was right—some small part of her knew it—but she couldn't just give up on Malfoy. Couldn't. "Look, Sirius," she said softly after a minute. "I know all that. But—but Malfoy might lead me to _him_, don't you see? If knowing Malfoy can somehow help me get to You-Know-Who, I don't want to give that up."

"_Melody_," Sirius said, half gentle, half exasperated. "There are other ways. Better ways. Safer ways. Ways that don't involve people trying to screw with your personal life. And—and look, it isn't as though you can defeat You-Know-Who all by yourself. It's going to take a whole mess of people. And I just don't—I don't think Malfoy's on the same side we are. You should just give it all up on that side and then _we_ can stand together."

Sirius tilted Melody's face up toward his, and she looked at him, considering.

It was a beautiful thought. It really was. She agreed with Sirius, really, about Malfoy not being on the same side as them. He couldn't be all bad, surely, but he wasn't all good either, and if he was promising to help Melody, well—anyone fighting Voldemort would need inside tips, wouldn't they? Undercover sort of people? It wouldn't hurt having Lucifer as a friend. Well not a friend, perhaps, but certainly a contact. Someone to get information from that you simply couldn't get anywhere else. That seemed too valuable to lose, even with all the risks.

She tried to convey this to Sirius. "Think of all the ways he could help us, even if he doesn't mean to. We could get information from him. I could try to sort of—spy on him, or something."

Sirius shook his head. "You can't trust him. It would be so easy for him to leave you fake clues, to lie, to hurt instead of help. Melody, please—it's not worth it. You shouldn't even think about going back to see him."

Melody stared back at the ground again, thinking. "Sirius," she said slowly, "was he right about you?"

Sirius's eyes narrowed. "What d'you mean, right about me?"

"About you wanting to get married."

Sirius stared at her blankly for a moment. "Melody…you can't seriously tell me you've—you've—you've been thinking about _marriage_. I mean—bloody hell—we're only seventeen."

Melody's eyes fell on their hands again. "I know," she said softly. "But…but we are of age."

"Melody…please tell me you're joking."

"I'm not saying I want to get married, Sirius. You can relax if you think that's what I'm trying to tell you."

"Well then what _are_ you trying to tell me?"

"I just…want to know we're going somewhere. That…you know, maybe someday, if you could see yourself…I mean, you and me…you know what I mean."

Sirius breathed out heavily. Was he relieved now, or more concerned? "Look, Melody, I—I love you, all right?"

Melody nodded.

"And I…well, I mean, we're still so young. I don't want to even think about…well, I just said that, didn't I? What I mean to say is…."

Melody stared at him and tried to figure out what thoughts were bouncing around inside his head.

"I don't like to think of my life without you," he managed finally. "I want to be with you, I just can't think about—about the long term."

Well, that was the truth anyway. Melody nodded and squeezed Sirius's hands. "All right," she said.

Sirius, looking very relieved, leaned over to kiss her, but Melody turned her head and his lips landed on her cheek instead.

"Sirius, there's something else I should probably tell you."

He pulled away, looking suspicious. "Yes?"

"It's about…it's about your family's money."

* * *

"Albus!" Perenelle cried, delighted. She leapt off her husband's lap to embrace Dumbledore, who greeted her warmly.

Nicolas merely nodded and said, "Evening, Albus."

"Good evening," Dumbledore said, smiling. "I hope you don't mind…?" Without waiting for an answer from the Flamels, he conjured a chair for himself and settled into it comfortably, somehow squishing it between the coffee table and the never-ending stacks of books without much effort.

"P—p—professor!" Lily sputtered, surprised beyond eloquence. What was he _doing_ here?

"Good evening, Miss Evans, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore replied pleasantly, nodding at them. "No doubt you are surprised to see me. Ah, thank you, Nicolas." Flamel conjured a cup of tea for him, along with a bowl of what looked like lemon drops. "I have come to help you perform the time travel spell," Dumbledore continued. "Al wrote me a very nice owl informing me that two of my brightest students were planning to go so far into the past that they might never return to their own time. I, of course, decided that this plan needed a little more supervision, and so here I am. Lemon drop?"

Lily shook her head, ignoring the proffered candy. What did he mean, _never__return_? Schmundertoe appeared to have skipped over that little detail.

"I thought the necklace's time travel spell would be able to bring us back quite close to the time we left," she said, perplexed—though, luckily, the surge of intense confusion she'd felt just moments earlier seemed to have ebbed.

"Yes, that is true," Dumbledore agreed. "Al tried to tell me as much. The problem is, of course, that when you are traveling through a thousand years of history, your concept of accuracy tends to alter. An accurate time of return for the traveler moving back and forth between hours and days might be measured in minutes. For travelers jumping through millennia at a time, accuracy can rarely be measured in increments smaller than years. You would be able to return to this century, I'm sure, but to come back to the right date and time is much trickier."

Lily and James stared at him. This problem had not yet occurred to them, and seemed far more pressing than the question of whether or not pantaloons were a popular fashion item in the mid-900's.

"Oh," Lily said after a moment.

"Having second thoughts?" Nicolas asked. "That's a good sign. You can't be too careful about these things, you know."

"I trust that they are giving the proper consideration to everything," Dumbledore said reassuringly. He looked over at Lily, his half-moon spectacles glinting in the light. Perenelle was so dazzled by the shine she nearly fell out of her chair. "After some correspondence with Al, I believe that this is of extreme importance. Otherwise, as you can imagine, I would not allow it."

Lily nodded. She wasn't sure if that was reassuring or not. "Professor—is there any way to make sure we return to the right place and time?"

"I cannot promise complete accuracy, but there is something we can do to help anchor you to a certain time and place. Leave a guide behind for you, if you will. With the help of such an anchor, you should be able to guide yourselves back to the present time without too much fuss…and hopefully, if everything goes well, in time for the start of term." Dumbledore took a long sip of tea. "I also came to impress upon you the importance of accomplishing everything you need to accomplish as quickly as possible."

"So we don't get in trouble in the past?" Lily wondered.

"It is indeed advisable to avoid getting burned or imprisoned. However, what I urge you to consider is the reality that no matter how accurately you manage to land yourselves back in the present, it cannot reverse anything that happens to you while you are visiting the past."

"Oh, I see," Lily murmured, thinking. "So if—if we're there for a while, then we'll age, won't we? And when we come back we'll be older, but everyone around us will look the same. Yes. Yes, I see."

Dumbledore nodded once at her, and then glanced at James, who nodded back.

"Very well then. Nicolas, Perenelle, and I will do the best we can to help you prepare. You are leaving tomorrow?"

"Yes," James replied.

"Then we must work quickly."

* * *

Sirius didn't ask why Melody wanted to talk to him about his family's money. She strongly suspected he already knew.

Rarely had Sirius looked at her so harshly. His dark brown eyes were steady, stoic, but underneath that Melody could sense buried anger and frustration. Disappointment. It was all Melody's fault. All her fault. And they both knew it.

There was simply no way to make this pretty, so Melody just let her words come out in a frantic, terrified, jumbled mess.

"Sirius, the reason my mind changed so suddenly around Halloween is because I realized that my uncle needed me for something—needed me for money, yes, but something else too, and he—he couldn't---he couldn't just get rid of me. And I thought, well, maybe I have more power here than I thought I did…maybe I can do something about this...so I thought, well, why don't I try to take things into my own hands more? What does he say he really wants from me? Money. So why don't I give him some money? Well I don't have any money, so maybe I'll sell these watches, and then that didn't work, so—"

"So then you just thought, 'why don't I try to rip some of it off Sirius instead?' Is that how it went?"

Melody stared at him, horrified. "Sirius—Sirius, _no_. This…this is coming out all wrong."

"Maybe," Sirius said slowly, "that's because it _is_ all wrong." He pulled his hands out of hers and turned away.

Melody's hands, which just moments before had been curled up safely inside Sirius's, were now clutching harsh, scratchy bark, and goose bumps sprung up all the places her hands had just been touching his. _No_, Melody moaned inwardly. _This is not how I want this to end_. Her chest contracted, and she took a great heaving breath to try to expand it again, but it didn't help. She couldn't get rid of the tight, sick feeling. She couldn't shake the sensation that something wonderful was about to be destroyed.

Tears leaked out of her eyes. She didn't want Sirius to see her turn into a blubbering idiot, but she couldn't stop herself from crying. She was about to lose the best thing she'd ever had—and she wasn't even sure she'd had it long enough to claim it as hers.

"Sirius—Sirius, _please_, you have to at least listen to me."

"I'm still sitting here, aren't I?" Sirius replied, his voice low and hollow, his gaze fixed pointedly at the fake sea stretching before them.

Melody nodded, and turned her gaze straight ahead. Maybe it was too much to hope that he'd start looking at her again. "I—I never meant for any of this to hurt you. I'm not even sure I ever really would have gone after your family's money in the first place. At the time it was just…justification, more than anything else."

"Justification for what? For the way you treated me? The way you treated Mimi?"

That bit about Mimi was unfair. Sirius wasn't exactly guiltless on that account, but now wasn't exactly the time to call him out for it. "For finally deciding to fight for you," Melody managed, somewhat lamely. Sirius snorted. Melody frowned, now feeling both hurt and annoyed. But now wasn't the time to start fighting with Sirius. Now was the time to grovel.

"Sirius, my uncle was planning to marry me off to some rich bastard for money—anyone at all. I couldn't handle the thought of him deciding my fate like that. So—so I tried to take it into my own hands, selling those fake watches with Mundungus and generally being stupid about everything. It didn't work—didn't even come close to working—and when my uncle found out what I'd been doing, he scared me half to death yelling at me over it, threatening my family, and that was when I realized—he _needed_ me. He was so desperate he'd do just about anything for money, and I guess he thought that using me was the only way to get it. I only realized a couple weeks before Halloween how desperate he was. It seems like it should have been obvious from the beginning, especially after everything else I've told you, but believe me, Sirius…I was so clueless."

"So then, in all your utter cluelessness, you thought, 'Hey, why don't I take advantage of Sirius—he's got money!'"

"_No_. Please stop saying it like that."

"Well how would _you_ say it? Because so far you haven't said a damn thing about it."

"I would say it like—like—damn it, Sirius, like if I _had_ to get married to someone, I might as well pick him out myself. And if he had to be rich, well then, it just so happened that I—"

"That you knew some gullible sap who fit the bill?"

Melody looked over at Sirius and realized how upset he was. Not just angry or disgusted, but—_hurt_. She could see the little muscles working along his jaw as he clenched and unclenched it, staring very pointedly straight ahead and blinking so rapidly that Melody thought he might—

"Damn it, Sirius," she snapped. "That's not what it was about. It was about—if I was going to have to marry someone rich anyway, then I might as well marry you, because—"

"Because you thought you could get away with it?" Sirius thundered, finally twisting around to face her. Melody was too agitated to recoil. Instead, she brought her face closer to his and screamed at him.

"Because I was _already in love with you_!"

Sirius was stunned. Melody felt a deep jolt of inner satisfaction at his response. She was still terrified as hell that Sirius would leave her, and she didn't think she'd handled that conversation well at all, but anyway there it was. It was all out in the open, and if her relationship with Sirius crashed and burned, at least it wasn't because she'd kept lying to him.

Sirius stared at Melody so long she fidgeted. Couldn't he at least say _something_? Didn't he have an opinion or a rebuke or a…wisely chosen curse word? Didn't he—

Sirius chose that moment to respond. He, quite suddenly, appeared to have worked everything out in his mind, and he decided to take action.

He grabbed Melody and kissed her. Melody nearly died.

It wasn't one of those 'we should still be friends' kind of kisses. It wasn't an 'I forgive you' kiss or a 'try not to be so stupid next time' kiss, or even a 'let's try to work things out' kind of kiss. In fact, the kiss appeared to have nothing to do with the conversation they'd been having for the last fifteen minutes, and it completely ignored the fact that they'd been fighting just seconds earlier.

It was a full-blown heartbeat-skipping, goose-bump-giving, 'put your arms around me, forget that the rest of the world exists, and kiss me like I'm more precious than your last breath on Earth' kind of kiss.

Melody wrapped herself around him and tried to kiss away everything she'd done.

They pulled apart slowly, sluggishly, reluctantly. They held each other close, foreheads touching, breath mingling, hearts pounding.

"Sirius," Melody whispered. "Are we really okay?"

"I don't see how we couldn't be okay," Sirius said, grinning and kissing her again.

"_Sirius_. I mean it. A few minutes ago you wouldn't even look at me."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "Yeah, we're fine." He leaned back and considered her face for a moment. "I have something for you."

He helped Melody to disentangle herself from him and eased her gently onto the log next to him. "_Accio!_" he said, pulling out his wand, and then they waited.

A package came zooming through the indoor gardens, and Sirius batted it out of the air reflexively.

Melody grinned. "Beater reflexes, huh? Swat at it instead of trying to catch it."

Sirius shrugged. "Guess so."

"I hope whatever's in there isn't breakable."

"Should be fine. Here," he said, handing the small gift bag over. "It's sort of a late Christmas present."

Melody looked at him curiously and took the bag. What else could he possibly have to give her? She rifled through the tissue paper and pulled out a package of…lollipops?

"Wow," she said, laughing as she recognized them. They were the old color-changing ones that used to wreak havoc on her hair. "What are you trying to say, Sirius? You don't like my blonde hair anymore?" she teased.

Sirius grinned. "I think I'm saying…welcome back."

* * *

Just minutes after Melody and Sirius began kissing, Lily and James toppled into existence on the front lawn of Potter's Cottage, wearing stained, ripped, outdated robes and gasping for breath. Hands shaking, Lily pulled the necklace off James's neck and coaxed it back to its original size around her own. That done, she wiggled closer to James and rested her head on his shoulder. He put an arm around her and gave a great sigh, and they both promptly fell asleep.

* * *

"All right," Dumbledore said. "Don't forget your anchor. And good luck."

Lily and James looked at him nervously. Lily nodded, and ran her fingers along the thin golden chain strung around her and James's necks. It was the first time she'd worn the necklace since she'd…

Well then. Off to the past. Off to figure out what made this bloody thing so powerful.

"Ready?" she asked, turning to James. He nodded, and they both put their fingers on the necklace's pendant, holding it carefully between them, holding their wands steady above it.

"_Tiempo Veritas_," they chanted, and promptly disappeared.

* * *

The Lily and James on the front lawn were not the same Lily and James who had just disappeared a thousand years into the past. They were a month older, a month wiser, a month more exhausted, and a month more in love. To their friends, it would appear as though they'd come back before they left and there was no lapse in time at all. To Lily and James, the whole world looked different, full of things they hadn't seen, touched, tasted, heard, or smelled in over thirty days. They could tell their friends what happened in the past, what they'd done, what they'd learned, but they could never quite explain what had changed in them. How they'd changed toward each other.

They could, however, tell them everything Godric Gryffindor had told them about the necklace.

* * *

"Really? Are we really back in school again? Does break have to be over so soon?" Mimi moaned on Monday after lunch, contemplating her recently assigned pile of Charms homework. She was headed out of the Great Hall with Lily and James.

Lily and James looked at each other wearily. "That was the longest Christmas break ever," they said in unison.

"Ohmigod, stop doing that, it freaks me out." Melody grimaced, coming up behind them with Sirius.

"What?" Lily and James asked.

"Did you have your minds melded when you were in the past?" Sirius demanded.

"Sorry," they said, shrugging.

"Gah!" Melody responded, and Sirius patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"So when do we get to hear your daring tale of adventure to the past?" Mimi asked, putting away the Charms homework.

Lily and James both sighed, and Sirius became oddly stiff. Any time anyone mentioned time travel, Lily and James sagged like they'd been beaten down, and Sirius tensed, visibly jealous that he hadn't been able to tag along.

Lily and James appeared to be having a long, silent conversation. Had they learned mind reading while they were in the past, or were they just on a wire with each other in a way that they hadn't been before?

Finally, James sighed and said, "We'll tell you this weekend."

"Or start telling you, anyway," Lily amended.

"MHQ," James decided. "We'll let you know the new password on Friday."

"You're changing the password _again_?" Mimi asked.

James shrugged. "It's Peter's turn to pick."

"Ah," Mimi said. "Well, it's off to the Divination tower for me. I'll see you all later."

"Bye," they all murmured, and she set off by herself.

MHQ this weekend, eh? Well, that would be interesting. It would be the first real time they'd all be there together as couples. It was weird, a little, that all the Marauders now had girlfriends. As far as Mimi knew, that had never happened before. They'd never all been in relationships at once.

But that was how Hogwarts was these days. There were more sudden relationships, surprise engagements, and hurried marriages than ever before. And not just here—throughout the rest of the wizarding world as well. Something about the constant terror in the air seemed to draw people closer. Not only that—it caused people to pull their close friends closer and trust them more, and to push away those they knew less well or felt they couldn't trust. On the other side of all the lovey-dovey was intense paranoia. The world was rapidly becoming a very confusing place.

James and Lily, on the one hand, seemed closer than they'd ever been. They were almost always in close physical proximity to one another, and yet they didn't seem to be sneaking off for snog sessions quite as much as before. Mimi hoped that an explanation of their journey through the past would help explain that, but maybe it wouldn't. Maybe their relationship had fundamentally altered in a way that Mimi simply couldn't grasp.

Mimi herself had never been past the initial stages of a relationship. The farthest she'd ever gotten was the lovey-dovey stage, and after that things always seemed to turn sour. Her relationship with Sirius, for example, started smoothly and ended sloppily. She deeply hoped her relationship with Remus would not follow that pattern.

Remus was different than Sirius, in so many ways. He was quieter, obviously, and more reserved. But he was just as smart—just as funny—just as sweet. Perhaps more sweet, because he generally preferred talking to kissing, and hand-holding to overt displays of physical affection. Part of that was, perhaps, because of his appearance. Mysterious scratches still appeared all over his body once a month, and he didn't enjoy having people touch them, accidentally or no. But…but Mimi was hoping to work through that with him. She hoped to help him with it, to help him heal, not just emotionally, but also—

There was no cure. There just wasn't. Mimi would have been daft to try and find one. But there had to be _something_ she could do—some way to make it _better_—less painful, or less…noticeable, maybe? At the very least she could find something to help heal the scratches. Wasn't that possible?

It was a real shame Mimi wasn't better at Potions. If only she understood it the way Lily did, maybe she wouldn't feel so helpless and ridiculous puttering around with her cauldron in the dead of the night trying to think up some sort of solution. How did you know, anyway, how long things were supposed to boil? Which way to stir the spoon? When to add the next ingredients? It was all very well and good to follow the directions in a book, but how exactly did anyone figure out by themselves the correct ingredients for something as complicated as a potion?

Mimi hadn't been able to manage anything yet, not really—in fact, she'd been afraid to try any real potions of her own. Instead she'd spent several late nights poring over introductory potions volumes, trying to figure out the methodology behind the simplest healing potion she could find. What, exactly, made it effective, and what, exactly, did it help the body to do?

Because that was the thing about potions. You ingested them. They worked their magic inside the body, altering the senses and perception and affecting various biological processes to produce a sometimes miraculous effect. It was so much more—more—_scientific_ than the other forms of magic. More Muggle-like. Mimi wondered why she didn't feel more comfortable and familiar with it than, say, Divination, which was perhaps its exact opposite within the field of magic. Logic versus intuition, perfection versus interpretation.

But never mind that. Mimi had to go to class, and she halfway wondered if she shouldn't just drop the whole thing and let Remus deal with everything in his own time.

On the other hand, however…how could she just sit there and watch him suffer?

* * *

The much-anticipated Saturday arrived, and all the Marauders and their girlfriends crowded into MHQ to hear Lily and James's highly heroic and detailed account of the past.

"We left and came back and we didn't die," Lily began.

"How illuminating," Melody said, rolling her eyes and sucking on a lollipop. Streaks of mustard yellow appeared in her hair. Lily pouted in her general direction.

Lily and James were perched on the tabletop, their feet resting on the abandoned chairs. Melody was lounging on top of Sirius on one end of the couch, and Mimi and Remus were sitting comfortably side-by-side on the couch's two remaining cushions. Peter and Sophie occupied a large squishy armchair by the fire. The wall of chamber pots gleamed happily in the background.

Lily found it somewhat odd to be telling this story to Sophie, whom no one but Peter seemed to know very well, but it wasn't as though they could tell her _not_ to come, not when James, Sirius, and Remus all had their girlfriends present as well. Sophie was, at least, far more comfortable in their presence than she had been after spending that week at Potter's Cottage, but it was difficult to get to know her very well because Lily only ever spoke to her when they were with a large group of people. She was nice enough, though, and she didn't seem like the sort of person who would go around blurting things to people. And anyway they didn't quite have to tell her _everything_ they knew—with any luck, they wouldn't get to the part of the story where they found out everything about the necklace today, and Lily wouldn't have to spill out a lot of personal information in front of someone she hardly knew.

"Right. Well," James said, taking charge. "It all really started with Schmundertoe."

He launched into a brief explanation of everything the jeweler had told them about the time travel spell, and went on to describe their visit with Nicolas Flamel, Dumbledore's unexpected appearance, and their creation of an anchor outside Potter's Cottage to help guide Lily and James back to the correct time when they wanted to return to the future. James had a rapt audience. The only occasional distractions came when Mimi blew a particularly large bubble with her Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, or when Melody's hair happened to turn a particularly grotesque shade of green.

Then they got to the good stuff.

"We decided to leave from Potter's Cottage and try to go a thousand years back in time without changing location," Lily explained, "because a thousand years ago, there was another structure being built right where Potter's Cottage stands today."

"A much larger structure," James added. "And much older."

"Much more impressive, and much better fortified," Lily agreed.

"And something that would hopefully lead us right to Godric Gryffindor himself."

Sirius, who could tell what they were leading up to, said, "Oh, get on with it."

Lily and James glared at him and then glanced at each other before turning to the group and saying, "Gryffindor's Castle" in unison.

* * *

"_Tiempo Veritas_."

The time travel spell took hold of them almost immediately. The world swirled away around them, and they were sucked downward, downward, downward—no, more like backward, backward, backward. Lily felt like she was being whirled and squeezed through some small opening, almost like—almost like she was being flushed down a toilet and then forced through the tiny pipes of time. What a gross analogy to think of when you were being squished through time and space. She couldn't see James anymore, couldn't feel him, couldn't feel much of anything, really, except the slight pressure of the thin golden chain around her neck.

They were suspended in this state of being for quite a while—for so long that Lily nearly forgot where she was, forgot what she was doing, forgot to worry about whether she could see or smell or feel or hear anything. But then, quite suddenly, the pressure increased. Lily felt like she was being squeezed by some giant invisible hand, and suddenly there were colors swirling all around her, spinning in a confusing whirl of greens and blues and reds and other hues Lily couldn't quite name, and then suddenly, with a small _pop_, Lily flew forward, out of the time hole, and smacked face-first against the ground.

It took a moment for her to open her eyes, and even then, the world was still dizzy. It took another several moments to realize James was right beside her, splayed out in much the same manner she was, looking exhausted.

How could he be exhausted? They hadn't even _done_ anything yet.

Lily tried to move, but found that her limbs were heavy and her body was reluctant to do much of anything. She was mysteriously exhausted as well.

_This does not bode well,_ Lily decided. They'd been in the past for less than a minute and already they were too worn out to do anything.

Where were they, anyway? Just lying in the middle of a field somewhere? Lily couldn't see much of anything from her line of sight, but perhaps that was because James's head and ridiculously unruly hair (which was sticking up in wild tufts) were blocking her view. This was no good, no good at all.

Lily sincerely hoped they were near Gryffindor's Castle, or at least the future site of it, because if they weren't they would have no idea where they were at all, and could very well wander around for days looking for something—anything—that resembled civilization.

"James," Lily murmured, trying to keep her eyes open. "You awake?"

"Mmph," James grunted, and rolled over—or tried to. The necklace chain was still around his neck, and he was rolling in the opposite direction of Lily, which resulted in James nearly choking himself and Lily giving a great yelp of surprise. This, at least, woke Lily and James up, and propelled them into a sitting position, where they removed the necklace from James's neck, and Lily pulled out her wand to shrink the necklace back to its original size.

"So," Lily said, sighing as she tucked her wand back into her robes, "d'you have any idea where we are? Because I don't see any—what? What are you looking at?"

James didn't respond to Lily. He wasn't even looking at her. He was staring past her with his mouth hanging open and his eyes bulging like someone had just hit him on the back of the head with a Bludger.

"James, what're you—" Lily began, twisting around to look behind her, but then she stopped, because there was nothing more to say.

It was the most ridiculously large building she'd ever seen, and it wasn't even finished yet. It was bigger than Buckingham. Bigger than Hogwarts. Bigger than—hell, just _bigger_.

Lily had never seen the pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Panama Canal, or the—the—Hanging Gardens of Babylon, or whatever—but she imagined, if people knew about this place, it might be listed among the wonders of the world. Of course, presumably they were using magic to build it, so that might be unfair, but—but who was to say magic wasn't involved in the building of the other wonders of the world? At any rate, it was colossally, unbelievably, monstrously huge, built in proportions Lily didn't even know how to describe.

"James," she managed finally, unwilling to tear her eyes away from the enormous, half-finished castle sitting in front of her. "D'you think…that thing is possibly…"

"Gryffindor's Castle?" James managed.

"No. Well, yes. Yes, I do think it's that, but…but what I meant to say is…d'you think it's possible that the thing is…well, is…is being made to _look_ larger by magic? Because I just don't see how…I can't understand _why_…it…well, James, it's so…so…"

"Big?" James suggested.

"Well…yes. Yes, that's one word for it."

"Well what would be another word for it?"

"Um…_ridiculously _big?"

"That's two words."

"Yes, I know," Lily conceded, finally managing to tear her eyes away from the castle. She stared at James until he made eye contact. "What I mean, James, is…well, it's really almost _too_ big, isn't it?"

"Didn't know that was possible," James said, his eyes straying to the massive castle once more.

"_James_. It's big beyond the point of practicality. I mean, just—just—_look _at it!"

Both of them stared for another long moment. It was clearly unfinished; at one end of the building it just _stopped_. There was no enclosure, no symmetry, no sense of completion. Furthermore, there were huge piles of rocks near the unfinished side of the building, near a system of pulleys and levers and several large piles of tools that were presumably being used to build the thing. But the oddest part of it all was that it was completely deserted. There was no one around, no one at all, except James and Lily. And even if there had been anyone else around, Lily suspected that, at the moment, she and James were a bit too bewildered to have done anything about it, including hide themselves.

"Look, it would take forever just to walk from one end of the building to the other. How would you communicate with the other people inside the castle? How would you ever _find_ anybody? And—and furthermore, think of how much it would cost to _build_ all this. Even if you did complete it, how could you afford to _furnish_ it? And how would you _maintain_ a building this large? You'd need a team of servants, and even then it would take something like—like—"

"Magic?" James suggested.

"Yes! Yes, _magic_ to uphold, it, and—oh." Lily blinked. "Oh, I see."

James grinned. "Don't be such a Muggle, Lily," he teased, and Lily stuck out her tongue. "C'mon," James said, standing. He held out a hand for Lily. "Let's get closer."

Lily took the hand and didn't let go of it as they started walking. "Do you think there's anyone there?"

"I guess we'll find out," James said, shrugging.

"James…d'you think…" Lily sounded unusually nervous.

"What?"

"D'you think we'll get a warm reception and all? I mean, we are kind of out in the middle of nowhere, and…well, nobody seems to be around. They're not even working on building it or anything. I mean…how do we know we're not going to be seen as trespassers? And…what if nobody's even there?"

"Well, first of all, we _are_ trespassing. Secondly, we don't know if anyone's going to be there. And…well…maybe they're not working because it's…Sunday?" James guessed.

"Sunday? But—James, it's not even one thousand A.D. yet. England's not Christian."

"Yes it—oh wait, no. No, I guess you're right. No, it isn't. Is it?"

"Not really, no."

"Blast."

"Indeed," Lily agreed. "Honestly, though, James…I don't feel comfortable just sort of…waltzing up here like this. What if someone sees us?"

"Well, that's sort of the point, isn't it?"

"Yes, but—what if they _shoot_ at us?"

"Lily, _why_ would someone shoot at us?"

"Because…we're trespassing? And because…well, _look_, James—because they _can_." She pointed toward the battlements. Large crossbows were just barely visible from Lily and James's distance.

"Bugger. Well, all right, I suppose you do have a point, but _still_—I mean—we're harmless enough, and—wait a minute. Why _Muggle _weapons?"

They both halted.

"James," Lily said slowly. "Are we _sure_ this is Gryffindor's Castle?"

James's brow furrowed up in confusion and concentration. "Well—I mean—_yes_. I've seen drawings of it before, it's massive, it looks just like this, but—I mean, this all just doesn't feel right, does it? They should be working on it—there should be people here—there shouldn't be Muggle weapons, and—" he cut himself off, thinking furiously.

Lily stared up at the castle while James thought. After a moment, she volunteered an idea. "Maybe the Muggle weapons are there for the sake of Muggles," she suggested.

"Come again?"

"You know—in case any Muggles stumble across the place. It's clearly not being Cloaked at this point. They'd have to deter the Muggles somehow."

James snapped his fingers. "Yes! Yes, that makes sense. Because you _can't_ Cloak something while you're building it. And—yes, that's brilliant, Lily."

Lily gave a small grin, but she still didn't feel entirely right about the place.

"And—I think I've just figured out why it's so deserted," James continued, looking excited.

"Well?"

"_Well_—when Gryffindor was building his Castle, he had to take a break. D'you remember? My mum told you all this story—right?"

"Ye—es," Lily said slowly. "She said—he had to stop, that he never finished it. One of his sons did."

"Right!" James said enthusiastically, looking pleased with himself and with her for remembering. "His oldest son Gildric finished construction, not Godric. Because while Godric was in the middle of building, he got called away for another project—to build another building, you know, one even more important and impressive and historic—a project he started with three other wizards, you know—"

"Oh," Lily said, remembering.

"Hogwarts," they said together.

They blinked and stared at each other for a moment. They were quite close, yes, but normally they didn't speak in unison. They were silent for another moment until Lily thought of something.

"But James—that's _awful_!"

"Awful? Why is it awful?"

"_Because_. If Godric Gryffindor's gone off to build Hogwarts, then that means he _isn't here_."

James stared at the castle for a moment, at its massive emptiness and the sense of abandonment that seemed to surround the place. "Oh. Right."

"Well, _now_ what?" Lily said, visibly slumping. "We don't even know how to get to Hogwarts from here. From _anywhere_, really. I mean, have _you_ ever paid attention to where the train was going?"

"Er…not really. It all looks like a blur of greenish countryside to me."

"Great," Lily muttered, looking defeated.

"Oh, come on, Lily-bean"—Lily glared—"let's not give up before we've even started. We can at least go up to the castle and have a look around."

Lily sighed. "I suppose."

"And maybe—well, maybe there'll be some kind of clue there, eh? Or at the very least…Floo powder?"

"James, I don't think Floo's been invented yet."

"What? Why not? Why wouldn't—oh blast, you're right. Floo wasn't invented 'til the thirteenth century."

"Mm. Lovely."

Lily and James stared at the castle again.

"Well," James said awkwardly. "Let's just go have a poke around then, shall we?"

"I s'pose," Lily agreed. "It's not as though we have so many other fantastic options."

With that decided, Lily and James approached the castle, still hand-in-hand. Nothing much happened as they walked toward it. No one came running along the armaments to yell or shoot at them, no one appeared outside the castle or through any of its windows, and nothing rustled the long wild grasses that grew all around the castle except for Lily and James's feet and the occasional breeze that swept through the plain. As they approached, Lily could see a line of trees beyond the castle that stretched off into the distance. The closer they got to the castle, the less Lily could see of anything, until finally they were standing right beside it, their necks craned back in awe at its sheer size. The sun was no longer visible from the shadow of the castle, though there was a mere hint of it from behind the parapets that stretched up toward the sky. Gold and scarlet banners were now easily visible, flapping gently in the wind.

"Erm," Lily said quietly, staring at the massive wooden doors in front of them. "Shall we knock?"

"Might as well," James agreed, and took the large brass door knocker in his fist, pounding it against the doors three times and then stepping back to wait.

"Isn't it odd that there isn't any sort of moat? Or…anything?" Lily asked, glancing around. "No…drawbridge, or swamp, or…any real sort of natural fortifications. Odd, isn't it?"

"Well…I think we're on a bit of a hill," James said, glancing around. "But…I see what you mean."

"Odd," Lily murmured again. They both turned back to the door and waited.

No one came.

James tried knocking again, then Lily, and still no one came.

"Looks like it really is deserted," Lily said, sighing, and she sat down, finally letting go of James's hand.

"Well, if that's true," James reasoned, still looking at the doors interestedly, "then would it hurt if we just went in and—poked around a bit?"

"James, no," Lily said reflexively. "That sounds like a terrible idea."

"Why?" James demanded. "I'm pretty good at finding my way around places, aren't I? I mean—look at how well I know Hogwarts! Only took me a year, really, to figure that place out, and that's the most complicated building I've ever seen. And if _this_ building was built by one of the people who helped build Hogwarts—and furthermore by one of my ancestors—well, do you think it's really going to take me very long to figure the place out, and perhaps figure out where we could find some sort of clue as to—"

"James, that's really not what I meant. I _meant_ that—well, isn't it a bit strange that this whole place is sort of—unguarded?"

"Oh. Well…I mean, I suppose so. But all the same—if it's unguarded, it can't hurt to have a look around, and…oh. Oh, _that's_ what you mean," he said as Lily stared at him pointedly. "Well, I suppose it _is_ possible they've got some sort of magical defenses around the place."

"Gee, d'you think?"

"Only—"

"Oh dear," Lily said, sighing, recognizing the determined look on James's face.

"Oh, come on, Lily. This is _Gryffindor_ we're talking about, not—not Slytherin or something. Even if there are enchantments on this place to protect it from intruders, how horrible could they possibly be? Nothing we can't fix ourselves, I'm sure, and anyway—anyway, if we don't go in, what _else_ are we going to do? Sit around until someone comes by?" James's words, though logical, somehow had an enormous ring of foolishness about them.

Lily looked around at the sheer emptiness surrounding the castle. She sighed. "Oh, all _right_," she said, again accepting James's hand as he helped her up. "But if anything happens, it's _your_ fault."

James sighed but didn't argue, and pulled out his wand to use in case the normal door-opening method didn't work. Much to his surprise, however, the door eased open quietly when he grasped the handle and pushed, and Lily and James cautiously stepped into the most impressive front hallway they'd seen since entering Hogwarts.

There wasn't much time to look around, however. Lily got only a glimpse of the massive tapestries hanging along the walls, of the ballroom off to the left and impressive dining room off to the right, of the massive chandeliers all hanging in a row along the ceiling, before she heard a loud _crack! _come from somewhere off to her right, and then, quite suddenly, Lily and James were locked in the dungeons.

* * *

Lin was having a tough time of it. She'd talked with Mimi, a seventh-year friend of Lily's, and after much discussion and deliberation, they'd decided that Mimi's hypothesis about Lin's abilities was probably right. The disaster in Lin's village had affected her brain in a way that made it extra-sensitive to the despair of others, and the wavelength it was currently "tuned in to" allowed her to see things no normal person should have been able to see.

That didn't exactly make it better, though. In a way, it made things worse. Now Lin _knew_ she wasn't just having mad visions or hallucinations; rather, she was seeing events as they took place, hundreds of miles away, was consumed by these events and completely powerless to stop them. They didn't give her any idea of where the events were taking place, or where future disasters were likely to take place; they just tortured her.

Sometimes, though, they weren't so bad. When she was distracted, the visions didn't come as easily. When she was with Anthony, for example. Or when she was losing quite badly to Bridget at wizard chess or Exploding Snap. Bridget was quite good at games. Bridget was quite good at everything, in fact, except controlling her temper. Lin, who had been rather stoic even before the disaster in her village, was trying to help her with that. In return, Bridget was trying to distract Lin as much as possible from thinking about awful things. The more Lin let herself wallow in the doldrums, the worse the visions got. The more she tried to lead a normal life, the less she had them.

Since she couldn't actually use the visions to help anyone, they'd all decided it was better if she just stopped having them.

Some days, this was easy. On days when it was nice and sunny and unusually warm for January and they could go outside and relax by the lake, it was easier to get Lin's mind away from terrible things that might be happening all over the country. On days Lin got to spend a lot of time with Anthony, it was easier to forget that there were people in pain. On days the snow fell thick and wet and pretty onto the school grounds, and students took advantage of their midday break to rush onto the lawn and start a snowball fight—well, on days like those it was much easier to forget that, somewhere in Britain, some child was shrieking in terror instead of laughter, someone was being hit with something more potent than a snowball, some people were falling to the ground and not getting up again.

Yes. On fun days, it was easier to forget about death.

The problem with this was that at Hogwarts, the fun days were becoming less and less. Almost every day, the Daily Prophet brimmed with tragic news. Some days, the Prophet brimmed with absolute nonsense and Ministry propaganda, but other days, the truth shone through. Those were the days when Lin saw traces of her nightmares reflected in black-and-white print. Those were the days it was hard to forget about death, hard to concentrate on a game of Exploding Snap, hard to look Anthony in the eye.

And every day, of course, it got harder to care about schoolwork. The whole school was tense, worried. Even on fun days, you could tell. There was always someone walking with a ghostly shadow on his or her face, looking like they'd just had tea with the Grim Reaper and found out that youth isn't so invincible after all.

* * *

"Come with me, Bellatrix."

He'd been asking her for weeks now. Or perhaps it was only one week. Maybe two; Bellatrix hardly kept track anymore.

They'd disposed of Siegfried. He was no longer consequential, no longer anything that mattered. Or so she said, so _he_ said, so they both pretended. There had been a small funeral service, a brief remembrance, a bit of fake crying on the part of everyone but Siegfried's mum, who cried in earnest. Bellatrix didn't cry. She hadn't cried at all since the day she realized Siegfried could never be turned back. Perhaps she'd forgotten how; it really didn't matter. What did matter was moving on. Swiftly. Painlessly. No looking back.

"I think it might be too late," Bellatrix said, staring at her hands. So much destruction she'd been able to dish out with these two hands, these slim fingers, these soft and steady palms. Plenty of destruction, but none of the opposite. She'd always been horrible at healing spells. It was no wonder she couldn't change anything back from stone.

"No," Rodolphus said urgently. "It's _not_. You've always been loyal, always been trustworthy—none of that's changed—"

"I missed the last meeting. He'll think I've deserted."

"Nonsense. The Dark Lord is much smarter than we are, Bellatrix. He'll know. He'll understand."

"And if he doesn't?"

Rodolphus stared at her levelly, gravely. "If he doesn't, you're as good as dead anyway."

Bellatrix considered. "And if I let him down the way I let down Siegfried?"

Rodolphus didn't hesitate before answering. "That's impossible. The Dark Lord could never be as big of a fool as Siegfried was."

Bellatrix sat there and tried not to let the comment sting. _It should sting, damn it_. It was the truth, after all, and very few things hurt more than the truth.

"He will appreciate your loyalty," Rodolphus continued, his voice lower, smoother, less patronizing. "And besides, I—I want you there with me."

Bellatrix considered this. She considered also the dagger in her hand. She'd been carrying it with her everywhere, these past weeks. She wasn't sure why. Maybe she was looking for a proper place to dispose of it. Maybe she was still debating whether or not to use it on herself. Or on the first sorry sap who happened to wander by at a bad moment. Did it really matter?

Rodolphus watched her turn the blade over in her hands nervously. "Bellatrix, I think you really need to start letting go of—"

Bellatrix slammed her hand onto the table, trapping the hilt of the dagger beneath it. Rodolphus jerked a little, but not away. He gazed at her carefully, apparently wondering if he should treat her like a human or a crazed animal. "Please shut up, Rodolphus," she said calmly.

Well. If there was nothing she could do about it, then—damn it—there was nothing she could do about it. Time to let go of Siegfried and let him rot. Or, at the very least, give the appearance of doing so. The outside world was tired of seeing her mope, so she might as well stop. In time, her emotions would catch up with her actions, and there would be nothing to prevent her from getting over everything once and for all. Not exactly nice and tidy, but she had to do _something_ or be driven completely insane.

"Find somewhere to put this," she said, rising from the table and staring at the dagger. "Lock it away somewhere. I don't ever want to see it again."

"Ah—right," Rodolphus said, looking rather pleased.

"And hurry up," she snapped, rubbing the burning Dark Mark on her arm. "We have a meeting to get to."

* * *

Lily and James wallowed in the dungeons for days. There was a little space to go to the bathroom, and twice a day food mysteriously appeared in their cell, usually just bread and cheese but also occasionally soup and sometimes water to drink. Lily had never been so thirsty or sore or miserable. Even using James as a human pillow couldn't take the crick out of her neck or the ache out of her back. There was nothing to do and nowhere to go and no one to talk to besides James, and after the first three days they gave up trying to figure out a way to escape.

No one came to see them. No one else appeared in the dungeon cells around them. There was nothing there, except Lily and James and the rats, which James zapped with his wand if they got too close.

Lily and James still had their wands. They had everything they'd come with, in fact, which was excellent except that no spell they tried seemed to be able to get them out of their cell. Gryffindor had done a wonderful job protecting his castle. Perhaps, thought Lily bitterly, he'd done the job a little _too_ wonderfully.

There were no guards, no apparent servants, no apparent people, really, except Lily and James, who supposed that the only reason they were still alive was because, somewhere in the castle, there were house elves, who made sure they got their food every day. This made sense. After all, Potter's Cottage had house elves, so why shouldn't Gryffindor's Castle? And in a place this large, there were probably quite a few house elves, which would explain why a disproportionate number of them now lived in Potter's Cottage—a relatively small place to house five or six house elves; Lily couldn't quite remember, now, how many there were. But she did remember James telling her, at one point, that mansions the size of Potter's Cottage needed only two house elves at most to keep tidy. Most large manors only needed one.

But a castle this size—even with magic, Lily thought, you'd need a whole army.

She wondered how many house elves there were at Hogwarts. It seemed like quite a few. She'd only ever really seen them during midnight trips to the kitchens, and even then she hadn't been to the kitchens a great number of times. Would there be more at Hogwarts than here, perhaps? She thought about asking James, but he was asleep. They both slept a lot. It was quite boring. Occasionally one of them would get restless and pace around the cell for a while, or try to exercise a bit by jumping around or doing push-ups or something, but that only mildly helped. At the end of the first day they'd gotten bored and decided to have a snog, but after that kissing didn't seem quite as appealing because their breath had become quite stinky and they had no place to brush their teeth or even bathe.

Life was quite disgusting.

Perhaps now they would fit in with the people of the past more. Lily suspected they didn't have great-smelling breath or perfectly clean clothes or excellent hygiene. She couldn't say for sure, however, because it didn't seem likely, now, that she'd ever meet any.

On the sixth day of wallowing in the cell, Lily became rather furious. She paced around the cell, cursing, yelling, banging against the bars, kicking the empty water pitcher to one side of the room and then stalking over to kick it back. James didn't try to stop her. He understood.

"What in the _bloody_ _hell_ are we—nowhere to go—no one around—no way to get out—_completely stuck_—stay here for thirty days—go back with nothing—completely _useless_—smell like dirty _pigs_—"

James sniffed his armpits. He wasn't sure "dirty pigs" was the most accurate description, but they certainly smelled like dirty something.

"Can't even wash my face—disgusting—no one even _lives_ here—bloody stupid idea—_poke around_ indeed—no way out—JAMES, WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE WE DOING HERE?"

James jerked in alarm. "Erm," he said, unhelpfully.

"James, we've got to do _something_. Think, damn it, _think_!"

"Think? What do you want me to think of? We've already thought of everything—already tried everything—Lily, there's just no way out!"

"NO! That's NOT TRUE! We've got to think of _something_!"

Lily was crazed, and besides that she looked terrible. Her hair was frizzy, tangled, and hastily pulled back, there were sad bags under her eyes, her skin was greasy, her breath was foul, and she had a dangerous look in her bright green eyes.

"Bugger," James muttered, racking his brains for something—_anything_—before he went bonkers like Lily.

He didn't _look_ much better than Lily, the main difference being his hair—it was so difficult to tell if it was kempt or unkempt normally that now, even after days of neglect and sleeping on a stone floor, it didn't look much better or worse than usual.

Lily continued pacing around the cell, muttering to herself. "Charms—can't make potion—can't just break the bars—no good climbing—no one around—_no one around_—just the bloody house elves—bloody Gryffindor—stupid castle—stupid—stupid—" She trailed off and stared at the ground, thinking.

Then, all at once, it came to her.

"James, the _house elves_!" she shrieked, and threw herself on her hands and knees next to him, peering rather frighteningly into his eyes.

"Er—what?"

"The _house elves_! Don't you see? They're _yours_, James! They're the ancestors of the house elves you have at Potter's Cottage! I mean…aren't they? Wouldn't they be? I mean, why wouldn't they?"

"Yes," James said slowly, "but I'm not sure what you're getting at."

"You can command them, can't you? I mean, if they're _yours_."

"They're not mine _yet_," James pointed out.

"Never mind that, though! You're a Gryffindor, aren't you? You have Gryffindor blood. All this eventually belongs to _you_, doesn't it?"

"Well…technically."

"So you see? Can't you just—call one of them? Make them release us? Or at least give us some bath water, damn it—_something_—ANYTHING—for the love of God, James, PLEASE—"

Lily was looking completely crazed again.

"All right, all right! I'll try…something," James said, sighing, and he slowly got to his feet. He walked to the edge of the cell, glanced over his shoulder awkwardly at Lily, who was staring at him with wide green eyes, and cleared his throat. "Erm…hello," he began, speaking into the silence. No one answered. "Yes. Hi. Um, I'm an heir of Godric Gryffindor. I will eventually inherit this castle and grounds. I was wondering…I was wondering if one of you house elves could come here and sort of…do us a favor."

Nothing happened. James looked back at Lily and shrugged. She jumped up, frustrated. "Come on, be _forceful_! Yell out a command or something. Just…just try it, please."

James sighed, feeling ridiculous, and turned back around. "I need a house elf down here _now_!" he yelled.

To his everlasting astonishment, there was a great _crack!_ and in front of them appeared a short, wrinkly house elf, who bowed deeply in front of James and said, "At your service, sir."

* * *

Quidditch practice. It was hard to believe there was still Quidditch practice, after watching a girl die and then come back to life and then have her soul put back together and then go through weeks of violent mood swings during an epic adventure into the past in which she spent most of her time wallowing on the floor of a dungeon cell bitching about the crick in her neck.

James's life, whatever it had been before, was now officially no longer normal.

And yet here he was, back in the present, with six Quidditch players standing on the pitch holding their broomsticks and looking at him expectantly.

"Right," James said finally. "Let's have a good practice of it, shall we?"

He mounted his broomstick without waiting for the team to respond. What else was he going to say? He didn't have an official game plan—not at the moment, anyway. He hadn't had a chance to work much of anything out in the past few weeks. He'd come up with a good idea or two in the dungeons, in between naps and fits of frustration and watching Lily halfway lose her mind, but he'd never gotten a chance to write them down, so they'd just drifted out of his brain and stayed in the past, probably waiting to be snatched up by someone less brilliant than James. Or…something.

The team flew up with him, and he hovered just slightly above the practice, calling out corrections and advice and certain plays he wanted them to run over. It got his mind off homework, anyway. Got his mind off Lily. The thoughts of Lily were incessant and deeply frustrating. It wasn't as though he minded thinking of Lily, of course, but—thinking about her all the time was a bit much, wasn't it?

Something had happened to them, traveling to and from the past. Gryffindor had said the time spell…well, it connected their minds in a weird way. They caught whiffs of each other's thoughts now. Part of that just came from being magical and spending the last thirty days with no one but each other, but another part of that came from traveling through time together. Neither of them had any training as Legilimens, so it didn't make sense for them to be catching whiffs of one another's thoughts that way.

In some ways, it was bringing them closer. In other ways, it sort of freaked them out.

James flew lazily over the practice, calling out a few more plays for them to fly through.

If he thought hard enough, he could almost sense what Lily was doing. He thought, for example, that right now she was up in one of the towers, working on a particularly brutal Transfiguration essay.

Odd. Lily was working on a Transfiguration essay, and James was at Quidditch practice. A month ago—and of course it wasn't really a month ago, not by normal time-keeping standards, but James and Lily had both gotten a month older during their trip to the past, so that was how James chose to think of it—they'd both been on broomsticks, hadn't they? Flying above the countryside, trying to figure out where Hogwarts was.

"Oy!" Arabella called up at him. "How'd that look?"

"Er—good, good," James said, hoping he didn't sound too distracted. "I think that's it for today. The game's not for another month, so we might as well take it easy, eh?"

The team flew to the ground and landed. Melody and Sirius wrestled the Beaters back into the box. It was a nighttime practice, so they hadn't even bothered releasing the Snitch.

"You okay, mate?" Sirius asked, catching up with him.

"Yeah," James said. "Just distracted."

"Thinking about…a certain someone?" Sirius wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Can't seem to _stop_, Padfoot, that's my problem."

Sirius shrugged. "Better than thinking about homework, anyway."

"But better than thinking about Quidditch?"

"Ooh." Sirius paused to give it some thought. Melody came up behind him and whacked him on the head. (Gently, of course, and with deep affection.) "Er—I mean to say—that's not so bad."

* * *

Melody stared as a girl burst out of the Great Hall, shrieking with delight, followed by a gaggle of friends who crowded around her to gaze at the large, sparkly stone that was now adorning the girl's ring finger.

"That's got to be the second time this week," Melody said, astonished, staring dumbly at the girls as they hurried up the stairs, still shrieking with amazement and glee.

"Yeah," Lily said absently.

"You all right, Lil?"

"Mm…what? Yeah. I'm fine, I'm just…just wondering."

"About…engagement rings?" Melody guessed as they entered the Great Hall for lunch.

"No, not that. Just…relationships in general." Melody stared at her until she said something more specific. "Or, um…physical relationships," Lily managed.

Melody's eyes widened. "Ah," she offered. It was a somewhat awkward conversation to have while strolling through the Great Hall. "Are you and James…?"

"No," Lily said hastily. "But I, um—that is to say—we might possibly—erm—"

Her cheeks turned pink. She became rather suddenly aware of her surroundings and the large number of people nearby. "Never mind," Lily amended. Melody opened her mouth to protest, but Lily said, "Later," very quickly, and Melody simply sighed and took a seat next to Lily at the Ravenclaw table.

"Oh, hey," Melody said, thinking of something. "Completely randomly—d'you know what I heard the other day about Amos Diggory?"

"What about Amos Diggory?" Lily asked, serving herself some pumpkin juice. Amos Diggory was a boy she'd sort-of dated in Fifth Year while secretly hoping to make James jealous (though, of course, she would have denied _that_ to the world).

"He's gotten married. A while ago, actually, because apparently he and his wife already have a baby."

Lily nearly spewed pumpkin juice out her nose. "_What_?"

"Yeah, I know," Melody said, shrugging and reaching for some sandwiches. "Crazy, isn't it? Things happen fast these days."

"But—but he's too _young_ to have a baby!"

Melody shrugged. "He's older than we are."

"Well—yes—but—not _so_ much older. I mean, would _you_ be ready to have a baby practically right out of Hogwarts?"

Melody thought about this and shuddered. "I dunno if I'd be ready to have a baby for ages after Hogwarts."

"Me either. It's just too—too—"

"Much?" Melody suggested.

"Yeah." Lily thought of James, and of babies, and shook her head. "I think I've got about all I can handle as it is. No need to throw a baby in the mix."

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the past, Lily and James were terribly, utterly lost.

"Are we there yet?" Lily asked, guiding her broom in lazy zig-zags behind James.

"No," James said, sighing.

"Are we there _yet_?" Lily attempted a spin in midair and nearly fell off her broom. She was a terrible flier. Plus, the brooms were completely awful and hideously uncomfortable. Had Lily been in her right state of mind, she would not have dared any broom aerodynamics. As it was, however, Lily was under the influence of one of her many unpredictable mood swings, and was feeling quite mischievous, daring, silly, and playful—to James's everlasting annoyance.

"No," James snapped. He had a pained look of concentration on his face. The pain was partly from trying to ignore Lily and partly from sitting on the hideously uncomfortable broomstick, the various parts of which felt as though they had been twined together with barbed wire. The concentration came mostly from trying to figure out where they were going, but also from trying to prevent the broomstick from splintering into various sensitive parts of his anatomy.

"Are we there…YET?" She leaned forward on her broom and tried to coax it up next to James's.

"No!" he roared, practically in her ear.

Lily burst into a hysterical fit of giggles. Somewhere deep underneath the mood swing, a more adult Lily was aware she was driving James out of his mind, but she couldn't do anything to stop herself.

The house-elf had let Lily and James out of the dungeons, given them broomsticks and food, informed them that Godric Gryffindor was not there and probably would not return for some time, and then attempted to give them approximate directions to the site of Gryffindor's newest building project. So far, the only part Lily and James seemed to have grasped was "North."

Nothing looked familiar, but then why would it? The further they got into Scotland, the more alien it became, and on top of that, none of the normal landmarks seemed to apply. Even if they had somehow memorized the route of the Hogwarts Express in their own time, it seemed unlikely that they would be able to recreate its path now. The trees were all in entirely different places, the farmland was different, the buildings were fewer and farther apart, and there were no lines anywhere—no phone lines, power lines, anything. Hardly a thing to distinguish Muggle from magician.

Plus—the broomsticks were really, _really_ starting to hurt. Lily suspected she would care far more if she were her normal, rational self, but instead she was lackadaisically attempting to guide her broomstick this way and that—a particularly dangerous feat, considering the broomsticks weren't enchanted to do anything more complicated than go up, down, start, and stop. If Lily did something _really_ stupid and somehow fell off her broomstick, it didn't seem likely that James could pull into a fantastic dive and save her. His broomstick was, if possible, less aerodynamic than Lily's, which jerked and shuddered oddly if she tried to turn it more than fifteen degrees at a time.

"Jaaaamesie-poo," Lily sang in an annoying soprano. "Why so glum? Turn that frown upside-down!"

If James hadn't been clutching his broomstick so tightly in obvious anguish, he might have taken the opportunity to shove Lily off hers. Or, at the very least, to clamp his hand over her mouth.

"I, uh—_ow_," James said, trying to ignore Lily's current state of apparent psychosis. His speech was occasionally punctuated by little exclamations of pain as the broomstick shifted uncomfortably beneath him. "Look, I think we—_ah!_—ought to stop soon, because—_argh_—I seem to be having a bit of a—_oof_—problem. With this—_yow!_—thing."

"Hey look, a clearing! Race you to the ground!" Lily cried, ecstatic, and set her broom into a dive, as steep and as fast as she could make it.

James sighed. There wasn't much more than one speed on either of the broomsticks, so the dive was neither as steep nor as fast as Lily liked to think it was. Luckily, it was a dive controllable enough for Lily, who normally looked at a broomstick and saw "death" written all over it.

It was a good thing she was taking out her gleeful mood on a lame, ancient broomstick and not one of the new Nimbuses; if she'd been riding a Nimbus, she would have accidentally pitched herself to her death by now, and then where would they be?

James landed beside Lily, who had toppled off her broomstick and onto the grass instead of managing a proper dismount. James attempted to look dignified as he dismounted, but he was so sore that this was nearly impossible, and he half-fell, half-hobbled his way away from the broomstick instead.

"Bugger," he grunted, gently lowering himself to the ground beside Lily, who was happily picking the petals off a flower she'd plucked out of the ground. "What I wouldn't give to know how to perform that Cushioning Charm right about now." James thought longingly of his _Quidditch Through the Ages_ book, tucked safely away in his dormitory, which was now an unknown number of miles away and a good thousand years into the future. _Did the book say how to perform the cushioning charm?_ he wondered—and if so, why in the blazes hadn't he learned it? He sighed and delicately adjusted his bottom. He wasn't sure he could take much more of this. When it came right down to it, they were lost anyway, so what did it matter if they flew high above the countryside or traipsed aimlessly through it? Perhaps Lily would agree, because James's body did not take kindly to the idea of mounting that broomstick again any time in the near future. He glanced over to see how she was doing.

"He loves me!" she cried, triumphantly ripping a petal off the flower and watching eagerly as it fluttered to the ground. "Oh…he loves me not," she noted dejectedly, and pouted as she flung the petal to the ground. "He loves me!" she repeated. Then, "Oh no…he loves me _not_. He—he _loves_ me!" she squealed, seizing the last petal. "Oh, Jamesie-poo, I just _knew_ it!"

Lily launched herself in his general direction and flung her arms about his neck, pressing her lips eagerly against his. She was a bit too eager, however, and their teeth sort of banged together for a painful moment. "Oops," Lily said, giggling, and she put her mouth to his with a bit more accuracy.

_This is it_, James thought. _She's gone off the deep end. My girlfriend's lying on top of me in the middle of a field wanting to have a snog while we're completely lost a thousand years into the past because a _flower _told her I loved her._

Midway through the kiss, Lily came back to her senses. "Oh dear," she said suddenly, pulling away with the appearance of someone who'd just got her wits together. "I've gone a bit barmy, haven't I?"

James shrugged. He couldn't help but agree.

"Oh dear," Lily repeated, sighing, and she moved away from James, twisting around to sit on the grass next to him. "Where exactly are—_aaah!_"

She felt, quite suddenly, the excruciating pain that had been building up between her legs since her first attempt at broomstick aerobatics. "Oh my _God_," she moaned. "James, what on earth did I _do_ to myself?"

"Beats me, Lily. All I know is you were braver on a broomstick in the last half an hour than you've ever been."

"Oh _no_," she moaned, stretching out and doing her best to assuage the pain. "I—_ooow_—I think I've got—_eep_—splinters in the—_gaaah_—most unholy of places."

"Most likely," James grunted, attempting to stretch out himself.

They lay there side-by-side for a moment, contemplating the blue sky above them, before Lily said, in a somewhat less-than-steady voice, "James?"

"Yeah, Lily?"

"D'you think," her voice quavered somewhat, "I'll—I'll ever really be normal again?" She sniffled softly.

"Aw, _Lil_," James said, looking over. Neither of them really wanted to move—that much was obvious—but Lily was hastily wiping away a few small tears on her face. "I think—I think so," James offered. "I mean, Schmundertoe's been right about everything so far, hasn't he? And—he told us the mood swings would happen. If anything, they're a good sign, aren't they? It means your soul's getting put back together and everything."

Lily considered this for a moment and then nodded vigorously, but to James this was a sign that she couldn't exactly speak, because if she did she might crack again.

James couldn't think of much else to say, so instead he reached over and took hold of one of Lily's hands, bringing it to his lips and kissing it. Lily seemed to appreciate this, because she squeezed his hand and wiggled a little closer to him, cringing slightly as she did so.

They were silent for some moments as Lily composed herself. Then, after they'd been lying there long enough for the cricks in both their necks to come back, Lily sighed and said, "James…where the dickens are we?"

"Lost," James said, because that was all he knew.

"Not good," Lily noted, and they lay there for a few more minutes in silence, trying not to move.

Then, suddenly, inspiration struck. "Lily!" James said, jerking in excitement and then immediately regretting it.

"Yes?" Lily turned her head, but nothing more.

James met her gaze. "How d'you feel about…Apparating?"

Lily stared at him. "I feel like…we're not certified."

"Right. Yeah. Never mind that--I think we should give it a try." James raised his eyebrows eagerly.

Lily rolled her eyes. "You know, I think _some_ of us would like to stay in one piece. I don't know if I could handle having my soul and my body spliced at the same time."

James considered this briefly. "Nah. Look, Lily, I'm really good at Apparating, I just haven't bothered to take my test yet. I mean…haven't you practiced?"

Lily sighed. "Not as much as I should have. And besides that—James, we don't even know where we're _going_. You can't Apparate to an indeterminate destination."

"We _do_ know where we're going, though. We just don't know how to _get_ there."

"Yes, and another thing—we _can't_ Apparate directly to and from Hogwarts, James, you know that. There's a spell that blocks it."

"Yeah…there is in the future. How d'you know there is _now_?"

Lily stared at him until he felt like an idiot. "We are _not_ going to take that chance."

"Fine. We'll Apparate to Hogsmeade, then. Happy?"

"I dunno, James, I…I mean…what if Hogsmeade's not there yet, either?"

"Doesn't matter. At least we'll be close to the castle."

"But I—I mean—what if something _happens_? James, there's no Ministry of Magic set up yet—there's no Ministry of anything—we don't know any wizards—if we do get in trouble we'll have no one to help us—and what if a wizard does find us all spliced and he can't even do anything about it? What then? We—"

"Lily," James said gently. "I promise we'll be fine. If you don't want to Apparate yourself, you can Apparate with me. I mean it—I'm really quite good at it."

Lily considered.

After a few more minutes of debate, Lily decided that James needed to prove it, so he Apparated back and forth between various places in the meadow they were standing in, and then Apparated with Lily once just for good measure until she sighed and gave in.

They decided to abandon the broomsticks—they weren't worth keeping, not even if they belonged to Godric Gryffindor. Lily breathed deeply as they prepared to Apparate, repeating over and over in her mind _It's safer than flying—it's safer than flying—it's safer than flying_—until the time finally came, and with a whirl and a _pop! _James successfully Apparated them out of the field.

Quite a few miles northeast of the field they'd just left behind, Lily and James suddenly appeared out of nowhere, quite successfully, and all in one piece.

They were in another field, only this one was hillier and slightly greener and the sky above wasn't quite as blue as they could have hoped; the clouds were gray and the air was slightly chill and the sky threatened rain. Lily and James were very much alone.

* * *

"Brilliant, James," Lily said as the first drops of rain started falling. "Now what?"

"What're you up to, Lily?" Mimi asked, plopping down next to Lily in one of the bean bag chairs in the Ravenclaw Common Room.

Lily sighed. "Career planning."

"Ooh…good choice. Have you figured out what you're going to do after Hogwarts?"

"_No_," Lily moaned. "That's the whole point. This is the schedule to sign up for a meeting with Dumbledore, but as you can see it's mostly filled already, and—_bugger_, there goes another one."

Mimi peered over Lily's shoulder to see the large schedule she held in her lap. As they watched, ink appeared on the parchment as, somewhere in Hogwarts, another student signed his name into one of the open time slots.

"Curse you…Harper H. Fiddleton!" Lily said, squinting at the cramped writing. "I was thinking about taking that one."

"Well, why don't you take this one?" Mimi suggested, pointing to an open space.

"I can't, I have Herbology then."

"Oh, right. Well…what about here?"

"That's three weeks away!" Lily wailed.

"Lily, it's only January."

"I know…but I want to panic about my future _now_."

"You better take this spot while you can," Mimi advised. "Looks like things are filling up fast."

Lily frowned as two more spots were claimed. "All right," she muttered. "Looks like I'll have to put this off til mid-February." She sighed and scribbled her name in quickly, before another Fiddleton-type character could take the spot. "Why aren't _you_ freaking out about the future?" she demanded of Mimi.

Mimi shrugged. "I've got this internship thing at the _Daily Prophet_. I'm thinking about becoming a journalist. Maybe an editor. The internship's like three months or something, and after that I'm going to try to set up an interview with _Witch Weekly_. I'd love to write columns about fashion." Her eyes lit up at the thought.

Lily decided to laugh instead of groan in frustration. "I don't understand how everybody has everything all laid out already. I've got _no_ idea what I want to do."

Mimi yawned. "It'll come to you, Lil."

"You okay? You look tired."

"I am tired. I haven't been getting much sleep lately."

"Not studying for the N.E.W.T.'s already, are you?" Lily joked.

Mimi laughed. "Not a chance. No, actually I've been working on something—er—something else."

Lily frowned. "What kind of something else? Big project for Divination or something?"

Mimi's eyes slid away from Lily's. "No, nothing like that. Just…a personal sort of project. That's all."

"What _sort_ of project?"

Mimi bit her lip and stared into the fireplace. After a bit of hesitation, she said, "You know—Lily, maybe you could help me. I mean, you're better at this sort of thing than I am, and I'm—stuck." She turned her big brown eyes to Lily, looking a little desperate.

"Well—I mean—what sort of thing is it?"

"Potions. Well—a potion. For, um, healing things. Like—like scars."

Lily looked at her for a moment, puzzled. Mimi was still biting her lip, anxious not to say too much out loud. "Oh," Lily realized. "Remus?" she asked softly.

Mimi nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I know there's nothing I can _really_ do, but I thought if I could at least work out something—something to help the pain, or heal the scratches better—"

"Mimi, that's really advanced magic," Lily murmured. "I—"

"I know, Lily, but I have to do _something_. I can't stand just sitting there and seeing how he hurts, it's—" Mimi shook her head. "It's not right. And—and you're so much better at Potions than me, Lily, you could really help—no, you _could_, don't look at me like that, and—well—it would make the nights less lonely, anyway."

Mimi looked at Lily pleadingly for a good long time before Lily sighed.

"Not every night," she said firmly.

Mimi nodded. "Not every night," she agreed. She wouldn't have asked Lily to come every night, anyway.

She hadn't said anything about herself.

* * *

The Marauders and their girlfriends settled into MHQ for another installment of Lily and James's epic tale. It was fast becoming a weekly ritual. They'd been doing it the past three weekends, whenever all of them could spare a bit of time, and they'd gotten in the habit of trading off candy duty. This time, Melody brought a large bag of licorice, which they all passed around to share.

"Look! I'm a walrus," Sirius said, ripping a piece of the licorice in half and sticking the two pieces under his front lip, letting them hang down over his chin in what he apparently considered a walrus-like fashion.

"You're a nincompoop," Melody said calmly, ripping off the end of a licorice rope and chewing it patiently as Sirius growled at her.

"Do walruses growl?" James wondered.

"No, but I think they bellow," Remus offered.

"Bellow?" Mimi echoed. "What in the world does a walrus _bellow_ sound like?"

Remus cleared his throat. "Allow me to demonstrate." He let out a loud, booming, anguished sort of noise that sounded more like the howl of a dying hyena than a walrus. Mimi snorted and burst into giggles.

"O-_kay_ then," Lily said as the giggles subsided. "Don't we have some sort of story to tell?"

Sirius sighed dramatically. "Iff you musht, you musht," he said around the two pieces of licorice that were hanging out of his mouth.

"Where were we?" James asked. Lily stared at the ceiling blankly, trying to remember.

"You had just Apparated. You landed in the middle of a field and it started raining on you," Peter offered.

"Ah. Right," James agreed, and glanced over at Lily.

"Oh, go right ahead," she said. "I'm not too fond of this part."

"So did you end up anywhere near Hogwarts?" Sophie asked eagerly. Lily and James didn't really know her much better than they had when they'd started telling this story, but Sophie was a very attentive audience member, and though it didn't necessarily turn them into close friends, it at least opened the doors for communication.

"Yes, thankfully," James replied, "otherwise things could have been much worse."

"We weren't quite as close as we could have hoped," Lily said, rather flatly.

"Er—yes," James agreed. "You see, as it happened—"

"As it happened, _Lily_ caught a cold," Lily interrupted. "Because—as it happened—it was raining very hard, and James landed them about ten miles south of Hogsmeade. Didn't you, James? Yes, and although Hogsmeade wasn't much of anything—just one tavern, really—it would have been nice to be a tad closer to _shelter_ before _pneumonia_ set in—as it was, it took us two and a half hours to walk anywhere worth _going_--"

"Oh, come now, Lily." James very nearly pouted. "I did the best I could, and anyway—you said _I _could tell this part of the story.

Lily scrunched up her nose unhappily. After a moment of silent conversation with James, she said, "Oh, all right." And with that, Lily very visibly clamped her mouth shut.

"Now then. We walked two and a half hours through the rain to get to the tavern at Hogsmeade, and by the time we got there Lily was sneezing and shivering and looking pretty awful, despite the warming charm we'd been using to try to keep ourselves from being completely soaked. She was in a pretty bad way when we stumbled through the doors, so the tavern owner—although he couldn't understand what we were saying—took pity on us and gave us a room. He didn't like the look of the Galleons we tried to give him at first, but he got over it when he realized they were made of real gold."

Lily poked James in the shoulder and tugged at her necklace, staring at him pointedly.

"Oh, yes," he said, sighing, and rattled off the next bit as quickly as he could. "And we only found the tavern because Lily's brilliant, and even though I'm an idiot and got us lost her necklace somehow knew the right direction to go, and if it hadn't been for its amazing sense of direction we would have been doomed to wander around aimlessly until we died. Are you happy now?"

Lily smiled and nodded, fiddling with her necklace as James continued his narration.

"Anyway—once we got safely to the tavern, Lily became very ill. I had a slight cold for a few days, but Lily somehow caught something much worse. We were laid up in the tavern for nearly a week before Lily got better again. It was rather boring, I must say, because I couldn't speak with any of the tavern's other patrons—none of them understood a word I said—and the only person there I could really talk to was halfway to being a vegetable. Sorry, Lil, it's just true. Anyway, besides that, there was nothing to read, and nothing much to do, really, except sleep a lot and make sure Lily had enough to drink and eat and everything.

"So yeah, that part of the trip was really dull. After Lily got better, we ventured up to Hogwarts to try to find Gryffindor again. The castle was—well, it's hard to describe." He looked over at Lily.

Lily bit her lip and considered. "It was finished and everything, so it wasn't still in a state of half-construction. But it was—different. It was—_new_."

"Yeah," James agreed. "Yeah, it was brand-new. And it was really, really weird to see something that you associate with the old and historic as a brand-new building. The whole place just…felt different. Like the magic was still settling around everywhere, you know? All the spells and the stones had only just been put into place—the—the secret passages were still waiting to be discovered—millions of pranks were still waiting to happen—all kinds of mischief had yet to be—"

"Whoa there, killer," Lily said, patting him on the arm. "Don't get carried away thinking about pranks now."

James scowled. "I still can't believe you didn't let me pull one. Just a _small_ one would have been—"

"James, are you out of your mind? We were in enough trouble as it was."

"Not at the end we weren't."

"Would you really want to have been the one responsible for getting us on Gryffindor's bad side?"

"Oh, come on, Lily, it would have been historic. The first person ever to pull a prank inside Hogwarts! Just think of it! It could have been _amazing_."

"Or just really, really stupid."

"Don't hamper me with details, Lily. I had a dream."

"Yes, dear. Of course you did. To clear up some of that," Lily said, turning back to their audience, which was regarding them with blank stares registering somewhere in between confusion and fascination, "we made it to Hogwarts. We made it all the way into the Great Hall this time, in fact, before we were promptly imprisoned again."

"Dungeons suck," James muttered.

"Yes," Lily agreed. "And considering how much lawbreaking we did _not_ do while we were in the past, we spent an inordinate amount of time in them."

"Well, we did break and enter," James reasoned.

"We did not _break_ and enter. The doors were unlocked both times. Godric Gryffindor just happened to be a total security freak."

"Wait wait wait wait wait," Melody said, very quickly. "So, you two actually _met_ Godric Gryffindor? You _actually_ got to speak with him?"

Lily and James blinked at her.

"Well…yeah," Lily said. "That is what we went back for."

"I know, but—I mean—_Godric Gryffindor_. He's—he's—he's—"

"Amazing?" Lily suggested.

"_Historic_," Melody breathed.

"Mm," James said. "That was sort of the point."

"Brave ones, these Gryffindors, but not exactly the brightest, are they?" Mimi teased. Melody stuck her tongue out and turned her attention back to Lily and James.

"Go on," she said. "So what did Gryffindor say? What does he _look_ like?"

"Hang on, we're not there _yet_," Lily said. "We're in the dungeons again, remember?"

"Okay, well, blah de blah de blah, you're in the dungeons, it's lame, and then—ta da! You meet Godric Gryffindor. What's he like?"

"Actually, that's not quite how it went," Lily said. "See, we didn't meet Godric Gryffindor first."

"Who _did_ you meet, then?" Melody demanded.

Lily and James traded an uneasy glance before speaking the name together. "Salazar Slytherin."

* * *

Lin, Anthony, and Bridget were playing Exploding Snap in a deserted classroom. It wasn't as cozy as the Common Room, but then Anthony wasn't in Gryffindor, so they didn't really have a choice.

Lin was doing wonderfully. She hadn't had one of her awful visions for days, Anthony was a total sweetheart, Bridget was in an unusually goofy and complacent mood (not her usual competitive, 'I-will-eat-you-if-you-beat-me' mood), and just yesterday Lin had gotten an excellent score on her Potions exam.

"Linny loo-loo," Bridget sang, "it's your turny turny too-too."

Anthony sighed deeply. "Whose idea was it to bring all those chocolate frogs?" he demanded. "I think they're making Bridget go a bit mad."

"My deepest apologies," Lin said, brandishing one of her cards. "Now, what shall I do with you?" she wondered, tapping the card on her chin. "A-_ha_!"

She laid the card down and the deck promptly exploded. "Hm," she said, as an afterthought, "perhaps that wasn't the best move after all.

Bridget let out a delightful peal of laughter and Anthony rolled his eyes.

Then, with no warning at all, Lin collapsed onto the table. Her face gave a mighty _smack_ as it hurled against the wood, and Bridget and Anthony could only stare, dumbfounded, as Lin was sucked away into one of her visions of death.

* * *

Lily and James's retelling of their first meeting with Salazar Slytherin was rudely interrupted by an overly persistent owl that pecked on the entrance to MHQ until Sirius impatiently leaped over the couch to let it in.

"No one's supposed to know this is here, you know," he informed the bird, frowning.

The owl ignored him and flew across the room to Sophie. It deposited a letter in her lap and flew right out of the room again, taking a nip at Sirius before it finally disappeared down the hallway.

"How rude," Sirius said, letting the entrance slide closed, and he plopped himself back on the couch next to Melody.

They all waited rather awkwardly as Sophie opened the letter, and stared, rather dumbfounded, as she burst into wretched sobs and hurried out of the room. Peter followed her, panicked, and the letter lay forgotten on the floor.

None of them needed to pick it up and read it to know what news it carried, but Sirius did anyway.

"Dear Ms. Fullcox, we regret to inform you that a Mr. and Mrs. Terrence Fullcox were the victims of an attack this evening at their home in Edinburgh. Mrs. Fullcox was found dead at the scene, and Mr. Fullcox has been taken to St. Mungo's Hospital for treatment for an unknown number and variety of curses. We advise you to please come to St. Mungo's as soon as you can—blah blah fine print—we apologize for your loss, sincerely, Allister Wrankstitch, Dark Force Defense League, Ministry of Magic, London."

A dreadful silence settled over the room.

"That poor girl," Lily said finally, blinking back distant tears that were attempting to form behind her eyes.

They all glanced awkwardly at each other for a moment.

"I think," Remus said softly, "perhaps we should continue this another time."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "It would—would be a shame for either of them to miss the good stuff."

They all glanced over at the chair that Sophie and Peter usually occupied, and then looked awkwardly away. They fidgeted through another moment of terrible silence, before Lily said, "I'm hungry. I think I'll go have a bite to eat."

They all murmured that food sounded good, and together they traipsed down to the Great Hall for a very somber meal.

* * *

Lily and James had been getting very physical lately. Whatever had changed between them in the past had also changed the way they…related to each other. Once or twice they'd nearly—well, but they hadn't. Every time, something held them back.

Tonight, though…maybe not.

Lily and James had retreated to one of their favorite spots—the fourth floor room hidden behind the dragon tapestry—and for a while just sat in silence, staring at the fire. Eventually they started talking about Sophie and her parents, and that led to talk of Voldemort and Aurors and life after graduation. That talk led to fear and uncertainty and a particularly mushy moment in which Lily and James looked at each other and said they didn't want to lose each other, and then massive snogging commenced.

And now they were…here, with their hands all over each other in various inappropriate places. In a moment, James's lips were straying to inappropriate places. In the next, Lily's shirt came off. She fumbled to relieve James of his. They'd been this far before, skin pressed against skin, hands and lips brushing over the unfamiliar parts of each other's bodies. Lily loved the feeling of James against her, James all over her.

Little by little, their hands were straying downward, downward—their kissing intensified, their bodies flushed—they fumbled awkwardly to get their pants off—

And then, suddenly, James was pressing against her—a very unfamiliar part of James—a very—

Quite astonishingly, at that very moment an image of Amos Diggory popped into Lily's head. Amos Diggory, with a baby on his lap and baby spittle all down his front, his home a complete mess, a stack of dirty diapers in the background and his wife passed out from exhaustion on the couch. Pregnant again, no less.

It was a very detailed and poignant vision.

Quite suddenly, Lily became acutely aware that she did not want James and his—little James—anywhere near her and her—little Lily. As she'd told Melody, a baby was the last thing she could handle right now, and at the moment she and James were rather ill-equipped—well, that is to say, they hadn't quite planned to—they didn't exactly have anything that would stop—

"James—James, I can't," Lily gasped, and tried to wriggle out from under him.

"Lil—Lily, _what_?" James's voice was rather tight and a little deeper than usual.

"I can't, I'm sorry—I'm so sorry—" Lily shoved James away and fell off the couch onto the floor, rolling away from James. She scrambled to fasten her pants and pull her shirt back on.

"Lily—Lily, _please_," James's voice cracked oddly. He sounded haggard. Lily glanced up at him, ashamed. Her cheeks were still flushed—her whole body still tingled, still felt tight and hot and—

"James, I just—I just don't know if I can—" She shook her head and finished putting her shirt on. "I have to go."

"_Lily_, I—"

"I'm sorry," she said, and hurried out of the room, ignoring the way her body was screaming at her to screw logic and turn back.

* * *

Lily curled up on the couch in the Ravenclaw common room and tried to evaluate her life. It had been so cold lately, and the fire looked so warm she wished she could just melt into it. Things were so…surreal, almost. Her life in the past month had been…impossible. She couldn't believe she'd died, come back to life, re-fused her soul, traveled a thousand years back into the past, and finally managed to tell James she loved him…among other things. And now, they'd…well, they'd almost…

A hot flush crept through Lily's body just thinking about it. Maybe she didn't need the fire after all. Maybe all she needed was to creep out and see James…maybe she just needed one more look at him to know…to know if she was ready to…

She jumped as a loud noise came from the entrance to the common room. She whirled around to see the stone shifting and a cloaked figure entering.

"Who is that? It's way past curfew. I don't want to dock points from my own house, but—"

"It's me," came a familiar voice, and the cloak of the hood fell back, revealing long blond hair.

"Melody," Lily said, frowning. "What are you doing here?"

Melody glanced at Lily and then her gaze fell on the carpet. "I need to talk to you."

"Melody, it's almost three in the—"

"I know," Melody said, walking over to the couch and hesitating by the end. "Can I—can I sit down?"

A crease appeared between Lily's eyebrows. "Melody, of course you can, but what's—"

"Lily, don't hate me," Melody whispered, sinking onto the plush blue cushions, still not looking Lily in the eye.

Lily froze and stared at her. Melody still refused to meet her gaze. She was staring pointedly at the floor, not moving, her fingers fiddling madly with the edges of her cloak.

"Melody, what's going on?" Lily urged, her heart picking up an irregular, nervous beat. If anything had happened to Melody's family—but no, Melody didn't look heartbroken, she looked more—ill and…guilty, really. If she had pulled another stupid prank—or gotten into some kind of horrible trouble—or—Lily couldn't even think. "Melody," she repeated, grabbing one of Melody's hands in an attempt to stop her fiddling with the cloak. It made Melody look nervous, and the more nervous Melody looked, the more nervous Lily felt.

For the first time Melody met her friend's gaze. "You can't judge me," she whispered, her eyes wide. Lily blinked and stared at her, unsure of what to say.

"Just tell me what's going on, Melody."

"Promise me. Promise you won't judge me."

Lily's head was spinning. Obviously whatever Melody was about to tell her, Lily was going to judge her on. But she said "I promise," anyway.

Melody registered this and then stared at Lily a moment more before speaking.

"Lily…I think I might be pregnant."

* * *

A/N: I almost hate myself for that ending. If it hadn't been planned for so long, and if this next scene hadn't been written like three years ago (oh God…), it might not be in here. But as it is, um…it is. So there we have it.

I apologize for the general uselessness of this chapter. (I know, I know…I say that all the time.) Also I would like to say here that I am not being self-deprecating because I'm fishing for compliments…I'm doing it because it's tradition.

Also, if you don't really understand why the chapter's called "Meddling," that's okay. Mostly it's because Lily and James are meddling with time, Mimi's meddling with potions, and…oh, there was something else but I forgot. Anyway, so that's that. Also I know there was a lack of reaction to Paolo's death in this chapter, but Melody is honestly the only person who deeply cares about this, and as you might be able to tell from the end of this chapter…she's been preoccupied. We can deal with aftermath in the next chapter.

That said, I love you all, you're all amazing, I don't know why you're still reading this but I'm glad that you are.

A great tooting, honking, crashing, rat-a-tat-tat-ing, booming, tweeting, chiming, marching THANK YOU (no, not a band, but a thank you) goes out to all the reviewers I've neglected to thank these past few chapters:

katdance666, sweettarts, LazyBoyGilmore, STA, wicked.witchy.princess, LilyJames addict, L, Haley, sexyteluguchica, Janus, Eriskay, Akt5us, Sedri, Deppgirl14, Lola, lizziee, Stardust, Leitheindel, jlmoth, RainbowCrayon, Lunna.moon, peacemakern, PiperPaigePhoebe01, Ginny-Harry-2gether-4ever, oi4ka, Charlotte Donahue, Katie, Drunk Cow, cheetah-96pirate96, Jojo, r, Kat44, Meggily, soleil3, tresdrole, eluding-you, 1ss2cs3pa4gf5op6hbp, Geraldine, Bininny, Violets-in-Spring, lastjumpfalls, Mashiara14, smileenov, Thu, Cajun Rogue, stormrocks, Mirrorbay2000, Squeak4ever, sweetie, codswallop, Arista Ramabra, Nicole, Lainia26, Rebekka, green-eyed lily2093, haRrYhEaRtSGiNnY101, sunPeTAL, lexygirl0, parading-graveyard, dandylion, sugarhi marauders, picklezzz, Prongs-n-Padfootluvu, Crazy4U, Stacey, JK, SunnyKate and MoonyMeg, Chrissy Sparkle, allthecolorsoftherainbow, TwO bLaCk UnICorns, Sins of Angels, Radish Earrings, I want a ho-ho, katdance666, Libeku Taganashi, grapesRgone, Avic, lilypad-7879, snazzysnez, sugarspun, TheEvilEggplant, Juti, diamondreamer, Lioness Amythest, Paddikins, meek-bookworm, tropicalpunch9812, Kim, famousindafuture.

I know it's been a while since I've done proper review responses, and I do feel bad about that. I'll work on that in the future. But for now, here are some general responses to things mentioned in reviews:

First of all, of COURSE I read all my reviews, and of course I appreciate all feedback and criticism. Honestly, why do you think I bother posting? (Joking. Mostly.) I'm just glad to be able to write something that other people enjoy reading, and it makes it seem that much more worthwhile to hear back from all of you.

Secondly, regarding the Avada Kedavra: Yes, Lily was hit with the curse, and yes, she's still alive. However, technically, she did die. Her soul was separated from her body and the curse did its work, and for a moment in time she was dead as a doornail. Fortunately for Lily (and for this story in general), her necklace brought her soul back into her body and she regained life. We're working with a sheer technicality here to say that she did not survive the Killing Curse. Also, you know, screw it, it's AU, so if you don't like that explanation just think to yourself, "It's not canon…it's not canon," and everything will be okay.

Someone asked when I graduate. If all goes well, I'll be graduating in 2009, presumably in May but also possibly in December. (If you have no idea why anyone would ask this question it is because in the author's notes for last chapter, I mentioned that I desperately wanted to finish Eyes before I graduated.) I'm thinking about staying on for an extra semester, just because. And if you're curious as to where I go to school, I can proudly say I go to the same school as the founder of Mugglenet (although no, I do not know him, and most of the pride comes from the fact that I go to Notre Dame, and not so much that Emerson goes there, although that is nifty).

Anyway, I just have to put out a general thank you to everyone who's stuck with me this long…and everyone who finds this story and gets excited about it. It's really old, it's really long, it's really messy in a lot of places, but it's my baby and I'm glad you guys still follow it. Also, I have to especially thank my beta Lia and my friend Holly, because really without them this whole thing would pretty much cease to exist.

That said, next chapter: All the really important stuff happens. Am excited about getting back to life at Hogwarts normally. Also excited about revealing all the necklace stuff once and for all (can tie up that plot point) and propelling the whole story forward to its end. That's right, I said it…the END. There are two more chapters left plus an epilogue, and not one chapter more, or I will go insane and fling my computer off a cliff (if I could find one).

Anticipated posting date: SOON. …ish. Hopefully two weeks, maybe less if I'm feeling insane.

Cheers,

Sierra Charm


	24. Everything Is Revealed

A/N: Drama, drama, drama…. Well, as I'm sure you all noticed, last chapter ended in a cliffhanger (as did the several chapters before that), and I'm sure you're all sick of cliffhangers by now, so I'm pleased to say that the end of this chapter doesn't end in one. I am also pleased to say, for the first time in recent memory, that I love this chapter. I just do. It was fun to write. I wrote it quickly and efficiently and—this is the really exciting bit—every scene in this chapter has a specific purpose, and it accomplishes that specific purpose nicely and with ease (except, perhaps, for the scenes where Lily and James are still stuck in the past, but we can let those slide). The title of this chapter, you may have noticed, is a bit melodramatic, but I like it also so we're sticking with it.

That said, Happy 4th of July! I do love posting on holidays. For those of you who don't live in the U.S., this is probably not your Independence Day, but happy 4th of July anyway. It is, after all, a momentous day; time to barbecue hot dogs and shoot off dangerous explosives in commemorative celebration of the day a bunch of men in powdered wigs decided they'd had enough of unfair tea taxes and, mustering all the strength and courage they possessed, did the boldest, most daring thing they could think of: locked themselves in a room for a while arguing about verb use before--here's the dramatic climax--_signing a piece of paper. _Ah freedom. How grand your endeavors, how noble your histories, how powdered your wigs!

And, with _that_ said, here's the summary for last chapter (although, given that last chapter was posted approximately two and a half weeks ago, you might actually remember what happened):

Lily and James meet Nicolas Flamel and prepare for their journey into the past, which they complete successfully, but during which—as we come to find out—almost nothing of actual substance actually happens. They stumble upon Gryffindor's Castle, they get locked in the dungeons, they get a house-elf to let them out and nearly fly to Scotland before giving up (on account of blisters), at which point they nearly successfully Apparate to the village of Hogsmeade, Lily catches a cold and, once they actually reach Hogsmeade, stays in bed sick for a week before they finally trudge up to Hogwarts and, once again, are imprisoned and greeted by a none-too-friendly Salazar Slytherin.

Meanwhile, back in the present, Bellatrix is drunk again, but we can see from her interactions with Rodolphus that she is rapidly recovering from the loss of Siegfried and is prepared to put the whole messy business behind her and move into a life of complete servitude to the Dark Lord (and that, coincidentally, is the last we are going to see of Bellatrix in this fic). There is also a very drawn-out conversation between Melody and Sirius regarding their relationship and all of Melody's terrible lies about what's really been going on inside her head, and Melody fesses up to everything, but, thankfully, they manage to resolve things in the end with a rather marvelous snog.

Life at Hogwarts is interesting these days because students are getting engaged left and right, Lin's dark visions continue (despite all efforts to prevent them), Peter's girlfriend (Sophie)'s parents have been attacked, and Melody thinks she might be pregnant.

So…that's where we left off, and now we shall continue. Cheers and happy reading!

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Four

Everything Is Revealed

"Lily, I think I might be pregnant." Melody stared at her best friend with apprehension and waited for her to speak.

Lily shut down momentarily. She knew that she'd been cold, but suddenly she didn't feel it anymore, not even with the blanket slipping off her lap and pooling down around her ankles. She saw Melody's eyes, full of fear and guilt and a little shame—mostly fear—and she couldn't think of anything to say. She stopped thinking. Her mouth opened itself and worked on its own as Lily tried to process what she'd just been told.

"Who's the father?" she asked, her voice shockingly even. Deep inside her mind, Lily registered the fact that she didn't sound astonished or terrified or judgmental or any of the things she knew she was going to feel in a moment just as soon as her body started working again. She didn't even register how offensive her question might or might not be to Melody. She just needed to know.

"Sirius," Melody whispered, looking a bit ill, as though the magnitude of her actions was beginning to hit her.

"Oh," Lily said, and then her emotions hit her all at once, in such a jumble that she couldn't decipher what she was feeling. All she knew was that she felt rather as though her stomach had dropped right out of her body and a big block of ice had been put in its place. Goosebumps sprang up all over Lily's skin as she registered the magnitude of Melody's statement. When Melody didn't say anything, Lily raced for something to say. "Melody, I…" she trailed off, and then shook her head, lost for words, her eyes dropping from Melody's. "Does he know?"

"Yes," Melody replied, very softly.

Lily took a deep breath and nodded. Silence persisted for a few moments, and then Melody grabbed for Lily's hands, squeezing them tightly in her own.

"Lily, I'm so scared! I don't know what to do!" Melody cried, her voice for the first time rising above a whisper, and then she was choking out sobs, huge and wet and anguished, and Lily couldn't think of anything better to do than wrap her arms around Melody and let her best friend cry on her shoulder.

Melody shuddered with sobs, and Lily shuddered with shock. They rocked back and forth on the couch, both of them processing something greater than themselves. In some back door of Lily's mind, she'd known—known that these things went on at Hogwarts, known that Melody and Sirius looked at each other like they wanted more than just kissing, and known—God, how she'd known—that she and James sometimes wanted more than that as well. But—for the life of her—for all that was good in this world—she'd never thought that—never imagined that—well—

This was the conversation Lily was never going to have. This was the kind of thing that Lily was never going to deal with. Some teenagers had these problems, but they weren't any that Lily knew—at least not very well. Lily's friends were just…well, they were just…they were smarter than…_these things didn't happen to Lily_.

Melody interrupted any chances for further reflection on Lily's part. "I'm—so—_sorry_—Lily!" she sobbed, choking. "I know I've been d--d--distant lately and w-we haven't t—t-talked like we used to, b-b-but you can't be m-m-mad at me! If you d-d-don't talk to me, I w-won't have anyone to t-t-talk to, and my m-m-m-other w-w-will be s-s-s-s-so _angry_—" Melody cut herself off sobbing.

"Melody, I'm not mad at you, I promise!" Lily cried, hugging her. Melody sobbed until she regained her voice.

"I know it was s-s-stupid, but I swear to God, Lily, we used p-p-protection! And I've p-prayed so many times today, and I d-d-don't ever pray, and even if G-G-God heard me I know He'd h-hate me, and I just don't know what to d-d-do!" she wailed.

"Of course God heard you," Lily whispered. "And He would never hate you."

She thought of telling Melody that it would be all right, but how could she, in all good conscience, say that? It wouldn't be all right. It would never be all right. Things would never be the same again. Melody was so young, and her career prospects had just been cut in half—a woman with a child just didn't have time to put in the kind of hours Melody might need to—well, to do who knew what. And _Sirius_—God, what would Sirius do? He wouldn't leave Melody alone; he was better than that. But what would they _do_? What would they do for money and jobs and…

It was too hard, too much to think about. Suddenly Lily felt as though she were drowning in the pressure of it all. She was too young—_too young_—to deal with this, and yet she knew people younger than herself had gone through this. None she knew personally, but still…how had they managed? Nothing was even definite yet and already Lily was too scared to handle it.

And she wasn't even the one pregnant. She couldn't imagine just what Melody was feeling.

"L-L-Lily?" Melody choked out, though she seemed to be calming slightly.

"What?" Lily asked.

"Would you think I was st-st-stupid if I kept the baby?"

Lily considered this for a moment. "No," she replied, almost surprising herself with the answer.

"I just c-c-couldn't live with m-myself if I didn't," Melody sobbed. "I mean—I know I g-got myself into this mess, and I'm n-not just going to g-g-give it away."

"I understand," Lily assured her, even though she wasn't really sure she did.

Melody's crying slowly stopped, and she gave Lily one last hug, sniffing. She pulled away, looking at her best friend with a face damp with tears. "I think I need some tissues," she reflected.

"I'll be right back," Lily promised, dashing up the stairs to grab some from her room. She tiptoed quietly past the doors of the girls' dormitories, careful not to disturb any of the girls who were sleeping peacefully, so innocent and ignorant of the emotional battle being played out in the common room by a girl who didn't even belong to their house.

Lily picked up the box of tissue from her bedside table and then paused for a minute, sinking onto the bed. Her knees were shaking and she suddenly felt ill. How drastically different this room was from the one downstairs. It was amazing how different Lily felt now. How…scarred. Like she'd been walking around in ignorant bliss and she'd suddenly been attacked and sliced up by a gang of enchanted kitchen knives.

Composing herself, Lily got up and tiptoed quietly back past the dormitories, descending to the common room where Melody was curled up on the couch, looking more composed than when Lily had left.

"I must look wonderful," Melody said with a weak bit of sarcasm in her voice as she took the box of tissues from Lily.

"No worse than you usually do at three in the morning."

"That's reassuring," Melody replied, without much emotion. She seemed to have dulled a bit. Melody blew her nose several times and wiped off her cheeks with the tissues, but tears still swam in her eyes, clinging greedily to her eyelashes. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Melody declared, "I am never doing it again."

"Ever?" Lily questioned, looking at her.

"Not for a long time," Melody replied, shaking her head. "It's not that I regret it. I just…God, Lily, it felt so good at the time…you have no idea how good…and I just…forgot for a while that it could bring anything _but_ good…we were being careful, you know? Every time we'd be careful, and I just never thought…"

"Wait. You…you and…" Lily swallowed hard. "More than once?"

Melody looked up and then away again rather quickly. "Well…_yeah_. I mean…the first time…it…well, we waited a little while, you know, and it was all clear, so we figured…everything must have worked just fine and…oh, God, Lily, I don't expect you to understand, it's just—"

"No, it's fine. I understand. James and I—"

Melody's eyes flew open wider than Lily had ever seen them. "You mean _you and James have_—"

"No!" Lily cried, then clapped her hand over her mouth. "No," she said again, a bit more quietly. "We…almost. Several times. But…I just didn't feel like…I mean…you know?" she said helplessly, and Melody nodded slowly.

"If I get out of this…I mean, if it's not…if _I'm_ not…"

"I know what you mean. Go on."

"I'm going to take this as a warning. A big warning. Not to…you know…be stupid. It's not that I thought I was invincible, it's just that…you know?"

"Yeah," Lily replied quietly. "I know." She knew, too, that Melody's late-night visit had cemented something inside of herself as well. _She wasn't ready_.

And to think, just a few hours before, she'd nearly had sex with James.

This wasn't just a sign for Melody, Lily decided. It was a sign for her as well. It was a sign for all of them. They'd started to meddle in things that were bigger than they could handle. There was a whole world outside of Hogwarts full of bigger, scarier, more monumental things than a baby, but Lily couldn't quite think of anything more frightening just now. And if she couldn't handle news of a new life right now…would she be able to handle the world out there?

If she and James had done anything, and…if Lily had a child any time close to now…Lord, what would they do? They'd be able to get by, certainly, but—there were so many other things to be done. Voldemort was still out there, looming, gaining power, getting closer. How could Lily, in good conscience, fight against You-Know-Who's forces knowing she might very well leave an orphan behind? Would Melody be able to face the Death Eaters knowing she had a—

"When are you going to know for sure?" Lily asked, trying to distract herself from her own thoughts.

Melody shrugged and shook her head. "Whenever Sirius and I can figure out how to test me, I guess. He said he'd skip classes tomorrow and go to the library—"

"He can't do that tomorrow! We have a Double Potions exam tomorrow!" Lily blurted, aware just after she'd said it how stupid it sounded.

"I'll lie and say he's sick. It's not a final exam. And, as a matter of fact, Professor Thorne can shove his Potions exam up his arse. _I_ might not go to class tomorrow."

"One of you has to go. Wouldn't that look a bit suspicious?"

"Everyone will know soon anyway. Why does it matter?"

"Melody, what if you're _not_?"

Melody stared at Lily with damp eyes. "I'm two weeks late, Lily. And I threw up this morning. Several times."

"It was probably just nerves," Lily said weakly, her heart sinking.

Melody shook her head and stared at the ground. "I just wish I knew for sure. It's killing me."

"Oh, Melody," Lily said, wrapping her friend into a hug. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Melody replied. "I just…never imagined things turning out this way."

Lily released her friend from the embrace, but grabbed both of her hands, squeezing them gently. Melody cried again, and they sat in front of the fire for a while, talking, worrying, wondering. Finally, Melody decided she was too tired to cry anymore and stumbled across the common room to head back to her own dormitory for some sleep.

Lily cried a little after she'd gone, mourning the loss of Melody's youth and innocence and wondering what exactly would come of this. She picked up her blanket from the floor and wrapped herself in it, curling into a tiny ball. This was too much, too much…too much for her to digest. It was amazing that after all she'd been through this year, this would hit her that hard.

For the first time all year, Lily Evans decided she'd had enough. Her father had been killed, and her brother, and her sister. Lin's family had been killed. Sophie's mother had been killed, and her father driven insane. Lily herself had been attacked and murdered. Long ago, Melody's father had been killed as well. Half the people Lily knew had lost someone to You-Know-Who's steadily growing army…legion…whatever demented, sick alliance it was that he had with these murderers, these life stealers, these Death Eaters. And if God was trying to balance all of these deaths out with a new life, well…then…He could just put the new life somewhere else!

Suddenly Lily was furious—_furious_—for a cacophony of reasons, but they all flitted through her brain so fast she couldn't put her finger on any of them. She was furious with You-Know-Who for ruining all those people's lives, furious with Melody and Sirius for what they'd done, and furious with God—because—because—because she needed somebody to be furious with. Lily threw herself off the couch and onto the ground, cursing everything and everyone she could think of, sobbing, cursing God, apologizing, cursing more, sobbing some more, until finally her energy spent itself and she cried herself to sleep in front of the dwindling fire.

This was how several second years found her the next morning, passed out as though she'd been horribly drunk, and they were so concerned that they ran and alerted Madam Pomfrey as to her condition. Madam Pomfrey could not find anything immediately wrong with her, nor could she wake her by any normal methods, and so it was with an innate sense of confusion that Lily woke to find herself in the hospital wing on Friday morning.

The angle of the sun sweeping in through the window suggested that it was long past breakfast, and Lily gasped and attempted to leap out of bed, but Madam Pomfrey forced her back into it.

"Not until I've had a look at you," she informed Lily sternly.

"But—my Potions exam!"

"It'll wait," Madam Pomfrey assured her. "Now, sit back."

"Madam Pomfrey, I'm fine, really, I—"

"I'll be the judge of that. Now hush, and open your mouth."

Lily sighed briefly before complying. The nurse inspected her mouth, her ears, her eyes, and even took a peek at her nose before shrugging. "I suppose I'll just tack it up to exhaustion, then," she decided, noting the pronounced circles under Lily's eyes. "But really, what were you doing sleeping by the fireplace?"

Lily opened her mouth to answer, but then decided against it and instead simply shrugged and shook her head. Madam Pomfrey sighed.

"Well, I trust you won't do it again?" she asked sternly, selecting a large bottle of potion from her well-stocked shelf.

Lily nodded in agreement.

"Well, just have some of this, then," Madam Pomfrey ordered, handing Lily a cup of bubbly orange liquid.

"What is it?" Lily asked, intensely curious.

"Just a bit of pep-up potion. Go on, drink it. We don't need you passing out in the middle of your exam, do we?"

"I guess not," Lily agreed, drinking it. It was intensely spicy—not at _all_ what Lily had been expecting, and she nearly coughed it up after she'd swallowed.

"Serves you right," Madam Pomfrey said sternly, taking the empty cup from Lily's hands. "You scared the wits out of a couple of second years, you know."

"Well, I didn't mean to!" Lily defended herself, feeling a bit less friendly toward Madam Pomfrey than she had a moment ago. She attempted to leave the bed again, thinking her treatment was over, but Madam Pomfrey stopped her.

"Just cool your heels, dear. Wait a moment while that kicks in."

"But my exam!"

"I'll write you a note. _Please_ relax."

Lily sighed and laid back on the pillows as Madam Pomfrey bustled back to her store room. So far, this Friday was not looking promising.

* * *

Lin trudged down the stairs from her dormitory to the common room feeling extremely groggy.

"Lin! Lin, are you all right?" Bridget rushed up to her, abandoning the Herbology homework she'd been pretending to work on.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just…tired." Lin shuffled across the carpet and plopped into a big comfortable chair, her eyes drooping.

"What _happened_ to you? I've never seen one of your visions go on that long before."

"I dunno. I don't remember anything, just that we were playing Exploding Snap one minute, and the next I was watching people die, and then—I completely blacked out. I woke up in my bed feeling like I'd had no sleep at all."

Bridget's steely blue-gray eyes became wide with dismay. "Lin, is there anything I can—I mean, should you see someone about—"

Lin shook her head, blinking sleepily. "I don't see what good that would do."

"Well—I mean—we could at least take you down to the hospital wing and see if there's anything Madam Pomfrey can give you that would make you less tired, couldn't we?"

Lin didn't even have enough energy to argue. She shrugged and said, "I guess so," and allowed Bridget to drag her down to the hospital wing.

Much to their surprise, they encountered Lily Evans on her way out. "Lily!" Bridget cried. The girls hadn't seen her in nearly a month—hardly at all since they'd got back from Christmas holidays, and seeing how it was nearly February now, it felt like quite a long time.

"Oh! Hi girls—sorry I can't talk long, but—_Lin_! What on earth happened to you?"

Lin looked up at her sadly, feeling acutely aware of the bags under her eyes. "I'm…not sure," she managed, and shrugged again.

"Well, I hope Madam Pomfrey will be able to help—I really wish I could stay, but—Potions exam—I have to—anyway, we'll see each other soon, you'll have to tell me what's going on—all right?" Lily called, backing down the hallway quickly.

She was practically out of earshot already, so Lin and Bridget just waved lamely. "I hope we'll get to see her," said Bridget, sighing. "It's been too long, and anyway I'd like to know how she's been since we nearly saw her _die_."

Lin was feeling mute this morning, but she nodded slightly in agreement as they entered the hospital wing.

Madam Pomfrey nearly went into a tizzy when she saw Lin. She fired a lot of questions at her, most of which Bridget managed to answer, and in the end gave her a bottle of the same spicy pep-up potion she'd just given Lily. As Lin hastily gulped it down and shivered at its effect, she glanced in the mirror, and for the first time all morning had the energy to lament how dreadful she looked. Madam Pomfrey insisted that she stay in the hospital wing for at least another half an hour, so Bridget kindly ran back to Gryffindor Tower to grab some of her make-up and hair things to lend Lin, so she'd at least look presentable for the Care of Magical Creatures class she had at noon. Bridget herself had a class at noon—Herbology—so she smartly grabbed the essay she'd been attempting to work on and shoved it into her bag along with the cosmetics.

Madam Pomfrey was a tad reluctant to let Bridget back into the wing due to Lin's need for rest, but Bridget weaseled her way through, and happily spent the next fifteen minutes helping Lin to apply a flattering coat of make-up. Bridget was far more handy with cosmetics than Lin, who normally didn't bother, and after finishing with Lin's face and hair Bridget decided to move on to her own appearance rather than scratching out a few more lines of her Herbology essay.

When Madam Pomfrey finally released Lin from the hospital wing, both she and Bridget were looking rather better than when they had entered. Unfortunately, as they tramped downstairs for a quick lunch before class, they ran into the four people at Hogwarts they least wanted to see—Lucy, Wendy, Gillian, and Rachel, four of the biggest idiots (in Bridget's opinion) ever to be allowed in Gryffindor. They wore annoyingly shiny gold badges with the letters "FPC" on them, standing for the "Fully Pure Club," which they were still trying to pretend was an organization for students who were merely interested in becoming Prefects.

Lucy sneered when she saw them coming. "Well, well, well, girls, look who it is. Gryffindors who think they're too good for us."

Bridget snorted. "We _are_ too good for you."

Lin couldn't help smirking. "Still trying to convince people that a silly club can save them from You-Know-Who?" she asked, flicking Lucy's FPC badge.

Lucy's nostrils flared. "Don't mess with that!"

Lin rolled her eyes. "With what, your pathetic club or your tacky badges?"

Bridget looked rather impressed with Lin's attitude; normally Lin just skulked around glaring at Lucy instead of openly confronting her. The pep-up potion was apparently doing quite an excellent job.

"The only thing pathetic here," Gillian huffed, butting in, "is your general disregard for the importance of sticking together when we all know perfectly well that You-Know-Who is _only_ going after Muggles and wizards who have gone too soft to remember how important keeping magic within the wizarding world actually is."

"At the rate You-Know-Who's going," Lin said coldly, "he'll expose all the wizarding world and kill half the people in it before we have the chance to cover our own arses and run away."

"No one's running," Lucy snapped. "We're just _uniting_."

"Yeah, but who are you uniting?" Bridget demanded. "People who are going to fight, or people who _you_ think will be safe from attack?" She stepped a little closer to Lucy, her eyes glinting. It was amazing how intimidating Bridget managed to look when she was generally four inches shorter than everyone else around her. "I don't think You-Know-Who gives two figs if you're a pure-blood or a Muggle-born as long as you don't stand in his way. So if you're not going to be _against _him, you're halfway with him. And if he asked you to join him, what would you do? Cower behind your silly badges and your stupid club? Or would you be brave enough to be a _true_ Gryffindor—to throw yourself in his path and try to stop him, no matter whether the worst would come or not, to—"

"The worst _would_ come!" Lucy shrieked, looking furious. "_My dad_ works for the Ministry—he knows what's going on—and how dare you accuse us of siding with You-Know-Who—what would _you_ know about what's happening out there—you know just as much as the rest of us and _less_ than I do, I can bet you—I don't see _your_ parents working for the Ministry," she snapped at Bridget. "I don't see _them_ working with the most powerful and trustworthy team of wizards in the country trying to stop—"

"Most powerful team, are they? Most trustworthy?" Lin interrupted. "So powerful and trustworthy they have to constantly investigate Ministry workers to ensure they're not spies?"

Lucy flustered at this. One of the fundamental reasons for starting the FPC in the first place had been _because_ of those Ministry investigations—because it was getting harder and harder to know who to trust, and Lucy wanted a group of people she _could_ trust.

"Well, they're doing more than any of us can," Wendy said, speaking finally. "And don't say Lucy's not brave just because she's not spouting heroic phrases and running off to get herself killed as fast as possible. Wizards aren't much good to anyone dead, are they?"

"They're not much good hiding in a corner with their heads up their arses, either," replied Bridget, looking disgusted.

There was a moment of tense silence as the girls stared each other down, and then from the back of Lucy's group came a voice that said, "Oh, that's _enough_!"

Rachel, the last of Lucy's friends, pushed her way forward. Bridget and Lin were surprised to note that she was not sporting one of the shiny gold FPC badges.

"Look, this is all silly," Rachel snapped. "We're fighting over a cause that we can't even _do_ anything about! We're too young to fight _anyone_—we're not well-trained enough to pit ourselves against any adult wizard, let alone a Dark wizard who's done as much damage as You-Know-Who has. Look," she said, staring down Bridget and Lin, "if you don't like the club, just—just stay away from it. Ignore it if you like, it doesn't matter."

Lucy, Wendy, and Gillian all opened their mouths to argue, but Rachel rounded on them as well.

"And will you three please _stop_ picking fights. I've about had it!" She looked somehow more frustrated with her friends than with their chosen enemies. "Who cares if they want to join your club or not? Why does it _matter_ so much to you that you got in a fight with Bridget?" she directed at Lucy. "Or that _you_ got in a fight with Lin?" she asked Wendy. "Just—for heaven's sake, let it _go_."

She was so fed up she couldn't bring herself to say more, and turned away, stalking up the stairs and leaving them all behind.

Lucy, Wendy, and Gillian stared at their friend as she walked away, looking rather stunned. Lin and Bridget were so impressed they couldn't think of anything more to stay.

The girls all glared at each other one more time and decided to leave each other without further comment.

As Lin passed by Wendy, however, she couldn't help but reach out and grab her wrist. She looked into her old friend's eyes for the first time in a long time and said softly, "All those years we were friends…I thought you were better than this."

She turned and continued walking down the stairs with Bridget, not looking back to see the look of bewildered shame that momentarily flashed across Wendy's face.

* * *

Sirius showed up for the Potions exam, looking haggard, but Melody did not. Lily didn't even want to think about how the Gryffindor team was going to play tomorrow, not with its two Beaters completely preoccupied with a potential pregnancy. Lily found it somewhat hard to concentrate on her exam with Sirius sitting nearby—a constant reminder of his and Melody's foolishness, and also of what Lily and James had _nearly_ done last night—and her potion turned out a little runnier than it should have been, but it was still acceptable, and she was relieved just to be able to turn it in and hurry out of class.

James caught up with her when she was halfway up to Ravenclaw tower. "Hey, what's the matter?"

"What d'you mean, what's the matter?" Lily evaded his gaze by digging through her bag for something.

"I can tell something's the matter."

"Oh, and what are you, a mind reader now?" Lily considered burying her head in the bag along with her books. Melody and Sirius's potential baby issue was the _last_ thing she wanted to discuss with James right now.

James dropped his voice and edged closer to her. "Listen, if this is about last night—look, it's all right, and I'm sorry I—"

"No!" said Lily quickly, her cheeks flushing, and she looked up from her bag finally. "Listen, it's not—not about me. It's more—Melody."

James frowned. "Why? Is something wrong with her?"

"Well, as you may or may not have noticed, she didn't show up for Potions today."

James thought about this for a second. "Ah. Yeah, you're right. D'you think she's sick?"

Lily's brain was so full she didn't think she could handle any more questions or real conversation. She sighed. "Look…why don't you ask Sirius if you want to know? I really can't say anything more than that."

He looked puzzled at first. "Sirius? But…what could…."

A horrible spark of recognition registered on his face, and he grimaced. "I'll just have a word with him then, shall I?"

"Mm." Lily felt bad for pushing James away, but she still felt a little on edge and wanted more time to mull over things alone.

"See you later." James gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then hurried back downstairs, hopefully to intercept Sirius before he went looking for Melody and they ended up doing something even more foolish, like try to convince Snape to go through the passage underneath the Whomping Willow again.

* * *

"Sirius, what are we going to _do_?"

Melody paced in front of the fireplace in MHQ, frantic. Sirius sat on the couch and stared numbly into the flames.

"Dunno," he offered lamely.

"For the love of God, we've got to do _something_!" she cried, and fell to her knees on the floor in front of him. She put her hands on Sirius's legs and stared up at him. "Please…please think of something…"

"_Me_? What d'you want me to do?" Sirius asked, amazed.

"I dunno, just…_think_. My brain's so scrambled, I can't—I can't think of anything. I can't even think of Quidditch tomorrow. I—I just keep thinking about—about—" she put one hand over her stomach and stared down at it, her lower lip trembling slightly.

"And you think somehow _my_ brain's in much better of a state?"

"Well—well—you made it to bloody Potions this morning, didn't you? Obviously _something_ up there isn't as screwed up as everything is in _my_ head."

"Melody, I was still so numb this morning that it didn't matter—I couldn't think—I don't even know if I made the right _potion_."

Melody looked frustrated with this response. "Well, _one_ of us has got to think of something!"

"Something—what kind of something? Melody, I don't even know what you're looking for!"

"A ruddy—_solution_, that's what. To—to—to _this_!"

Melody was shaking all over now. Sirius grabbed her hands and pulled her up next to him on the couch. She still shook, but she curled up next to Sirius and buried her face in his shoulder.

"Melody," Sirius said softly, wrapping an arm around her. "I don't know that this is the kind of thing to which there…_is_…a solution."

"I just wish I knew what we were going to _do_," she moaned, her voice muffled.

Sirius sighed. "Well…it would help a lot if we actually knew whether you _were_…or not." He couldn't quite bring himself to say the words.

"And you couldn't find _anything_ in the library?" Melody pressed.

"Well—well I haven't had much time there so far, you know, and—it's not like it's the kind of thing I can exactly stroll up to Madam Pince and ask about, is it? But…I'm sure we'll find something, Melody. Eventually."

"Another week or two and it won't really matter, will it? We'll know for sure either way."

"If we can stand to wait that long," Sirius muttered.

Melody lifted her head from Sirius's shoulder and regarded his face sadly. He looked so—_worn_. So much older than he'd looked even a day ago. Instead of laugh lines, now it looked like he had permanent frown lines on his face. The mere sight of him looking so somber caused a lump to form in Melody's throat. She leaned over and kissed him on the neck. "Sirius…I'm _so sorry_," she murmured, and small tears leaked out of her eyes.

Sirius stared at her, looking—was _aghast_ the right word? "_Melody_," he said, half-soothing, half-scolding. "How in the bloody hell can you blame yourself for this?"

"Well—I mean—it's affecting you, too—we both shouldn't have to suffer because I—"

"As I recall it," Sirius said gently, "it took more than one of us to get into this—_this_. And it'll take more than one of us to get out of it."

For a moment Melody's bottom lip trembled like she might cry again, but then she buried her face back into Sirius's shoulder and flung her left arm around him, wrapping it around his waist. "Sirius, why are you so bloody _amazing_?" she wondered in a rather muffled tone of voice.

Sirius, though she couldn't see it, looked rather flattered. "Well…I'm just brilliant, I guess," he managed.

Sirius grinned as Melody managed a laugh and turned her head sideways again, making it easier for her to breathe. They sat in silence for a moment, holding each other, and then—

"Sirius," said Melody, sighing, "I would at least like to know that—that we have some sort of _plan_, if—if—well, either way."

The momentary mirth left Sirius's face. "Ah. Yeah," he said.

"If—if we're _not_…" Melody began.

"Then—back to normal?" Sirius suggested.

"Yes," Melody agreed quietly. "But not _exactly_—I mean—" she sighed. "I don't think I want to have sex anymore. Not—not just yet."

Sirius took a long moment to think about this, and Melody was distinctly reminded of the fact that he was a teenage boy. Finally, he turned his head and kissed Melody on the forehead. "Yeah," he agreed. "All right."

Melody took a deep breath. "And if—if we _are_, I…." She closed her eyes and said the next part very quietly. "I'd like to keep it."

Another long silence. "I thought you might," Sirius managed. "I think—that's all right."

"Really?" Melody managed to open her eyes.

"Yeah." Sirius didn't sound, overall, too enthused, but he wasn't running for the hills either, so that was something.

Melody wiggled closer to him and sat wrapped up in his arms for another minute before bravely introducing her next idea.

"Sirius," she said softly, "if…if we are, and…if we _do_…keep it…we…." Melody nearly lost her nerve.

"Yes?"

"We'd get married, wouldn't we?" she said quickly.

Sirius froze. Whatever he'd been expecting, clearly this was not it. He didn't move or speak for quite a long time, and when he did, "Bloody hell," were the only words that escaped from his mouth, almost as more of a reflex than an actual pronouncement.

Melody couldn't help feeling a little hurt. She wriggled away from his embrace and sat up on the couch next to him to get a clear view of his face. "We _would_, wouldn't we? We'd be in this thing together no matter _what_, wouldn't we?"

Sirius's face went rather pale. He opened and closed his mouth, but couldn't manage to say anything.

Melody's feelings skipped over the hurt and moved right along to rage. "_Sirius Black_," she snapped, glowering at him, "you are _not_ abandoning this child."

At the mention of the word 'child,' Sirius's face went rather whiter. "I'm—I'm not—I wouldn't—" he rasped.

"Good," Melody said, and contemplated, in her mix of anguish and fury, whether she ought to say any more.

"Melody," Sirius finally managed, sounding slightly more like himself, "it's not that I would—I mean, I would _not_ abandon—I—" He took another moment to compose his thoughts. "It just came as a shock, all right? This is rather a lot at once, isn't it? And—and until we know for _sure_, what's the point in stressing ourselves out over—over everything that might come a long with a ba…a bab…a…_you know_."

Melody did not feel altogether satisfied with this response, but now that some of her anger had started to ebb, she could feel the shock and panic returning. Maybe Sirius had a point. Pregnancy was a lot to think about on its own, especially when they didn't even know….

"Yeah," she agreed, sinking back into the couch next to him. "I know."

She let Sirius put his arm around her again and leaned into him, trying not to feel sick with worry.

"My God," Sirius said after a few minutes, a thought popping into his head. "It's hard to believe there's still Quidditch tomorrow, isn't it?"

Melody considered this extremely normal bit of news with a certain amount of astonishment. "Bloody hell," she agreed.

* * *

The morning of the Quidditch game dawned bright and breezy and unseasonably warm for early February, but three of the Quidditch players from Gryffindor House looked unusually ill as they tramped down the stairs for breakfast. Melody and Sirius particularly appeared to have a little something more on their minds—a preoccupation that James and Lily shared, but that their teammates chalked up to pure nerves.

This game was big—if Gryffindor won, it would put them in the lead for both the House and Quidditch cups. It was still only February, but if Gryffindor won this game, it would make it nearly impossible for Slytherin to make it to the final match—unless, by some miracle, Hufflepuff clobbered Ravenclaw (the team currently in first place) in the next match. This seemed about as likely as Professor McGonagall deciding to permanently transfigure herself into a tea kettle, so unless all the Ravenclaw players developed mysterious illnesses within the next month and a half and lost their next game, it looked like Ravenclaw would be playing the winner of today's Gryffindor-Slytherin matchup.

Melody felt distinctively ill, and her abdominal area was roiling unpleasantly. She could barely manage to look at the kippers Sirius had dropped on her plate, and had to pinch her nose to force down a little pumpkin juice, which for some reason this morning smelled disgusting.

James, who was sitting across from Sirius and Melody, stared blankly ahead the whole meal and grunted in protest when Lily tried to force-feed him a piece of toast.

Finally, James blinked and focused his gaze on the couple sitting across from him. "All right, you two?" he managed. They just stared back at him, looking rather queasy. "Right," James managed. "Off to the pitch then."

He stood, and the rest of the team followed. Lily sighed and watched them go, then looked rather worriedly at the three untouched plates of food her friends had left behind.

The Gryffindor team dominated in streaks of blurry scarlet. Lily, however, was having a hard time concentrating on the action. Despite Gryffindor's stunning lead of sixty to ten about fifteen minutes into the game, Lily had most of her attention trained on the two Gryffindor Beaters zig-zagging through the action, rather than the superb Chasers who were making all the exciting, game-dominating moves. Melody still looked a little ill and sluggish, but so far no one on the Gryffindor team had been badly beaten by a Bludger, so presumably she was still doing her job. She just didn't seem to be doing it quite as—fervently—as she usually did, particularly considering her opponents. All in all, the Beater action on both sides was rather dull.

James wasn't doing anything particularly exciting, either. From what Lily could see, he spent about half his time looking for the Snitch, and the other half of the time surveying the movements of his team—mostly, Lily guessed, just Melody and Sirius.

"Good game today, isn't it?" Mimi said, taking a close-up peek of the action through a pair of binoculars.

"Mm," Lily agreed absently.

Lily was sitting with her Ravenclaw friends Matt and Susie on one side, and Mimi, Remus, and Peter on her other side. Of these five people, Lily was apparently the only one who knew of Melody and Sirius's current dilemma—otherwise, she supposed, they wouldn't be nearly as excited about the current state of the match.

"You're quiet today," Mimi said, looking at Lily curiously.

Lily focused in on Melody as she hit a Bludger half-heartedly across the pitch. Was it just Lily's imagination, or did she seem to be leaning over on her broomstick somewhat, as though she'd gotten a sudden stomachache?

"Lily?" Mimi nudged her. "You okay?"

"Hm? What? Yeah, I'm great, I'm just…sleepy," she lied, and pretended to be more interested in the action on the pitch.

Melody _was_ starting to look a little odd, wasn't she? Sort of…in pain? The game went on for a few more minutes—Gryffindor scored again, and Lily nearly forgot to cheer—and Lily kept a close watch on her friend. She watched as Melody moved toward a Bludger that was streaking across the pitch, heading straight for Mundungus Fletcher—and then, quite suddenly, Melody stopped. She halted her broom right in midair and got the funniest look on her face—one Lily couldn't quite decipher from a hundred yards away—and completely ignored the Bludger as it flew right by her and hit Mundungus Fletcher square on the nose.

The crowd gave out a great "Ooh" of disappointment (the Slytherins cheered appreciatively) as Mundungus clutched at his nose and lost control of the Quaffle. One of the Slytherin Chasers picked it up and managed to get it past the Gryffindor Keeper, making the score seventy-twenty.

Lily ignored this. She was still staring intently at Melody, who was still completely frozen on her broom. Lily snatched the binoculars from Mimi ("Hey!" Mimi cried in protest) and trained them on Melody, just in time to see her snap back into motion.

"Madam Hooch!" Melody bellowed, waving her arms wildly. "TIME OUT!"

Lily couldn't actually hear her over the roar of the crowd, but the binoculars allowed her to see the words she was mouthing, and Lily watched with interest as the Gryffindor team flew to the ground. Melody was facing away from Lily now, so it was impossible to see what she was speaking with Madam Hooch about, but in the next moment, Melody abandoned her broomstick and went running off in the direction of the locker rooms.

The crowd seemed rather stunned. After a moment, the Slytherins remembered themselves and started booing, yelling out things like, "We don't need her in the game, ref!" and, "She's just trying to destroy our momentum!" The rest of the crowd ignored the Slytherins, but burst into confused chatter over Melody's rather unprecedented actions. Madam Hooch ignored them all, but took the opportunity to attend to Mundungus Fletcher's freely bleeding nose.

Lily tightened her grip on the binoculars and tried to zoom in to see if James or Sirius were reacting to Melody's actions in a positive sort of way.

"Lily, what are you looking at?" Mimi asked, confused. "It's just a time out—nothing's happening—"

"Sh!" Lily said, her heart leaping as she trained the binoculars on the locker rooms and saw Melody running out. Even from this distance, the expression of glee on Melody's face was unmistakable. "I don't believe it," Lily breathed. "Is she—she's—"

She watched as Melody ran back to her team and threw herself at Sirius, knocking him to the ground. Madam Hooch quickly intervened—it looked as though Melody was kissing him fervently—and pulled them both to their feet.

"Yes!" Lily cried, jumping to her feet. The people around her stared at her as though she'd gone mad. But who cared—that didn't matter—what mattered was that Melody was _fine_.

Though the rest of the crowd was still in a confused tizzy, Lily thought she knew exactly what happened: Melody had just gotten her period. She'd had to call a time out to run to the locker rooms and grab feminine products, and then ran back out onto the pitch to tell Sirius the news. She _wasn't pregnant_.

"Thank _God_," Lily breathed, and sank back into her seat.

"What? What just _happened_?" Mimi demanded, snatching the binoculars back.

"I'll tell you later," Lily said happily as the players kicked off and the game resumed.

Mimi did not look nearly satisfied with this answer, and opened her mouth to protest, but she was cut off by the exuberant roar of the crowd.

By some miracle, James had spotted the Snitch during the team's ascent, and as soon as Madam Hooch blew her whistle to resume play, he shot after it, snatching it neatly out of the air and ensuring Gryffindor's place in the Quidditch final.

All of Gryffindor House stormed the pitch as the team flew to the ground, and herded the players back to the locker rooms so they could make themselves presentable for the party that was sure to follow.

* * *

The Monday after the Quidditch game, Peter Pettigrew stood in the front hall of Hogwarts, clutching a small piece of parchment in his hands and staring apprehensively at the great front doors of the school. The piece of parchment was from Peter's girlfriend, Sophie, and read:

_Dear Peter,_

_I've been to see my dad at St. Mungo's. He's not doing very well._

_I'll be returning to Hogwarts on Monday afternoon and I'll explain everything then. Please meet me in the front hall around three o'clock. My train gets into Hogsmeade at two-thirty, so hopefully I'll see you a little before three._

_Yours,_

_Sophie_

Peter unfolded this note and read it through one more time, then checked his watch (it read 2:55) before training his eyes on the front doors again. He looked rather more nervous and twitchy today than usual, and could hardly stand to keep still as he waited. He hadn't told his friends about the note—he wanted to meet Sophie alone and find out what had happened in private before James, Sirius, and Remus found out.

The letter didn't sound very promising, so Peter wasn't exactly looking forward to hearing Sophie's news.

After a few more agonizing minutes, the front doors finally opened and Sophie came in, followed by a tall, white-haired, deeply imposing man, who Peter later found out was her grandfather. Sophie halted and spoke softly with her grandfather for a moment before walking over to Peter and taking him by the hand.

"Come on. Let's talk for a minute."

Sophie led him to the nearest empty classroom and shut the door behind them, sighing. She motioned for Peter to sit down and took a desk next to the one he chose, turning the chair to face him.

"This is hard for me to talk about, so I'm just going to say it as fast as I can…okay?"

Peter nodded nervously.

Sophie took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her blonde curls were limp today. She had deep circles under her eyes, and even the light splash of freckles across her nose looked rather faded and downtrodden.

"I'm going to leave Hogwarts," she blurted, and didn't give Peter time to speak before continuing, in a long, blurred-together string of words that seemed to be strangling her the longer she went on. "I've seen my father and he looks terrible—he doesn't recognize me, doesn't know where he is—and my mum is"—she choked—"well, _you_ know, she's gone—and anyway all my cousins and aunts and uncles were there and my grandparents, and Grandfather says I should be with the family right now—the whole family's distressed, they don't know what to do, don't know what happened—Mother was in charge of everything, really, she kept the whole family together and now without her it seems like the whole thing's about to fall apart—and anyway Grandfather says I shouldn't be here anymore, so I'm leaving, he's making me leave—he doesn't _understand_—" she sobbed briefly before barreling on. "I want to be here, I wish I could stay here, but Grandfather's insisting—they're all insisting—they've already sent a letter to Dumbledore"—another choke—"there's nothing I could do to stop it and I wish I had longer to say good-bye, but we've come to collect my things, and Peter—oh, Peter—I wish"—an even bigger sob this time—"I don't want to do this, any of this, but I'm leaving now and I'm sorry and I have to break up with you and I hope you'll understand, I just can't handle any more right now than I already am."

She sobbed once more and tried to contain the tears that were threatening to dribble all over the desk. Sophie Fullcox was a Hufflepuff from a long line of Hufflepuffs—kind, loyal, hardworking, but not the bravest soul in the world. Peter Pettigrew didn't know it, but he had just witnessed what was perhaps the bravest moment in Sophie's young life.

Peter was, in fact, too dumbfounded to notice much of anything. He just stared at his girlfriend—his first real girlfriend—and gaped. "They—they _can't_!" he squeaked finally. "They can't just take you out of school! Tell Dumbledore you don't want to go."

"Oh—I wish I _could_, Peter," Sophie moaned miserably.

"You don't really have to break up with me either, do you?"

"Oh Peter," Sophie said, letting her head fall into her hands. "This is too complicated. I don't know if I'll ever see you again, and—I'm in no state to be in a relationship right now." She buried her face behind her hands and sobbed.

Peter wasn't one much for crying, but he did start trembling and squeaking unhappily. "No—Sophie—_stay_," he managed to squeak out.

"I'm s—s—_sorry_, Peter," Sophie sobbed, still hiding her face, and Peter couldn't bring himself to reach out and try to comfort her. "I r—r—really do _like_ you. I ho—hope I'll see you again."

Before Peter had a chance to say or do anything, Sophie burst into uncontrollable tears and ran from the room. Peter sat there for a moment, stunned, and then he started shaking worse than ever.

Confusing thoughts spun around inside his head—thoughts of family, thoughts of death—thoughts of You-Know-Who—

Peter was suddenly terrified, terrified in a way he hadn't been since the first time James and Sirius had told him he had to run past the swinging branches of the Whomping Willow and find the secret knot that would let them get into a secret passageway that would lead to the Shrieking Shack where—far worse than angry ghosts—a bloodthirsty werewolf awaited them. Sure, the werewolf was Remus, but that didn't make him any less bloodthirsty, and even though James and Sirius had assured Peter that werewolves were only interested in attacking humans, Peter still couldn't quite shake off the idea that, human or no, a rat was still rather smaller than a dog or a stag, and he might look a trifle tastier to a werewolf than Sirius and James imagined….

What had You-Know-Who _done_? What had the Death Eaters done to Sophie's father, that he didn't even recognize his own daughter anymore? Could they—_would_ they—do the same to Peter's mother and father, somewhere down the line? Peter's parents were pure-bloods, sure, but then…so were Sophie's parents. A lot of Sophie's relatives were Muggle-borns and half-bloods of course, but—all the same, _they_ weren't the ones who had been attacked.

The way Sirius and James talked about things, you'd think the Death Eaters were going to be easy to go up against. They acted like You-Know-Who was some sort of force that could be stopped…like Dumbledore was going to be able to solve everything…like all they had to do was practice a couple of spells and put on a brave face, and they'd be able to conquer anything.

But, Peter realized suddenly, sickeningly, that that _simply_—_wasn't_—_true_. You-Know-Who was more than any of them could handle. His Death Eaters were great and terrible enough to be able to destroy Sophie's family, and from what Peter had heard, all the Death Eaters combined weren't as powerful as the Dark Lord. What kind of damage could You-Know-Who inflict, given the chance?

Peter wasn't entirely sure why this was all hitting him _now_. Lily Evans's family had been attacked a while back, during the summer, and that hadn't hit him nearly as hard. A lot of that probably had to do with the fact that Peter wasn't nearly as close with Lily as he was with Sophie, and also that—fair or not—Lily's parents were Muggles. Muggles and the families of Muggle-borns did seem to be the main targets…well, until now. Sophie's parents were the first full-fledged wizards Peter had heard of being attacked. So maybe _that_ was it. Maybe that was the big difference.

Or maybe it didn't matter. All Peter knew was that his world had suddenly gotten smaller and more depressing, that You-Know-Who seemed like an even more real threat than before, and that he'd just lost his girlfriend to a war that he was only just beginning to understand.

And just then, sitting in that empty classroom, staring at the inappropriate sunshine beaming in through the windows, Peter Pettigrew contemplated, for the very first time, what it might be like to join forces with You-Know-Who, rather than wasting a lot of time and energy and lives fighting against him.

* * *

As soon as Melody's relief about not being pregnant started to ebb, it was replaced by another emotion—one rather sharper and more bitter. In the week following the Quidditch match, she received a letter by owl post from Paolo's mother, informing her that Paolo's body had been discovered in London more than a month ago, but that he had only recently been identified, and his family had only just received word of his death.

After she had gotten past the initial shock of this letter, Melody was immediately overcome by a wave of guilt that left her moping around for days—guilt that couldn't be overcome by talk of Quidditch, or the announcement of the next Hogsmeade weekend (second weekend in March), or even Sirius's various attempts (some goofy, some serious, some mushy) at cheering her up.

It wasn't Melody's fault, of course, that Paolo was dead, but she'd been so preoccupied since the start of term that she hadn't thought much about him, and when she had, she'd been distracted by something else so quickly that she'd subconsciously dismissed the thought of writing to him, of worrying about him, of trying to find out if he was okay.

But now…here, here was proof that Melody should've done more—should've worried more—should've been less of a twit—

"You're _not_ a twit…what could you have _done_?" Sirius tried to reason with her many times, but she couldn't quite listen—it didn't quite help—she was awful and selfish for not having tried to find out anything about Paolo sooner, and now he was gone. He'd gone up against the Death Eaters…and lost.

After Melody got over her initial guilt and the subsequent grief, this thought terrified her. Paolo was older than her—he'd finished with school already—he'd been bent on avenging his father his whole life, and—look where it had gotten him. Was this a precursor to Melody's own vain attempts to set right the wrong that had been committed against her family so many years ago? She shivered just thinking about it, and not even having Sirius's arms wrapped around her could make her feel completely warm again.

But all the same, Paolo could not have died for no reason. Melody couldn't stand that thought, so she pored through old newspapers in the library for days until she found it—one small blurb in the _Daily Prophet_ near the beginning of January about a wizard gone missing—a wizard by the name of Lestrange, whose whereabouts no one seemed to know. _S. Lestrange_, the article said, _missing, presumed dead_.

Melody couldn't quite remember whether the person Paolo had been after had the initials _S.L._ for his name, but she did remember the dagger—did remember Paolo's promise to dump the man's body, turned to stone and shattered into a thousand pieces, into the Thames—and, for the first time, she felt some peace at the thought of Paolo's death. If he had died, he had at least taken one of those bloody bastards with him. If Paolo's sexy, laughing, Italian face was no longer a part of this world, then at least one sick, cruel, demented soul was no longer a part of it either—and that, Melody supposed, was all that Paolo wanted in the first place. And knowing _that_, at last, was enough to bring Melody some measure of peace, even if it could not entirely soothe her grief.

* * *

The weather compensated for its unseasonable warmness in the first week of February by turning nastily cold and bitter in the second and third weeks of the month. It was during this third week of the month that Lily had her meeting with Professor Dumbledore, and so she drudged through the drafty castle with her robes pulled tightly about her, wishing it was possible to walk about indoors with a cloak on and not look ridiculous.

Professor Dumbledore was waiting for her. He greeted her pleasantly as she entered his office and indicated that she should sit down in the chair across from his desk.

"Feeling a bit befuddled about the future, Miss Evans?" he asked, a familiar kind twinkle in his eyes.

Lily managed a smile and sighed. "I'm feeling a bit befuddled about everything, I think. There's so much—so much going on lately, and my brain feels so full…I just can't seem to get organized."

Dumbledore smiled. "I quite understand the feeling. But happily, we are here to try and organize a bit of your life. I find that having a plan for the future always makes me feel a bit more secure about the present."

Lily couldn't imagine Dumbledore feeling _insecure _about anything, but she nodded anyway. "Yeah," she agreed. "I don't—I don't really know where to begin."

Dumbledore nodded. "Have you given much thought to what I suggested the last time we met for career planning?"

"Yes—teaching Potions," Lily affirmed. "I have. And…I think…I mean, I think I'd like it. I'm not really sure how to go about applying for teaching schools, but…overall that sounds like a good option."

"I believe I can help you with the applications," Dumbledore said, and waved his wand briefly. A stack of parchment organized itself on Dumbledore's desk, and Lily picked the pieces of parchment up, astounded (as always) at Dumbledore's efficiency.

"Oh wow—thanks, professor." Lily rolled up the parchments carefully and put them in her bag. She looked back up at the headmaster, unsure now what to say. She didn't feel quite as intimidated or uncomfortable in Dumbledore's presence as she once had—she was Head Girl now, after all, and interacted with him a great deal more than most of the students. However, the particular thing she really wanted to talk about—and it had to do with career planning, but not entirely—she wasn't sure how to bring up. She cleared her throat. "Er…" she began.

"Please go ahead, Lily," Dumbledore encouraged. "I take it you have more on your mind than potions schools?"

"Well—well, yes," Lily managed, and considered for another moment how to proceed. "Professor—I—" she sighed. "It's not that I'm not interested in becoming a Potions professor. I am—I'd like to—and…I'm sure it would be an excellent job. I think I'd like it better than working at the Ministry—than working as an Auror, I think—but—" She hesitated for a moment.

"Please do not hesitate to shock me. I assure you I will not be offended."

Lily grinned briefly. "All right—well—I know the Potions job was your suggestion, Professor, so obviously you think it's something that would be worthwhile for me to pursue, but—I mean—will it _help_?" she blurted. "Will it make any _difference_?"

Far from looking shocked, Dumbledore looked rather pleased that Lily had asked this question. He smiled. "Quite a worthy consideration, Lily," he said calmly. "I trust that you are thinking just now of Lord Voldemort?"

Lily blinked for a moment, and stared. She'd gotten so used to hearing people refer to him as You-Know-Who that to hear the name suddenly spoken again—and _Dumbledore_ of all people—

Well, of course, she realized after an instant—Dumbledore of all people _wouldn't_ be afraid to speak You-Know-Who's name, would he? He was perhaps the only wizard Lily could think of who seemed quite as good as You-Know-Who was bad, who was quite as powerful in his own way as You-Know-Who was in his. And it was only recently, really, that Lily herself had stopped referring to him as Voldemort—only recently that people had started flinching when someone referred to him by his real name….

"I find that it's best," Dumbledore said gently, correctly interpreting Lily's shock, "to always refer to things by their proper name. To be afraid of a formidable wizard like Voldemort is only natural. To be afraid of merely speaking his name, I think, gives Voldemort more power over us than we would like him to have."

Sitting in that office with Dumbledore just then, Lily could think of no reasoning more sensible for calling Voldemort by his proper name. She was momentarily shocked and ashamed at the reaction she'd just had to hearing the name spoken aloud—in addition to the stunned silence, Lily's brain had registered a brief twinge of fear—and Lily resolved, from then on, never to fear calling You-Know-Who by his proper name again. No Dark wizard, no matter how frighteningly powerful, deserved the kind of disgusting honor that people afforded Voldemort every time they refused to speak his name.

"Right," she said, and tried out the name once more. "Voldemort." She felt briefly uneasy, but fought the sensation off quickly. "I think—whatever I do after Hogwarts—I'd like it to be worthwhile. I'd like it to be as much—as much against _him_—against _Voldemort_"—this time she spat the name, trying out its effect—"as possible." It felt good to spit the name out, distastefully, discarding it as though it were a particularly shabby and dirty sock. That was all the respect Voldemort's name deserved, regardless of the terror and respect his power commanded.

Dumbledore smiled benignly. Lily couldn't tell if he was amused or not.

"Miss Evans," he began, speaking softly, "rarely do I come across students who are at once clever, loyal, brave, _and_ rule-abiding. Even with your various minor transgressions"—Lily's cheeks flamed at the thought of Dumbledore catching her and James out of bed after curfew in Fifth Year—"I believe you remain one of the most steadfast Prefects and Head Girls I've seen in recent years." Lily's cheeks burned further, but this time it was from the flattery. She couldn't think of anything to say, and Dumbledore took this opportunity to ramble pleasantly.

"I'm sure it is most unorthodox of me to openly praise a student in this manner, but—ah, well—seeing as I've been getting owls every week since I became headmaster telling me what a misguided old fool I am, I'm sure I can handle the backlash from this error. Certainly I can handle it as well as I can handle Slannery O'Toole writing me once a month to inform me that I'm the worst Headmaster he's ever seen, and if it were up to him, he'd turn me into a flobberworm and have me spend the rest of my natural life searching for food in the Mojave Desert."

Lily gaped at him openly.

The edges of Dumbledore's eyes crinkled up into a smile. "It has been a privilege having you as Head Girl. And I think—I hope, surely—we can continue working together after you leave school.

"To answer your question more directly, Lily—I can think of no profession more noble or life-changing than teaching. There are few things more important than ensuring that our youth have been properly taught how to handle the world we live in once we are gone." He paused again, and gazed at Lily, who found her face rearranging itself into a smile. "I find, too," Dumbledore mused, "that keeping in touch with youth makes me feel like something of a less old doddering fool than some of the wizarding world would make me out to be. How else, indeed," he wondered, "would one be able to keep up with all the possible implications of the word 'groovy?'"

Lily attempted not to snort in laughter. She felt that this would somewhat undermine her status as one of the cleverest, loyal-est, law-abiding-est (James would laugh if he heard that one, and Lily decided not to tell him) students Dumbledore had ever had. She took her time swallowing and clearing her throat so that when she finally did speak, she sounded normal rather than amused.

"I hope we can work together after Hogwarts as well, Professor," she agreed, and tried to keep her smile from quavering with pride as her mind thought over everything Dumbledore had just said to her. "And I think that—" she paused briefly, and then let her words tumble out in a rush, hoping that if she did so they would sound less ridiculous and mushy. "You're probably the best Headmaster Hogwarts has ever had, and I can't think of anyone I'd rather have as a professor, or—or as a friend, I think, after school."

Lily felt slightly embarrassed, but that feeling was nothing to the astonishment she felt at seeing glistening tears pop into Dumbledore's eyes. Fawkes the phoenix, sitting on his perch by the door, let out a long, pearly, silvery note, and Lily felt somewhat happier and less embarrassed than she had before. Dumbledore didn't say anything for a moment, looking rather at a loss for words.

"I'm very touched," he said finally, and Lily, despite the phoenix song, couldn't quite remember ever feeling more bashful.

* * *

Sophie was gone now, which left an unexpectedly large and awkward hole in the room. Lily hadn't expected to notice her absence quite so much, but there it was, just as blisteringly obvious as the merry fire crackling behind the grate. They had all piled into MHQ again for the final installment of Lily and James's epic journey through the past—which, somewhat disappointingly, mostly consisted of them passing a piece of parchment back and forth between themselves and Godric Gryffindor.

"Yeah, so, Slytherin wasn't too friendly," James said, once everyone had settled in and they'd briefly reviewed everything Lily and James had related to the group thus far.

"Shocker," Sirius said, snorting.

Lily jumped in. "He didn't like that we couldn't speak proper English—laughed at James when he tried speaking Latin—wouldn't even let us try to communicate to him with the thing Dumbledore gave us—"

"Ooh, what _did_ Dumbledore give you?" Mimi asked, leaning over the edge of the couch.

"Hush, we're getting there," said Lily, and turned her gaze to James, indicating that he should go on.

"So anyway," James continued, "Slytherin was really nasty, he kept sneering at us, staring at us menacingly—"

"He had these gross little beady eyes—" Lily cut in.

"Oh, yeah, and that creepy pet snake he kept hissing to in Parseltongue—"

Lily shuddered.

"Anyway, not a nice guy. I reckon he wanted to hang us by our ankles from the ceiling, but luckily by the time he'd called someone to help him—the caretaker, we think, who started messing with the chains on the wall—the other Founders had got wind that there were trespassers in the castle, and came down to see us. Helga Hufflepuff was first—big lady, very round, dressed all in yellow—"

"Yeah, with a great yellow feather coming out of this…sort of turban-looking hat on her head—" Lily interjected.

"Quite a sight, really, but anyway she was very nice—started arguing with Slytherin, got a bit red in the face—"

"She sent the old caretaker away, and thank goodness, too—the old creep kept staring at me, gave me the willies—" Lily shuddered again.

"So anyway, she sends old Slytherin away, and he sort of marches off, hissing to that snake of his, and then Hufflepuff tries to talk to us. We reckon she went through about twenty languages before she realized we weren't going to be able to understand a word she said—"

"We _tried_ to talk to her in French; the first few words she said sounded familiar, but the moment we got to full sentences we were lost…French in those days was very different as well…finally James got the quill out and mimed that he wanted to write something, and she reluctantly went and got a piece of parchment for us—"

"Yeah, I reckon she thought I was crazy," James reflected. "All those languages she tried to speak to us, and we didn't understand a single one—bet she thought I was a bit of a duffer to think that writing something down would help."

"Yeah, but—oh, this is where it gets good—we wrote her something and it self-translated and we _finally_ got to tell her we were looking for Godric Gryffindor."

"Wait. You did _what_ with the quill?" Sirius demanded.

"Oh right," Lily said. "That was what Dumbledore gave us—this enchanted quill that, no matter what language you write in, automatically translates your writing into the language that the reader best understands."

"_Wicked_," Melody said, looking impressed.

"I didn't know you could enchant quills to do things like that," Mimi added.

"Oh yeah…you'd be amazed at what you can enchant quills to do," Sirius replied. "I remember one of my uncles once—he'd somehow got his hands on a quill that, whatever you wrote, if someone read it they had to do it. His wife loved it at first—used it to write notes and things that she left around the house to remind people to do stuff. After a couple days, though, it got a little nasty. They had this pet chicken that their son was supposed to take care of, so she left a note for him—_feed the chicken_—but every time he saw it, he had to do it, so he ended up feeding it about ten times a day and the chicken ended up dying from overeating…. She had a sign for my uncle, too—_make the bed_—because he never remembered, but the problem was, if he got up earlier than her, he had to make the bed whether or not she was still in it. Caused a lot of rows before they finally got rid of it."

"Wow…imagine if we had one of those quills," James said, rather dreamily. "Imagine all the stuff we could make Snape do…."

Lily gave him a very sharp look.

"Er—I mean—if we'd _had_ one of those quills—when we were _younger_—all the stuff we _could have_ done—"

Lily, her eyes still sharp with disapproval, shook her head.

"It seems like that'd be really dangerous, all around," Mimi said thoughtfully. "Imagine the kinds of things you could leave lying around for people to do. Like a sign that says _hit this_—and then it opens a trapdoor that leads you to a room with a bunch of monsters in it. Or—or if you have a sign that says _give me your money_, everyone'd have to fork over their Galleons straightaway, wouldn't they?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure those quills are banned now," Sirius said, shrugging. "Just thought of it."

Lily gave James a _very_ sharp look now, and he tried to look innocent, purposefully letting his gaze wander around the room.

"So the magical quill you used to translate for you—it worked, didn't it? And you got to meet Godric Gryffindor?" Remus asked, calmly steering the conversation back towards Lily and James's story.

"Yes," Lily said, looking eager to continue. "And we learned a lot more about _this_"—she clutched her necklace in one of her hands—"not everything, but lots of things—and I think it made it worth it to have gone back into the past."

"Mind you, though, we didn't get to meet him right _away_," James interjected. "See, he wasn't there at the time—he'd gone off somewhere for something, and of course they wouldn't tell us what—so we had to wait almost another week before he got back."

"Yeah…and they made us stay in the dungeons the whole time, because they didn't trust us," Lily added, looking distressed at the memory.

"But then he finally got back, and…well…"

* * *

Godric Gryffindor was an impressively large man. He wasn't unnaturally large like Hagrid, or wide of girth exactly, but he was tall—muscular—largely framed. He seemed to fill up more of the room than he actually did, and his stature dwarfed even that of tall, plump Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw and Slytherin seemed rather skinny by comparison. Salazar was by no means a small man, but he wasn't so tall as Gryffindor, and his frame was lean rather than muscular. He had a creepy, slinky, silky way of moving and of talking, and Lily could immediately sense why he had such an affinity with snakes and why most people regarded this affinity with caution and even fear, interpreting it as the mark of a Dark wizard in the making.

Ravenclaw was dark-haired and dark-eyed, with bangs that fell down to her eyebrows, making it hard to read the expressions behind her eyes. If the firelight glinted in the right way, however, it reflected the shrewdness in her gaze, and though she looked sharp and stern, tiny laugh lines around her lips and her eyes revealed her good humour. She was tallish, though not so tall as any of her companions, which made her appear shorter, and she was easily the slimmest of the four.

It was very odd seeing all the founders live, real, standing in a room together and evaluating Lily and James with something that resembled curiosity, though the posture of each of the founders suggested suspicion and hesitation. Gryffindor evaluated them most keenly of all, his eyes boring into Lily's in a way that made her want to back out of the room and flee down the corridor to hide behind a suit of armor.

Gryffindor was dressed simply, in clean-cut black robes, wearing some sort of red garment underneath, and a bulge under the left side of his robes suggested that he carried a sword. The most impressive part of his ensemble was easily his hat, which was tall, black, and wide-brimmed—and it was more than that, Lily realized with astonishment after a moment—_it was the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_! Perhaps the hat would not have looked so grand on another wizard, but Gryffindor was so tall already that the hat seemed to make him tower all the way to the ceiling. His face stood out from his dark robes largely because of his rusty-colored hair and beard—which managed, impressively, not to clash with the red garment underneath his robes. He looked the part of a hero, and Lily could see why he, of all people, would value bravery above all else.

Lily swallowed thickly and, determined to be brave herself, returned his gaze steadily. He seemed to approve of her, and bore his gaze into James instead, who met it unflinchingly. Lily briefly felt a mushy sort of pride in him before Gryffindor spoke and distracted her.

They couldn't understand what he was saying, of course, but he got their attention (well, Lily's—she'd been looking rather obviously at James) and motioned them over to a table in the center of the room.

Communicating with Gryffindor was going to be a rather lengthy process, as they soon found out—writing with the quill wasn't nearly as fast as speaking, and sometimes, if there was a particularly horrible scribble or misspelling of a word, the translation became rather botched, so it took a moment to sort out what it meant.

The first question of Gryffindor's was simple, however. _Why did you wish to speak with me directly?_

James nodded, as though agreeing this was a sensible question, and held out his hand politely for the quill. _We've come to talk to you specifically about a necklace—one that we believe you may have had a hand in making_.

Lily wasn't sure if they should have jumped into specifics right away, but she could understand James's desire to do so. Writing things out took a frustratingly long time—why not just skip to the important stuff?

Gryffindor looked a little confused at this response, and wrote back quickly, _I am not a necklace maker._

_We know_, James scribbled back, _but we believe you made one necklace, and we now have it._

Gryffindor appeared affronted at this suggestion, and stared at Lily and James even more suspiciously than before. The other Founders had, by this time, crowded around the table on which James and Godric were writing, and peered at the parchment curiously. They all frowned at each other after reading James's messages, and looked suspiciously over at James and Lily as well.

After a brief conference with the other Founders, Gryffindor wrote out the obvious questions. _Who are you? Where are you from?_

Lily and James glanced at each other before James wrote out the response. They'd discussed this quite carefully with Dumbledore after he'd given them the quill. They were not to tell anyone in the past anything about the future except that they were from it, and that—if Gryffindor asked—James was one of his descendants. Dumbledore anticipated that the Founders would each be wise enough to refuse information about the future if it was offered them, but he felt that just in case the curiosity became too much for any of them, it was important to impress upon James and Lily how monumental a mistake it would be to tell the Founders of Hogwarts what the world was like a thousand years into the future.

_Our names are James and Lily. We are from the future._

Godric evaluated this statement with some disbelief. The other Founders evaluated it as well, and none seemed ready to believe them. Rowena Ravenclaw outright giggled, and motioned for the quill, which she took from Godric before writing a message to James and Lily in big, loopy letters.

_Be honest_, she advised.

Lily took the quill this time. _We're telling the truth. We live a thousand years into the future, and have gotten here by means of a time travel spell contained in my necklace_.

She pushed the parchment and the quill back toward the Founders and, as they read the message, pulled her golden necklace out from underneath the collar of her robes. She held it up so they could see the _L_ pendant dangling from the chain, and as the Founders looked up from the parchment, each of them acknowledged Lily's necklace with a blank stare. Gryffindor was last to look up, having started to write a response, but with a prod from a confused-looking Ravenclaw he trained his eyes on Lily, and dropped the quill as he saw what she was wearing.

Gryffindor stood up quickly and turned to have a discussion with the rest of the Founders. They argued briefly, and then, casting James and Lily looks of deepest suspicion, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff left the room. With them gone, Godric hastened back to the parchment and scratched out whatever he'd been writing before to scribble out one question: _Where did you get that_?

James and Lily glanced at each other briefly before James took up the quill. He explained as best he could about his mother, about her finding it in a jewelry box of a master bedroom in their house—he then explained briefly about being an heir of Gryffindor's, and how this led them to believe that the necklace (having been found in a part of their house once inhabited by and older family of Gryffindor's descendants) might have belonged to Gryffindor—

Lily jumped in here to scribble out a short explanation of all relevant information she'd discovered about the necklace through Livana Delany's reports, and how all signs seemed to point back to Gryffindor, not simply as the owner of the necklace, but as the maker. She described all she could about the experiences the necklace's previous owners had had…of the necklace tugging girls in the right direction when they were lost (and indeed, of the necklace tugging Lily in the direction of Hogwarts when James had Apparated them to several miles outside of the future site of Hogsmeade)…of it warming a girl during the winter when she might otherwise have died of cold…of girls flying without broomsticks, producing money in times of poverty, using it for time travel….

_There is more,_ Lily scribbled at the end. _Would you like me to tell you what it's done for me?_

She almost wrote "what it's done _to_ me" but decided this would seem like something of an insult, and it probably wasn't wise to insult Godric Gryffindor.

Gryffindor's face grew paler as he read, and every once in a while he would glance up at Lily and James looking practically aghast before resuming his reading. When he was finished, he stared blankly at Lily and James for a few minutes before picking up the quill again and scribbling a few careful words onto the parchment.

_Don't tell me_, he advised. _That necklace does not exist. I have not made such a thing_.

Lily's heart fell out of her chest and plunged into the depths of her stomach, morphing itself into what felt like an ice cube as it did so. She and James stared at each other in confusion. Gryffindor took back the parchment and wrote again, correctly interpreting their dumbfounded gazes to mean that they had little to say in return.

He wrote just one word on the parchment, a word that changed everything: _Yet_.

* * *

"_What_?" Melody exploded, clearly flabbergasted at this turn of events. "You mean you went _too far_ back in time?"

"Yep," Lily said, shrugging, "but only just. A lucky thing for us it was, too—if we'd gone back that much farther, we probably would have been hanging by our ankles in the dungeons, and who knows if we would have made it back all right?"

"Wait—so—what did you _do_?" Melody pressed.

"The only thing we could do—we hopped a couple years into the future," James replied.

"What about the anchor, though?" Sirius asked. "Wasn't it supposed to pull you all the way back to the present?"

"Not exactly," Lily said slowly. "It wasn't supposed to pull us anywhere…it was just there as a sort of landmark; something we would recognize so we would know when to escape the time tunnel."

"Kind of like recognizing the right grate when you're traveling by Floo?" Remus suggested.

"Kind of," Lily agreed.

"So what _happened_?" Mimi asked. "Are you _finally_ going to tell us what Gryffindor told you?"

Lily and James exchanged a smile.

"Well, if we must," James said, shrugging.

"I suppose…there doesn't seem to be another way to delay it…" Lily said, sighing dramatically.

"Oh, get on with it!" Melody said, and threw a pillow at them.

* * *

Time traveling proved tiring once again. Lily and James weren't quite as tired as they'd been after traveling a thousand years, but they were still quite sleepy. They reappeared in the same room in Hogwarts they'd just left, only here, several years into the future, there was no Godric Gryffindor standing across the table from them—and the table, it appeared, had been moved, so that Lily and James ended up depositing themselves on top of it instead of next to it.

As they climbed down, they heard a loud _crack!_. Lily looked alarmed, but James, helping her down, said, "House-elf. Gryffindor must've put one on the lookout for us."

Sure enough, not five minutes later, Gryffindor burst into the room, looking pleased. He exclaimed something neither Lily nor James could understand, but that they took to mean, "Finally!", and Gryffindor ushered them out of the room. Godric gestured at them emphatically, and James understood him as asking if he still had the quill, which of course he did. Godric nodded happily and continued striding down the hall, leading them up several flights of stairs, in the direction—as James recognized it—of Gryffindor tower.

They stopped a tapestry or two short of Gryffindor Tower, however, and entered instead what was unmistakably Gryffindor's office. It was decorated in reds and golds, with a real stuffed lion's head on the wall and a marvelous oak desk that seemed to take up most of the space in the room. The desk was littered with parchment, quills, and ink bottles, the occasional candy wrapper, what looked like an ancient set of gobstones, and several spindly silver instruments that reminded Lily vaguely of some of the instruments Dumbledore had in his office, though most of these looked cracked and broken.

Gryffindor mumbled something that might've been, "Excuse the mess," and with a wave of his wand cleared off his desk. He conjured two chairs for Lily and James to settle themselves in and held his hand out for the quill, which James promptly handed over.

And, right then, on the spot, Godric Gryffindor told them nearly everything they'd been wanting to know about the necklace since they first discovered its value.

He explained, first of all, that when they'd visited him several years in the past, the Founders had been starting to have real issues with Slytherin, and that the discord among them was almost to the breaking point. Godric himself had only just begun to think that Salazar might truly leave, and that if he did it would mean great trouble for the school. Salazar was deeply secretive, and the other Founders suspected that, during the construction of Hogwarts, he had created a hidden room or two that none of the others could access. It was this lack of trust that led Gryffindor to believe, should Slytherin choose to leave, he might prove a danger to the school or the Founders themselves.

Gryffindor in particular feared for the safety of his wife. He and Salazar had once been great friends, but as great as they had been, their relationship had quickly deteriorated, and the bitterness left behind easily turned them in to great enemies. Gryffindor's desire to protect his wife spawned the idea of creating some magical object to help guard her when Godric himself was not around. She was a capable witch, of course, and so it would not do to actually _tell_ her that he intended to create an object that would help ensure her safety, but he felt that if this object was given to her as a present, she would accept it unblinkingly and Godric would be able to sleep easier knowing he'd done something extra to protect her.

When Lily and James had first appeared to the Founders, Gryffindor had only just conceived the idea of creating this object, but had not yet decided on its form or what specific powers it might contain—and he certainly had not breathed word of this idea to anybody else. After seeing Lily's necklace, however, he became convinced that the object had to be created, and that it had to be a necklace, and that it ought to possess many of the powers Lily had described.

That said, Gryffindor embarked on a en explanation of the necklace's power, and, in turn, of what made the necklace so very powerful.

_Enchantments were not enough. There needed to be something more behind it, something that would not only make it impossible to steal, but also that would make it unable to be used effectively by anyone other than a Gryffindor, or a descendant thereof. I therefore created a spell that would bind all the enchantments together and link them to one extraordinarily powerful force that no amount of hexing or cursing could undo: the love I share with my wife_.

At this Lily and James stared at each other and blinked slowly before reading on.

_The necklace's powers remain dormant unless such a bond of love exists_, Gryffindor explained, looking quite unabashed, but Lily and James both blushed slightly.

_The enchantments the necklace contains can only be accessed when a Gryffindor gives the necklace to a woman he loves, and even then the strength and the duration of the love dictates how powerfully the necklace will react. Furthermore, the bond created by love creates a bond between the necklace and its two owners. Both of you should have felt by now something of this bond, for it is what has allowed you travel through time together. Nobody else could have utilized the necklace's powers as you have, not even your dearest friends._

By this point, Lily and James's faces both resembled large, overripe tomatoes, but Gryffindor chose to ignore this and move on.

* * *

"Wait—so is _that_ why you two have been eerily psychic ever since you got back from the past? Because the necklace is sort of…melding your minds together?"

"No," Lily and James said indignantly. "Well…sort of," they admitted.

"It just brings us closer together," Lily explained. "The more we use it—and mind you, we can't _really_ use it—the greater the link is between the necklace and us. And because the necklace can catch whiffs of my thoughts and emotions, sometimes those thoughts and emotions get passed on to James."

Everyone just stared at them for a moment.

"Creepy," Melody managed.

"So you're saying I couldn't have gone into the past with you even if I'd _tried_?" Sirius demanded, distraught.

"Yeah," they said, shrugging.

"Sorry, mate," James added. "But it seems that it's a good thing you didn't bother trying; otherwise it wouldn't have worked at all."

"Hang on," Mimi interjected, "what did you mean when you said you couldn't _really_ use the necklace? Did you or did you not just travel a thousand years into the past and back?"

"We're _getting_ there," Lily said impatiently, and they continued.

* * *

_The necklace is not to be used as a spellcasting device, however, and it was never intended to be so. It is a pendant of protection, nothing more. As I have already said, its powers can only manifest when true love exists_.

Gryffindor was blatantly ignoring Lily and James's embarrassment now; otherwise he could not have continued his explanation with a straight face.

_Although love will activate the necklace's powers, it does not necessarily guarantee that the powers will ever be used. The necklace's primary owner_—he nodded at Lily—_will only experience the necklace's powers if she is in danger, or if she desperately needs them in some way_.

Lily and James both motioned for the quill, wanting to ask about the time travel spell, but Gryffindor held up his hand and scribbled on the parchment again.

_The obvious exception to this is the time travel spell, which can be harnessed by both necklace owners—but only if both have the same clear idea of where they want to go, and only if they have a strong intent and purpose behind traveling. Meddling with time is a very dangerous thing, and it is unwise to interfere with the past_.

He gave Lily and James a momentarily sharp look before continuing.

_I therefore will ask you nothing about the future. I do not even wish to know what the necklace has done to prompt your visit. I can only tell you what I feel it is safe to tell you, though I must warn you that after a thousand years even I may not know everything about the necklace._

Lily and James nodded, accepting this.

_Your necklace has been altered,_ he informed them, which at the very least confirmed Schmundertoe's theory that some of the enchantments placed on it were not created by Gryffindor himself. _I can sense enchantments on it that I did not place there, so whatever you do with the necklace, I advise you to do it with caution. I cannot ensure that everything I intended the necklace to do will happen any longer, nor can I ensure that the new enchantments are better or worse than I intended._

He then launched into a brief explanation of the enchantments the necklace contained, most of which seemed fairly basic—and, Lily was surprised to note, most of which were mentioned in some capacity in the essay she'd seen Livana Delany write while trapped in one of the necklace's memories. The necklace had the ability to guide owners home if they were lost, warm the body if there was no external source of heat, create a little magical luck if a family was down-and-out, help heal wounds that otherwise might not be able to heal, repel minor hexes and jinxes should the owner feel threatened, and most importantly of all, react violently against any who wished to steal it. He also explained that the necklace was built to learn over time, so that if the owner learned of any powerful new curses and of a way to repel those curses, the necklace would be able to mimic the effects of the counter curse.

They had now reached what Lily felt was the most important part of their conversation.

_What if_, she began, writing rather shakily, _the necklace tries to protect against a curse to which there is no counter curse_?

She wasn't sure if _Avada Kedavra_ truly existed yet, wasn't sure if Gryffindor would have caught wind of such a spell, or if he would have any idea what Lily was referring to. Perhaps it didn't matter; perhaps an indirect answer would be better anyway.

Gryffindor's answer was slightly disappointing.

_I am not sure_, he admitted. _It could very well fail. The enchantments are not foolproof; they are merely a weak substitute for the kind of protection I could provide. In fact, the main purpose of these protections is not for them to be the absolute protection the primary owner should enjoy…they are merely precautions, created to help protect the owner until greater help—real help—arrives. This is why the bond between both owners is so important; if one is in trouble, the other will know, and—hopefully—be able to rush to the other's side_.

This explained why James had known how to find Lily on Christmas. This explained a lot of things—just not, entirely, what had happened to Lily.

Lily attempted to explain further what she'd experienced with the necklace, but Gryffindor seemed reluctant to read her explanations or answer many other questions; he did not want to know too much about the future, and he did not think there was much else he could tell them that they could not figure out on their own. He did, however, say that because the necklace was an object enchanted to learn, it could very well hold the memories of its owners deep within its enchantments, and this helped to explain why Lily had had her series of vivid Not-Dreams.

After that, there was little more to say about the necklace, and Gryffindor, sensing how tired Lily and James had become, escorted them both to separate bedrooms so they could rest for the night.

* * *

"So that's it?" Mimi asked, somewhat dreamily. "You just slept at Hogwarts and returned to the future?"

Lily and James glanced at each other and shrugged. "Yeah…pretty much."

And so Lily and James's epic tale came to a close.

* * *

Mimi and Remus were holed up in an empty classroom, working silently and companionably on some homework, the soft pitter-patter of rain against the windows occasionally drowning out the scratching of their quills. Mimi sighed and attacked the last paragraph of her Divination essay with determination. It had been hanging over her head for nearly a week now, and she couldn't wait to see the end of it. As she reached the last sentence, she felt Remus's gaze on her and glanced up.

"What? Have I got something on my nose?"

Remus grinned. "Nah. I was just…you get a cute little crease on your forehead when you're concentrating. Did you know that?"

"You think the wrinkles on my forehead are cute? That's…sweet, Remus." Melody frowned and returned to her essay, scribbling the last few words with relish. "Done!"

Remus laughed. "Done predicting the future, are you?"

"Mm," Mimi agreed. "Next month's bad for those born under Jupiter. Did you know?"

"Er—was I born under Jupiter, perchance?"

"Not that I'm aware of, but I could be wrong."

"What does that even _mean_?" Remus wondered.

Mimi shrugged. "Beats me. I'm not sure I ever entirely understand what's going on in Divination. I just do the work blindly."

Remus grinned. "I bet if James and Sirius had known that when we were in second year, they would've signed up for Divination courses straightaway."

"Yes…they do seem like they'd be excellent purveyors of made-up answers, don't they?"

"The best," Remus agreed.

Mimi smiled and rolled up her parchment, tucking it away in her bag. She had quite a lot of respect for James and Sirius these days. Peter, too, come to think of it. Ever since she'd figured out that Remus was a werewolf, she'd been amazed at how loyally James, Sirius, and Peter had stuck by him—and how, having known about Remus's condition as well, they hadn't breathed a word of it to anyone.

Mimi had the great advantage of being Muggle-born when it came to evaluating Remus's lycanthropy. For most of her life, she'd been convinced werewolves didn't actually exist, and for most of the time she'd known Remus, she hadn't known he was a werewolf. After she did find out, she'd still had a hard time understanding what most wizards thought was so awful about werewolves. Remus was a perfectly sweet human being, and…well, he had been going to Hogwarts all these years, and he had never hurt _anyone_. Mimi hadn't quite understood the extent of the fear and distrust most wizards held for werewolves until she'd started researching them.

For most of history, werewolves had been as heavily persecuted by fellow wizards as wizards had by Muggles. Wizards attacked werewolves in their human forms, killing them when they were in their least dangerous state to prevent them from killing—or worse, simply biting—other wizards. Now, of course, it was against the law to murder or to treat lycanthropic wizards inhumanely, but that didn't stop wizards from being extremely nasty to them overall.

And there was no cure for the condition—nothing that even helped. No spell, no potion, no nothing. Mimi could imagine why wizards feared bloodthirsty werewolves running free once a month, but—but—that was only _once a month_. And it was only at _night_. And only when there were no _clouds_. Obviously there was _something_ to be done for werewolves who wanted to exist in normal wizarding society; otherwise Remus would never have been able to get through Hogwarts in the first place. Judging from what Mimi had read so far, however, it was a miracle Remus had even been admitted to the school. If anyone but Remus's close friends ever found out about it…

Well, that was why Mimi respected Remus's friends so much these days. They'd done everything they could to make his life normal at Hogwarts, hadn't they? Kept people from asking too many questions about where he went every month, hadn't they? Pulled a lot of pranks to keep people distracted, didn't they? They really were terribly clever when you got right down to it, though Mimi for the life of her would not have said so in front of them. There were some things James and Sirius might have needed, but a nice stoking of the ego wasn't one of them.

"What are you thinking about?"

Remus put his hand over Mimi's. She'd been doodling absentmindedly on a piece of parchment, procrastinating the writing of her extremely dull and complicated History of Magic essay.

"You," Mimi said, dropping the quill and twisting her hand around to lace her fingers with Remus's. She frowned, still thinking. "Remus…what are you going to do after Hogwarts?"

The small smile that had been creeping across Remus's face quickly faded. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'm not sure."

Mimi nodded, looking at their intertwined fingers. Hers were so pale and smooth; his were darker, rougher, covered in odd scratches. Remus seemed to notice this and tried to tug his hand away awkwardly, but Mimi leaned down and planted a kiss on one of the scratches.

"It's not fair," she said softly. "You're brilliant. You could do anything."

Remus smiled sadly. "It is what it is."

"I don't understand how you can just accept it and go on like it's all right. You should fight it—fight the stigma. It's so _stupid_—you're so _nice_—I don't think anyone who's ever met you would look at you and at first glance think, 'Aah! He's a werewolf! Run away!'" She flailed her free hand in the air for dramatic effect.

Remus laughed. "That's not the point. I'm—I'm dangerous, Mimi. There's no way to control what happens to me."

"What if—what if there was?" Mimi asked urgently. "Remus, what would you be able to do?"

He shrugged dismissively. "There isn't though. I don't know that there will ever be."

"But if there _was_?" Mimi pressed.

Remus's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Mimi, what are you up to?"

"Nothing," she said hastily, and Remus didn't look as though he believed her. "I just—if there _was_ some way to make things better for you—even in the smallest amount—wouldn't it be easier to make people see that—you're just _you_? The transformation is something that happens to you—it's not who you really are."

Remus's brown eyes were large and very sad. "But it is a _part_ of who I am, Mimi. I can't change it. I can't stop it. And I certainly can't change how other people think and feel about it."

Mimi pursed her lips, feeling frustrated. "But Remus—surely there's _something_ you're able to do about it. I mean—all these years at Hogwarts, and—no one's been attacked by a werewolf—what do you _do_? They can't just send you away all the time; sometimes you're here during the day after a full moon, aren't you? Why can't you just keep doing—whatever it is you're doing?"

Remus sighed. This was why he'd avoided having a girlfriend before. They asked all kinds of questions he wasn't supposed to answer. Then again…_nobody_ was supposed to know he was a werewolf, either, and plenty of people did now. "I _do_ go away," he admitted. "Just…not terribly _far_ away."

"But where--?"

Remus sighed deeply and decided to be irresponsible. "All right," he sighed, and launched into an explanation that he was not supposed to give to anyone. He explained to Mimi about the secret passage to the Shrieking Shack and its entrance underneath the Whomping Willow—though he refused to tell her how he got underneath the tree without it attacking him—and about staying inside the house and destroying the place and scratching himself instead of running around attacking humans. He tactfully left out the details about Sirius, James, and Peter figuring out how to become Animagi and running around Hogsmeade and the Hogwarts grounds with Remus in his werewolf form every month.

Mimi looked a little deflated when he'd finished. "I see," she said. "Well…you can't exactly take a portable Shrieking Shack with you everywhere you go, can you?"

The corners of Remus's mouth turned upward mirthlessly. "Not exactly, no."

Mimi reached out for Remus's other hand. "You can take me with you, though."

He blinked and stared at her, astonished.

"I mean it," she continued. "Wherever you need to go to find work, I—I want to come with you. I can find work anywhere. It doesn't really matter. I'd just…I'd just like to be with you."

Remus swallowed rather visibly. "Mimi, isn't it—isn't it a little early to be thinking about this?"

"I don't think so. We're _talking_ about it, aren't we?"

"Well—yes, but—I mean—think of your _Daily Prophet_ internship and everything, Mimi. You already have good plans for life after Hogwarts. I have…." He sighed again. "Look, Mimi, I know you want to help, but I'm still not sure you understand what it's going to be like for me in the wizarding world. Even with Dumbledore's recommendation, it's going to be extremely difficult for me to find work _anywhere_. This isn't the sort of thing I'm going to be able to hide from most potential employers, and—let's face it. How many people would willingly employ a werewolf?"

"Dumbledore would," Mimi said quickly. "I would," she added, rather more softly.

"Well, that makes two of you, doesn't it, and neither of you are exactly in a position to hand me a job, now are you?"

"Dumbledore could—what if they need a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? You'd be good at that."

"I'd need more training first," Remus reminded her. "Look, I know you mean well, but this is something I'd prefer not to think about today. I have a meeting with Dumbledore in a couple weeks to discuss all of this—stuff—and I'd rather not discuss it till then. All right?"

Mimi didn't look altogether too happy with this response, but she didn't think it would be worth it to argue. "All right," she agreed, squeezing his hands gently. "I just…wanted you to know I'll be there for you. If you want."

Remus gave her a small smile. "Sounds fair enough," he said, and kissed both her hands before leaning across the table and aiming for her lips.

* * *

Melody wasn't quite sure where her life was going. Her relationship with Sirius was…fine, she supposed. After she'd discovered that she wasn't pregnant, Melody had been so relieved that she hadn't had the heart to broach the topic of marriage—or of anything more serious than what they had—any further. She definitely wasn't ready to have a child—that much was evident—but that didn't stop her from wanting something…more permanent.

So she was waiting. Watching. Trying to be patient. She examined Sirius very carefully these days, avoiding bringing up marriage herself but watching his reactions when others did. Engagements were so rampant amongst the Seventh Years these days it was hard to go more than a week without hearing of some random couple or other deciding to tie the knot. Unfortunately for Melody, Sirius was infuriatingly calm upon hearing about each and every one of these engagements. Apparently he had no problem at all discussing marriage as long as he himself wasn't directly involved.

Further, their relationship had recently become so pleasant Melody didn't fancy the idea of disturbing it for much of anything. They were performing better than ever as Beaters during Quidditch practice, even with the dismal weather they'd been having lately. With the unpleasant tension between Sirius and Melody gone, the rest of the team seemed to relax; the Chasers stopped second-guessing the location of the Bludgers, trusting Melody and Sirius to clear the way, and James was freed to look for the Snitch because he didn't have to keep worrying about whether his team was in danger of getting bloody noses all the time.

Beyond Quidditch, Melody found that they simply had more time to talk. There was less snogging, less of…other things…and they just…hung out all the time. They talked about everything and nothing—Quidditch, dueling, N.E.W.T.s, life after Hogwarts (was there such a thing?), joke products, candy, Death Eaters, the Ministry, Dumbledore, Voldemort…. They talked about everything, really, except their relationship. It seemed assumed that everything was going fine, and there was no need to take things forward or backward.

This all was fine, really, for now. Really. They were very comfortable—comfortable in a way they'd never been before, and the thought of disturbing that seemed almost blasphemous.

The problem wasn't them, Melody reasoned. It wasn't Sirius and it wasn't her and it wasn't how they felt about each other. The problem, really, was everybody _else_. The problem was the outside world. The uncertainty, the panic. The fear. The problem, when you got right down to it, was Voldemort. It was always Voldemort, had always been Voldemort, would always be Voldemort. Nothing would settle quite right in the world until he was gone. All the kids being pulled out of school—all the rushed marriages—everything—it all pointed to a deep-rooted fear that everyone's lives would be over before they knew it, and there was a fierce desire to spend all remaining time on Earth with loved ones. Melody had this crazy idea that she'd like to spend the rest of her time on Earth with the person who would make her most happy.

The problem—Melody's eternal problem these days—was trying to figure out how to explain this to Sirius without disturbing the happiness they already shared…happiness was hard to come by these days, and it seemed a shame to waste it.

* * *

The weather was finally pretty by the time the Hogsmeade weekend rolled around, and students happily walked up and down the streets of the town, chatting, shopping, and blatantly ignoring the slew of homework they were being assigned in anticipation of Easter holidays (just two weeks away)—and, in the Seventh Years' case, in anticipation of the N.E.W.T.s.

After a drink in the Three Broomsticks with the Marauders and various assorted friends, Lily and Mimi wandered down a side street of Hogsmeade together, looking for a potions shop. They'd had a couple late nights of it together, trying to work out more precisely just how potions worked, and trying to concoct a potion that would soothe scratches—or, more specifically, werewolf scratches. This proved both tricky and scary, because they had nothing to test the potions on but themselves, and if something went terribly wrong there was no immediate remedy. Lily was still a bit hesitant about the wisdom of this whole plan, but Mimi was adamant.

Today, though, it was hard to be worried overmuch about Potions. On a day like today, it was difficult to be worried about much of anything.

"It's hard to believe, isn't it?" Lily mused, tipping her head back to stare at the sheer blueness of the sky. "This is one of our last Hogsmeade visits ever. It's almost _over_."

"Don't remind me," Mimi advised. "I can't even imagine life outside of Hogwarts. What was it _like_ before we came here?"

Lily tried to think that far back, but found it hard. Before Hogwarts, there had been…her father. Her family. Her…

"I dunno," she replied. "It's hard to believe there was a time when we didn't know any of this even existed."

"Yeah," Mimi agreed. "And it's hard to believe there was a time before you were in love with Quidditch," she teased.

"Oh, shut it," Lily said, but she grinned.

"Ah, here we are," Mimi announced, stopping in front of a small shop with a display of newt tails, frog livers, and unicorn horns in the window.

"Excellent," Lily said, unable to hide her somewhat nerdy excitement at being asked to prowl around a potions store for an hour looking for something—anything—that might be useful in a healing potion. Lily wasn't like a walking textbook or anything—she wasn't nearly as bad as all that—but she was still rather more familiar with _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ than she liked to admit, and became dorkily happy when she was able to apply this knowledge to anything relating to her and Mimi's attempts at Potion making.

"Here," she said to Mimi as they strolled around the store, gazing at bottles and bottles full of frog eyes, bat wings, powdered bicorn horn, and peculiar slimy substances not even Lily recognized. "You might want to try some of this essence of murtlap. It's generally used to soothe scratches and things on its own, but…well, for what we're doing it might work better in a Potion."

Mimi nodded and took several bottles off the shelf, dropping them into a small basket she'd picked up for shopping, and continued following Lily around the store, adding Potions ingredients to the basket as necessary. Werewolf scratches weren't like regular scratches; they were very difficult to heal, even with magic, and this was the main reason Remus looked so woebegone most of the time. His scars generally started fading near the end of the month, but then the full moon would come again and he'd have fresh scratch marks to worry about. Mimi wasn't sure what made werewolf scratches so hard to heal, but she was determined to help in any way she could—_if_ she could. She'd decided to keep Remus ignorant of her plans for now; it was difficult to say how he would react.

Once they'd toured the store and cobbled together as many relevant Potions ingredients they could think of, the girls pooled their money to pay (a disturbing twelve Galleons and nine Sickles) and shoved the lot into Lily's bottomless bag before wandering innocently back to the main streets of Hogsmeade. They stopped at the post office briefly so Lily could send off her applications for Potions school, using several domestic and international owls in the process. The girls then headed for Honeydukes, where a large crowd of Hogwarts students had gathered. Lily happily spotted James in the crowd (his pockets were already bulging; apparently he and Sirius had just come up the street from Zonko's Joke Shop) and convinced him to buy her a box of Sugar Quills and some Chocolate Frogs, as her own purse was beginning to feel tragically empty.

After wandering around a bit more with Mimi and Sirius (where _their_ significant others had got to was anybody's guess) and stopping to chat with a few schoolmates, Lily and James decided to catch one of the horseless carriages back to school early, and arrived back at Hogwarts well before dinner.

"What are you going to do now?" James asked as they walked up the front steps of the school, holding hands.

"Dunno," Lily shrugged. "Got a couple hours before we eat…I've got a pile of homework waiting for me, so I probably ought to be doing that…why?"

James paused on the middle of the steps and evaluated the sky, which had turned the pale blue color of very late afternoon. "It's a beautiful day out. Come on."

He led her back down the steps and started walking across the lawn toward the Quidditch Pitch.

"You're not going to try to teach me how to fly again, are you?" Lily asked suspiciously.

"Nah, you're hopeless," James said, grinning. Lily tried very hard not to roll her eyes. "But there are brooms involved."

He led her to the broom shed rather than to the pitch, and got out two well-worn school brooms.

"And we're going…?" Lily asked.

"Up there," James said vaguely, pointing. "Roof," he clarified.

"Ah," remarked Lily, suddenly feeling much fonder of this plan. The roof was one of her favorite places to escape to when life at Hogwarts became overwhelming, and she had several fond memories of sitting on the roof with James.

She followed him up. Lily still wasn't brilliant at flying, but at least she wasn't as shaky as she had once been, and anyway the thought of relaxing with James for a few hours made her happy enough not to care much about whether she was flying smoothly or not.

Once they'd gotten to the roof, they both set down their bags and their brooms and placed clever sticking charms on them so they wouldn't fall off. Then they both sat down to have a gaze at the sun and the sky, the lawns and the forest and the great inky black lake stretching out toward the mountains. For a long while, neither of them spoke. James just slipped his arm around Lily and she rested her head on his shoulder and they sat there living in a sort of soft happy glow until the first streaks of orange and pink shot across the sky. Lily sighed happily and leaned into James, enjoying the warm feeling of his body next to hers as the air slowly cooled around them.

James shifted and turned so he could kiss her. Lily closed her eyes as happy tingles exploded inside her head and raced down to the tips of her fingers and her toes. The world spun around her, but Lily stayed still, holding James's face between her hands and reveling in the mad dizzy rush as she kissed James back, inviting him to wrap his arms around her—kiss her slowly—get his fingers tangled up in her long auburn hair—

It didn't matter what he did, really, as long as he didn't let go for a while.

James appeared to be reading Lily's thoughts, because he kissed her for quite a long time. Long, slow, kisses—kisses that made it seem like they had all the time in the world to be together, and further that all James wanted to do with that time was kiss her until her toes fell off with tingles, until her heart stopped, until her brain was reduced to a big pile of mush that didn't care about much of anything except being wrapped up in James's arms.

And meanwhile all around them the sky blazed various shades of orange, pink, red, and purple, different colors streaking across it as the sun continued its slow dip behind the mountains. The light became softer, sweeter, more flattering, and when James finally, finally pulled away Lily thought he looked even more handsome than normal, particularly since he hadn't bothered to open his eyes yet and seemed perfectly content to just sit there with his arms around Lily, breathing somewhat irregularly and making no attempt whatsoever to disentangle his hand from Lily's hair.

Lily realized, with something vaguely resembling shock, that if she hadn't already been so madly in love with him, she would have fallen in love with him just then. This did not, however, stop her from falling in love with him _again_, which she promptly did. Her necklace glowed happily for a brief moment and then faded against the glow of the setting sun.

James had bothered opening his eyes and was now looking at her in a mushy sort of way that would have probably made the other Marauders gag behind his back and then tease him mercilessly for weeks on end, but it merely made Lily lean closer and tilt her head to kiss his neck, and then his cheek, and then his chin, and then his lips again.

It was easily the most romantic thing Lily and James had done for weeks.

"I love you," James murmured, kissing her neck, her earlobe, her cheek.

Lily smiled and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer and whispering, "Love you too," into his ear.

There were so many things she'd wished for on this rooftop—so many things she never thought she'd have—and—so many things she'd lost...so many things she'd lost since the first time she flew above the school, searching for a place to be alone with her thoughts and her dreams and her life. And James was…well, when he wasn't being a complete dunderhead, he was pretty perfect.

"Lily, d'you remember the first time we met?" James murmured as they shifted back to their original position on the rooftop—his arm around her, her head on his shoulder.

"What, do you mean you terrorizing me in Flying Class in First Year or you spilling a great big bottle of ink down the front of my brand-new dress robes in Fifth Year?"

Lily couldn't see it, but James's cheeks flamed slightly pink. "The—er—ink bottle thing."

"Yes, I remember. What about it?"

"Well…er…I mean, I _was_ going to say that I thought you were…um…now that you mention it, how _did_ it come off that I spilled a bunch of ink down your robes? I didn't—erm—come off as too big of a prat, did I?"

Lily couldn't help herself—she giggled. "It wasn't your finest moment," she admitted, "but…I mean, if anything, your reaction made me like you more rather than less. You didn't seem as full of yourself as usual. It made you seem more interesting, I think. Less…one-dimensional."

"I am _not_ one-dimensional!" James sounded rather offended.

"Oh, calm down, that was before I really knew you. All I knew about you back then was that you were some big Quidditch player who strutted around with his hair mussed up all the time looking silly."

"I do not strut," James sulked. "And my hair isn't silly."

Lily giggled again. "Oh, please, James…your hair is ridiculous." But she reached up and ruffled it affectionately, soothing his wounded pride with a kiss on the cheek.

"So you just thought I was some silly-looking Quidditch player? That's it?"

"Well, and clumsy," Lily said thoughtfully. "After all, you had just spilled a bottle of ink on me."

James's cheeks were now very obviously pink. "I see."

Lily looked at him curiously. "Don't look so embarrassed, James. It was a long time ago. Why did you bring it up anyway?"

"Well—I was _going_ to say that I—I mean, I thought _you_ were—" But he cut himself off, looking as though he thought it might be foolish to continue.

"Oh, don't stop now," Lily encouraged. "What _did_ you think of me? And…why did you spill that bottle of ink in the first place? You haven't spilled anything on me since; you're really not clumsy at all."

James seemed to feel better after she said this. "Well—I was _going_ to say—I thought you…er…looked beautiful. Yeah. Really—really pretty. And that was—that was why I tripped and sent that ink bottle flying at you. I was kind of—erm—struck."

He seemed to regret saying this as soon as it was out of his mouth, and his cheeks turned pinker than ever. Lily, however, felt her insides turn to complete mush and tried not to feel obscenely girly as her lower lip quivered with extreme happiness. "_Really_?" she managed, wondering vaguely when James had become so incredibly, wonderfully (almost sickeningly, really) sweet.

"Er…yeah," James said, scratching his head awkwardly. "That'd be…that'd be what I thought," he added lamely. He looked, if possible, even more embarrassed now than he had a moment ago, as though he'd suddenly become painfully aware of the extreme mushiness of his statement. He avoided looking at Lily and chose to glance around the rooftop instead, as though he expected Sirius to pop out of nowhere and start making fun of him for being such a sap.

Lily, however, was not about to let this statement slip away unnoticed. She grabbed his face in her hands and pulled him into a fierce kiss. This seemed to ease his embarrassment, because when he pulled away he looked happily dazed rather than distracted.

"You're amazing…did you know that?" Lily asked.

"Er…well…yeah," James said, shrugging and trying to act cocky, but the smile he gave her was so utterly, hopelessly, completely dopey that she couldn't help grinning back.

"Oh, I don't want this to _end_," Lily moaned, burying her face into James's shoulder. "It's been so…_wonderful_."

"Erm—well—I wasn't planning on breaking up with you," James managed awkwardly.

"No, I don't mean _us_," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "I meant…all _this_." She gestured widely, out toward the lake, across the grounds, around the school. "Hogwarts. It's been…." She trailed off and shrugged helplessly. There weren't really words for everything Hogwarts meant to her.

"Yeah," James agreed, nodding slowly. "I understand."

Lily sighed and fitted herself against him once more, his arm around her waist, her head on his shoulder. The sunset was still blazing beautifully before them. More carriages were starting to arrive back at the school, depositing students out front, who hurried up the steps to get inside for dinner. Lily vaguely registered her hunger, but ignored it. There were more important things to think about right now, and anyway it would be more fun nicking food from the kitchens after with James than it would be to disrupt this moment for a plate of sandwiches.

The big fluffy clouds in the sky above them were tinged different colors now, various shades of pink and purple and orange, and they looked vaguely like big celestial swirls of…

"Cotton candy," Lily realized, smiling.

"Huh?" James said.

"The clouds…don't they look like cotton candy?"

"_What_? What's cotton candy? Who in the world would want to turn _cotton_ into _candy_?"

Lily laughed, and then thought of her conversation with James about Milk Duds on this very roof and laughed harder. James looked at her like she was a crazy person, and when she finally calmed down and turned to him and tried to explain what cotton candy was, he looked even more befuddled.

"Oh, never _mind_," she sighed finally, exasperated, and turned back to watch the sun set.

_Yes_, Lily thought as the last rays of the sun slipped behind the mountains, _he really is a dunderhead. But…he's quite perfect, all the same_.

* * *

The evening before the Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff Quidditch game, Melody holed herself up in a deserted classroom to practice spells. She did this sometimes when she was bored or frustrated or just needed to clear her head. It seemed like essential practice for dueling, too, to work on quickly and accurately performing silent spells, so she practiced on various objects around the room, jinxing and destroying random things before silently performing counterjinxing and repairing charms. She worked through the extensive list of spells she knew by heart and focused on aiming and performing them as accurately and quickly as possible.

Her concentration was interrupted mid-spell, however, by an owl that suddenly swooped up next to one of the windows and began tapping on it. Irritated, Melody halted her spell work and opened the window, untying the scroll attached to the owl's leg hastily and tossing it aside to finish her practice. Whatever it was would just have to _wait_.

She found herself unable to concentrate as well as she had a moment ago, however; her mind kept straying to the unopened letter lying on the desk. Finally, after performing three badly botched spells in a row, Melody gave up and stuffed her wand back into her robes, grabbing the letter and making her way back up to Gryffindor Tower. She unfurled the scroll as she walked, and as soon as she saw the slanted, spidery writing her heart stopped.

The letter was from Lucifer Malfoy.

Her heart started again with a painful lurch, and Melody gasped for breath, staring dumbfounded at the parchment, her eyes unfocused and aghast. "Gobbledegook," she managed, upon reaching the portrait of the Fat Lady, and the portrait swung open to admit her to the common room.

Melody couldn't bring herself to read the letter. As soon as she'd got over the initial shock, she rolled the parchment up again, tightly, and tied it up hastily before shoving it into her trunk, burying it under a pile of books and several school robes before slamming the trunk lid shut over it.

Lucifer Malfoy had no business intruding on her life at Hogwarts, and so his letter lay silent and unread on the bottom of her trunk for months, forgotten.

* * *

It was a drizzly day for a Quidditch match, and the school wasn't nearly as excited about it as they might have been, had anyone thought Hufflepuff actually had a chance against Ravenclaw. All Ravenclaw had to do was win the match—no matter by how slim a margin—and they were first place heading into the final, just barely edging out Gryffindor.

"Hey Remus, I bet you five Galleons Ravenclaw wins," Melody said at breakfast.

Remus snorted. "Fat chance. There's no way I'm taking that bet."

Lily, who was currently hiding behind an edition of the _Daily Prophet_, poked her head over the top and said, "Doesn't Melody still owe you money from some bet or something? From a long time ago?"

Melody and Remus both stared at her for a moment, and then, suddenly, Remus remembered.

"You're right! She _does_! Fork over the money, Cauldwell, we all know you're good for it."

Melody, however, did not seem to remember this at all. "_What_? What in the world are you guys _talking_ about? I don't owe Remus anything."

"Erroneous," Remus said promptly. "You owe me five Galleons. I don't remember why, but I know that you do, so cough it up." He held out his hands, and Melody pushed them away.

"I do _not_! Seriously, I don't remember this…_why_ would I owe you five Galleons?"

"No idea," Remus said, smiling cheerfully, "but I know you do. We bet on it. Fifth Year."

"Fifth—_Fifth Year_? Are you _serious_? You can't call me out on a silly five-Galleon bet we made during Fifth Year!"

"You're right, how rude of me. I've forgotten to charge you interest. That'll be ten Galleons, then, and don't hesitate to pay me immediately."

Melody gaped at him for a moment and then recovered herself. "No. I refuse. I'm not going to pay you until you tell me what the bet was over."

"Haven't the foggiest," Remus admitted again, but this did not seem to trouble him a bit. "Don't argue, though, even Lily remembers—you've got to pay up now—"

Melody glared over at Lily, who retreated sheepishly behind her edition of the _Prophet_. "I don't remember what the bet was over either," she mumbled, before Remus could ask her for assistance. "I just remember Remus telling Melody she owed him five Galleons…."

Lily was saved from persecution, however, and Melody from having to pay up, by the sudden decision of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team to vacate their table and head for the locker rooms. The Hufflepuff team followed shortly, and the rest of the student body, en masse, decided that the time was right to head for the stands. Melody and Remus squabbled on their way out to the pitch, but Lily ignored them, choosing to walk instead with James, and when they arrived in the stands, Mimi and Sirius rather wisely decided to pull their significant others away from each other and seat them on opposite ends of the bench they chose in the stands.

Nearly everyone was cheering for Ravenclaw; if Hufflepuff won by less than four hundred points, Slytherin would advance to the final match to face Gryffindor. Slytherin House found itself in the odd position of cheering for Hufflepuff to win, and Hufflepuff found itself torn between cheering for a brutal victory for their team or just cheering for Ravenclaw, because no one wanted to see Slytherin advance in the tournament any further.

Frank Longbottom was commentating today, for reasons that did not become apparent until the end of the match.

Ravenclaw took a strong, early lead, and it became clear after their seventh unanswered goal that Hufflepuff had no hope of coming back. Sirius and James, who were sitting on either side of Lily, were analyzing Ravenclaw strategy over her head, hoping to pick up ideas for defensive strategy for the final match. Occasionally Melody jumped in to add an insight or two, but she spent the greater part of the match fuming and shooting dirty glances down the bench toward Remus.

"Hang on," Lily said, interrupting James and Sirius's conversation after Ravenclaw had scored its twelfth goal, making the score a lopsided one hundred and ten to twenty. "I think you're forgetting something absolutely crucial here—Ravenclaw is playing _Hufflepuff_. They're not using their best moves out there; they're working on an entirely different strategy now than they would if they were playing you. I mean—look, look right there—" She pointed as one of the Ravenclaw Chasers easily dodged a Bludger and headed for the goalposts.

"Aaand it's Filibuster, he swerves, he dodges, he swoops, fakes out the Hufflepuff Keeper aaand—GOAL to Ravenclaw!" Frank exclaimed as most of the crowd broke into an excited roar.

"See that?" Lily asked. "Ravenclaw's counting on the weakness of the Hufflepuff Beaters to let the Chasers into Hufflepuff territory. If that Bludger had been well-aimed, that Chaser would have had no chance of making it to the goalposts—he probably would've dropped the Quaffle and given Hufflepuff a chance to score. Hufflepuff's Chasers aren't that bad, really, it's just their Beaters and Keeper who are mediocre, and Ravenclaw's Keeper's too good for them…."

She trailed off, giving a great "ooh" of disappointment with the rest of the crowd as one of the Hufflepuff Beaters collided in midair with a Ravenclaw Chaser, apparently so distracted by the location of one of the Bludgers that he wasn't paying attention where he was flying.

"You know," Sirius said thoughtfully as Ravenclaw took its penalty shot ("Bladgrow gets it by the Hufflepuff Keeper easily, making the score a hundred and thirty to twenty…come on, Hufflepuff, you've got more in you than that!"). "I think dearest Lily-bean has a point."

"Don't call me that," Lily said automatically, as one of the Hufflepuff Beaters managed a good shot for once, and Hufflepuff scored a rare goal.

The game continued much in this same manner for the next hour, rain drizzling down occasionally to make the play a bit more slippery. Finally, however, the Ravenclaw Seeker spotted the Snitch hovering in mid-field, and made a fantastic dive into the midst of the action, where he was rewarded for his spectacular catch by taking a Bludger to the back before Madam Hooch could blow her whistle.

"Aaaand that seals the game up, putting Ravenclaw ahead at four hundred and twenty to eighty, bumping them up into first place heading into the Quidditch Final"—cheers erupted from the Ravenclaw section of the stands—"where they'll face a strong Gryffindor team in the final match"—Gryffindor House roared its approval—"and—ah—_speaking_ of Gryffindor House—"

At this point, it became clear why Frank had weaseled his way into commentating, instead of allowing the bubbly third-year girl (who had commentated most of the matches in the fall term) to do it.

"I believe there's a lovely young Gryffindor lady in the stands by the name of Alice—my girlfriend, incidentally—now, now, Professor, this is nothing inappropriate," he assured Professor McGonagall, who appeared to grabbing for the megaphone.

"It's just that I—ah—it's a very important day, you know, for Alice and I—our anniversary, as it were—and I—Professor, _please_, this is hard enough already without you hitting me."

The crowd laughed as one. Professor McGonagall had been indeed tapping him smartly on the shoulder, but, seeing Frank's determination, she gave up, exasperated. The student body had fallen silent (all except for a few rude Slytherins), and they were now staring at the commentator's booth expectantly. The Ravenclaw team had even put off celebrating their win, and were now hovering in a state of suspended curiosity above the pitch, along with the Hufflepuff team.

"Alice, dear—I was wondering—well—er—d'you think you'd—that is to say—"

"Oh, get on with it!" McGonagall snapped, now looking exasperated for different reasons, and the crowd laughed again.

"Alice-will-you-marry-me?" Frank asked, very quickly, and the crowd gave a great collective gasp.

From the middle of the Gryffindor crowd came what sounded like a small explosion. A girl was shrieking happily, shoving her way through the crowd, and it took her less than a minute to bowl through most of the audience and make her way to the commentator's booth, where she threw herself at Frank, knocking the megaphone out of his hands.

Professor McGonagall retrieved the megaphone quickly. "I think we'll take that as a yes," she said crisply. "Kindly stop gawking and return to your dormitories."

With that, a great chatter broke out amongst the students, and Lily took James's hand and let him lead her through the crowd and back up to the castle.

"You know," she mused, once they'd gotten to the lawns and the crowd started to thin out a bit, "I can't think of a less romantic way of being proposed to."

"Er—you can't?" James asked, looking surprised.

"Well—maybe. If you were trapped in the middle of a sewer or something, that certainly wouldn't be romantic…but that's not really what I meant. I meant that, of all the carefully _planned_ ways of proposing to a girl, I find _that_ way the least romantic."

"Oh. But—but why?" pressed James, who could think of few things he loved more than Lily and Quidditch. And, after all, Lily loved Quidditch too, so…what was the problem?

"It's just so—_public_," Lily said, scrunching her nose up at the thought. "Who would want to answer a question like that in front of hundreds of people?"

"Alice didn't seem to mind," James pointed out.

"Well…no, but that's Alice. Some people are okay with that, I suppose."

"Well, if _that's_ not romantic, then what _is_ romantic, pray tell?"

Lily shrugged. "I dunno. Something…not public. It should be private, just between the two people involved. I don't…I don't think I'd even like to be proposed to in a restaurant. I'd much rather just…have it be personal. At a place that's…special, in some way. I guess."

At this point Lily became dreadfully aware of the fact that she was discussing this with her boyfriend, who she loved—and, she supposed, who she one day hoped to marry—but with whom she'd never actually discussed the subject of marriage. She wasn't sure she wanted to have this conversation with James just yet, so she hastily changed the topic to Quidditch, and she and James discussed the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor matchup the rest of the way up to the castle.

* * *

Mimi wiped a few drops of sweat from her forehead and bent over to check the steaming potion in front of her. It was bubbling smoothly and had recently turned a pale shade of green. Lily had suggested they stew a batch of lacewing flies in the potion for thirty days and check the results. Lacewing flies, she said, were a primary component in the Polyjuice Potion, and one of the main ingredients that helped affect the change in appearance. Since Mimi and Lily were trying to create a potion that would help alter the appearance of scars, this seemed reasonable; all they had to do was check on the potion once a day to stir it to ensure that the lacewing flies would not congeal.

Mimi did most of the checking and the stirring. She was grateful for Lily's help, but this was her project, and she took most of the responsibility on her shoulders.

Tonight, for example, she had plans to sneak out onto the grounds and pick several flowers and herbs by moonlight. There were certain ingredients that were only good when picked by the full moon, and Mimi happened to know that on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest there were a few plants that could prove useful in her potion making endeavors.

She had elected not to tell Lily of this plan, partly because Lily was Head Girl and Mimi didn't relish the idea of trying to explain why she wanted to break so many school rules for this, but another, smaller part of her was afraid that Lily would completely overlook the school rules and insist on coming with her. That would, in many ways, be far worse, because it would increase their chances of getting caught, and Lily—Head Girl or not—had no more right than anyone to be out on the grounds after hours.

Mimi was vaguely aware that James now had an Invisibility Cloak, but she wasn't quite bold enough to ask him if she could borrow it. She was afraid it might be too presumptuous of her to ask to use it, considering she and James had never been that close, but she was even more concerned that asking for the cloak would lead to uncomfortable questions about why she wanted to use it—questions that she was in no way prepared to answer. She could've come up with a lie, of course, but Mimi was not the most spectacular liar around. Even if she managed to come up with something convincing beforehand, she'd probably botch the retelling of it. So going it alone, she decided, would be sufficient.

Mimi gave the potion one final stir and walked over to the window to check the sky. Slightly cloudy, but the full moon had risen and was quite visible, shining brightly against the ink-black sky and bathing the grounds in silvery, pearly light. She thought briefly of Remus, alone and miserable in the Shrieking Shack, before fastening her long black cloak around her and sneaking out into the castle corridors.

She met with good luck the whole way down; she narrowly avoided Filch by ducking into a side passage and managed to hide behind a suit of armor as soon as she saw Peeves round a corner into her hallway. She waited silently behind the armor as Peeves bobbed along, merrily chucking what looked like blueberries onto the floor, only they couldn't possibly have been blueberries, as they exploded on contact and left a slimy, sticky-looking substance in their wake. Mimi waited until Peeves had disappeared around the far end of the corridor and Filch had come wheezing along, looking furious, before ducking out from behind the armor and hurrying down the final staircase to the Great Hall. From there it was no trouble at all to sneak out the great front doors and onto the school lawn, where she could only pray nobody would see her from the castle windows.

It was unfortunate that the full moon made the outdoors seem so very bright. She suspected that even hiding behind her hood and clutching her cloak tightly around her wouldn't be enough to conceal her from random onlookers, so she would simply have to make this quick and hope that there were no onlookers. She made it to the edge of the Forbidden Forest quickly enough, and it only took her a minute or so to find the herbs she was looking for. She fell to her knees and picked the plants eagerly, shoving them into the small sack she'd brought and hoping that it wouldn't damage them to be all shoved in together.

Things went smoothly until she started picking the third type of plant she needed, and then she froze, paralyzed by a sound that came echoing off the lake.

Howling. Unmistakable howling. A long, high-pitched, eager, terrifying noise that raised the hair on Mimi's arms and neck, left her straining for breath, groping blindly for the sack of herbs that she'd momentarily dropped, and stumbling, panic-stricken, back across the grounds toward the school.

Mimi had never heard a werewolf howl before, but she _knew_. She knew just as unmistakably as she knew she was a witch that she'd just heard a werewolf howl somewhere over by the not-so-very-far-away lake, and _knew_ beyond anything she'd known before that it was Remus, that he'd smelled her somehow, that he was coming after her, completely unaware of himself—of who she was—of what it meant—

Mimi ran. Her heart pounded painfully, her breath came in short, heaving, dreadful gasps, and she focused with all her might on the castle looming before her—on the great oak front doors that seemed so very far away—that didn't seem to be getting closer at all—

And then, suddenly, behind her she heard the pounding of paws, heard a great terrifying beast bounding after her, and in one great shining moment of stupidity, Mimi Ramirez made the most catastrophic mistake of her young life. She glanced around to look. Just once, just barely, just for an instant, and the sight of a full-grown, snarling, bloodthirsty werewolf took all the breath out of her. She wheezed and she stumbled and she fell.

The werewolf was upon her in two bounds. She didn't have time to think, didn't have time to yell, didn't have time to push herself up off the ground before—

"AAAAUGH!" Mimi half-groaned, half-screamed, half-fainted with pain. The werewolf split her thigh open, one set of sharp, angry claws digging into her skin and ripping away entire chunks of flesh, slicing a gash in her leg that tore all the way through to her muscle.

The world exploded in a kaleidoscope of pain, and Mimi collapsed, clutching her leg, with no room in her brain to even think about pulling out her wand—trying to fight it—trying to prevent the werewolf from sinking its jaws into her neck, from killing her, or perhaps just biting into her and then abandon her, leaving her to a lifetime of painful transformations that would forever alienate her from the wizarding community—leave her trapped in a condition she had absolutely no means to fight—helpless and alone and—

It took Mimi a while to realize that the werewolf was no longer on top of her, no longer attacking her, no longer ripping into her flesh. Her vision cleared momentarily and she caught a glimpse of a great black dog tangled up in a vicious fight with the werewolf, snarling and snapping and generally preventing the werewolf from leaping back on top of Mimi to finish its job. Wearily Mimi turned her head and tried to roll over, tried to pull herself up—somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she had to leave—had to get back to school—had to escape or else she'd—

Mimi blinked. Apparently she'd progressed to hallucinations now, because suddenly right in front of her there stood a great stag, pawing the ground and snorting at her impatiently. It lowered its front legs to the ground and stared at her imploringly, snorting angrily in case she didn't get the point.

Mimi dragged herself over to the stag and threw her right leg over its back, trying to ignore the explosion of pain in her ravaged left leg as she did so. The stag straightened up and Mimi held on for dear life. She nearly fell off as the stag cantered back toward the school. The sack of herbs lay forgotten behind her, now unimportant and abandoned.

The stag vaulted up the front steps of the castle and Mimi fell off as soon as it halted at the top. She managed to land on her back, which hurt immensely, but not quite as much as it would have hurt to land on her injured leg. She attempted to hoist herself up from the ground, rather unsuccessfully, and was rather astonished when a strong hand gripped her arm and pulled her upright, perhaps a bit more violently than necessary.

Nothing matched Mimi's astonishment, however, when she looked up and found that the stag had disappeared entirely, only to be replaced by James Potter, who was gripping Mimi's arm painfully and shaking with anger from head to toe, staring at her in white-faced fury.

"WHAT—THE—BLOODY—HELL—ARE—YOU—PLAYING—AT?" He bellowed, with complete disregard for the way Mimi was doubling over in pain, swaying on the spot in an attempt to balance herself on her one good leg. James appeared not to have time for this nonsense, as he grabbed her other arm and shook her once, which was painful, but when he didn't let go Mimi felt marginally steadier on her feet.

"Picking—stuff…" Mimi mumbled, before her head lolled forward and the world swam before her in an explosion of pain once more.

All attempts at thought were drowned out by James's yelling. He was entirely beside himself, and had Mimi been slightly more conscious she might have appreciated his rather terrifying and terror-stricken attitude.

She barely heard what James said, barely noticed when the front doors of school opened and an incensed Filch and Professor McGonagall were there to meet them, and hardly cared when fifty points were docked from both her and James's houses, they were both assigned a detention, and Mimi was carried off to the hospital wing.

She didn't know or care until morning that Remus had managed to vacate school premises and arrive back in the Shrieking Shack before anyone came to investigate, or that the great black dog that had saved her from the werewolf had also, somewhat miraculously, disappeared. She didn't piece together until morning, either, that James _was_ the stag that had saved her, not some strange apparition that had appeared without sense or reason.

Even when Mimi was coherent again, she was not well, and had to remain secluded in the hospital wing for several days before Madam Pomfrey allowed her any visitors. When she finally was allowed visitors—to Mimi's very great surprise—the first people who came to see her were James, Sirius, and Peter, looking very somber and rather sick with themselves over her condition.

"Where's Remus?" Mimi asked as they gathered around her bed.

"Shh," James said, pulling out his wand. He whispered "_Muffliato_" before pocketing it and drawing the curtains closely around Mimi's bed. "We need to talk to you in private," he explained. "This is important."

Mimi stared round at all of them, looking pale and careworn and rather—shaggier—than when they'd seen her last. "Are you going to tell me why Remus wasn't in the Shrieking Shack that night?" she asked softly. "Are you going to tell me why James seems to be able to turn into a stag?"

"Yes," James said heavily, and pulled up a chair, looking as though he felt this might take a while.

And so it was that the Marauders divulged their deepest, darkest secret to one more person outside of their small circle, forcing Mimi to promise that she wouldn't tell anyone that they were all Unregistered Animagi before they left the hospital wing. She took in this information gracefully—perhaps she was still a bit in shock over everything—and hardly spoke at all until James, Sirius, and Peter stood to leave.

"Wait," she beckoned. "Where's Remus?"

The boys exchanged uncomfortable looks.

"Look, he's, uh…not feeling too well at the moment," James managed, scratching his head awkwardly. "You might want to give it a few more days."

Mimi looked disappointed, but somewhat unsurprised.

"I think he's a bit—sick—over what happened," Sirius added, looking a bit uncomfortable with the topic.

Mimi just nodded and waved limply as they walked away.

She'd only been trying to help him. How would he ever, ever, _ever_ forgive her after this?

* * *

Lily waited for him nervously in their favorite room, the one behind the dragon tapestry on the fourth floor, fiddling with her necklace. She couldn't sense him coming, exactly, but she could tell when he was just outside the door, and stood to greet him anxiously.

"Well?" she asked.

"Mimi's fine…or as fine as she can be," James said, looking weary. Lily gave him a quick hug and tugged him to the couch, where they both sat down.

"James, I still don't understand why you didn't want me to visit—"

"Just wait, I'll explain," he promised, and took a moment to rest his head on the back of the couch. He rubbed his hands over his eyes, thinking. "What's most important, Lily," he began, sighing, "is that you don't go thinking I've been lying to you. Because I _haven't_." He seemed to take this most seriously, and opened his tired eyes to stare into Lily's.

Lily blinked and stared at him, unaware of how impressively green and completely lost-looking her eyes were. She was further unaware of the guilt churning in James's stomach, though naturally she had some inkling that his conscience was not entirely clear.

"Well?" she prompted again.

James pushed himself away from the back of the couch and sat up straight, so that he was taller than her once more. "I haven't been keeping anything from you," he said softly, "that has anything to do with us."

Lily grasped his hands, feeling uneasy. "James—what have you—"

"You know that…that Remus is a werewolf, yes?"

Lily nodded slowly.

"And of course you know that we all know he is."

She nodded again, a bit baffled as to where this was going.

"Well, Lily…you know…you know we call him Moony. Because of…of his furry little problem."

It was a mark of how concerned Lily was about all this that she did not snort in laughter. She couldn't quite manage speaking, however, and simply nodded again.

"And I'm sure you've heard us…all of us…referring to one another with…somewhat odd nicknames every now and again, haven't you? And we've never explained it properly?"

"Ye…es," Lily said slowly, as a suspicious buzzing picked up in the back of her brain.

"Well…you see…being the friends we are, Sirius and I couldn't just—and well, Peter too, although of course you know he's mildly hopeless at Trans—well—that is to say—it wasn't something we thought Remus ought to go through every month alone—holed up inside the Shrieking Shack, you know, and—oh. Oh, you didn't know."

Lily's eyebrows had shot up toward the ceiling at the mention of the Shrieking Shack. James seemed to welcome this momentary diversion.

"That's how he gets around as a werewolf," James explained. "Or…doesn't, rather. But that's how he's been keeping away from the students, you see? All…all alone in there, no one to bite."

"But…but he hasn't been alone?" Lily asked faintly, half-afraid of the answer.

"Not…quite as alone as…as you might imagine."

"James, _what_ did you—"

"The reason I didn't want you to go and visit Mimi," he said hastily. "Is because—because she knows. Found out, most unfortunately, about…us. And—and I didn't think you ought to hear it from her, because—well, because I think you've earned every right to hear it from me."

Lily stared at him blankly, but her brain was still buzzing with suspicion. He hadn't—he _couldn't _have—and surely not _Peter_—

"Please try not to be alarmed," James advised, and he got up, backing away from the couch. "I just want you to know that we all—we _promised_ not to tell, otherwise—"

"Oh, get on with it," Lily managed, sounding faint again.

And so Lily blinked and stared in stunned silence as her boyfriend, with a faint popping sound, transformed from the tired, scruffy, wild-haired seventeen-year-old before her into a great, antlered, shining stag, its full and glossy coat gleaming in the firelight.

* * *

Mimi was not allowed to leave the hospital wing for another several weeks. She became quite agitated at having to lay in bed for so long, but as the wound on her leg was not healing particularly well and had started secreting a greenish-purplish slimy looking substance, she wasn't exactly keen on frolicking around the grounds with the rest of the students, either—especially considering the rumors they'd undoubtedly cooked up in her absence. They knew she was still at school, of course—once a day there strangers came by the hospital wing claiming to be friends of hers and craning their necks for a good look at her, but Madam Pomfrey (thankfully) shooed most of them away.

According to Lily, most of the school was now convinced that Mimi was sprouting fur and speaking only in growls, and very few students seemed to have grasped that sustaining a werewolf scratch was not nearly as transformative as sustaining the bite—although, Mimi suspected, _had_ she sustained a bite, far less students would be interested in coming to check on her progress. She wasn't nearly as bad as the rumors suggested, but her hair did seem to be growing a bit faster than usual—already her normally neat brown locks were growing in long scraggly curls down her back—and her senses of smell and hearing had improved quite a bit.

But none of this mattered very much to Mimi; it was extremely boring, living in the Hospital Wing. She only got visitors once a day, she was confined to her bed, and although she was spared the agony of having to sit through lessons, she still had to spend hours at a time poring over schoolbooks and writing vicious essays for all of her teachers in preparation for the ever-advancing N.E.W.T.s. Plus, and perhaps worst of all, the one person from whom she'd most desperately been wishing to receive a visit had not yet come. Once or twice she thought she'd seen Remus lurking outside the Hospital Wing, but each time he'd hurried out of sight the moment he sensed that Mimi might be looking at him.

Mimi had begged Lily, begged Melody, begged each of the other Marauders in turn to talk sense into him, to ask him to come see her, but he had not yet obliged. It seemed, in fact, that he was avoiding _all_ of them, that he hadn't spoken to anyone outside of class in several weeks, and that there was, apparently, something very brutal going on inside his head that he did not see fit to share with anyone. Mimi wrote him dozens of notes that she had various people and owls deliver to him, but she wasn't sure if he read or even cared about them.

Just when Mimi was about to give up hope, however—just when it looked like Madam Pomfrey had her on the mend, and she'd be able to limp to classes on her own soon, if not walk—Remus finally came to visit her. Mimi was so stunned she could think of little to say except "Hi," and just stared at him unblinkingly for a few long moments as he sat by her bed, looking deeply tired and sad and a little stricken.

"Mimi," he said finally, and rather hoarsely, as though his voice wasn't something he was quite used to using these days. "I…." He seemed almost to lose his nerve, but then shook his head and took in a deep breath, as though steeling himself for something. He was resolutely staring at Mimi's bed sheets and not anywhere near her face. "I have no reason to expect you to ever forgive me."

Emotions hit Mimi in a rush, and she burst out, "But I _do_, Remus, I—"

But he plowed on, appearing not to have heard her. "I hope you'll understand…after everything that's happened…after what I almost…." He trailed off again, looking ill, but rallied himself quickly. "It would be poor judgment for us to stay together."

"_What_?" Mimi exploded, feeling shocked and hurt and—well—perhaps, considering the way he'd been avoiding her, she shouldn't have been all _that_ surprised, but still—all the same—he couldn't possibly blame _himself_ for—

Remus's eyes dropped to the floor so she could not see the expression in them at all anymore. "I've been so stupid, Mimi. We've—I never thought—there were close calls, but _never_—I would _never _want to—"

Mimi burst out all her thoughts at once, babbling. "Remus, _no_—listen, I forgive you—it's all right—look at me, I'm _fine_, and anyway it was all my fault—you can't blame yourself, you just _can't_—I was breaking school rules, I ought to be punished—well, I am being punished, but—oh, Remus, _please_…you don't need forgiveness, it's me…please forgive me…."

Remus looked at her for the first time, but it was not a pleasant stare. He gazed at her as though she were barking mad. "Don't you _understand_?" he demanded, sounding furious for the first time. "This is _all my fault_—I was too stupid—too cocky—I betrayed Dumbledore's _trust_," he hissed, very softly, afraid of Madam Pomfrey overhearing them. "I should've just stayed in the Shack like I told you I did—like I _promised_—I can't control myself when I transform; you saw me, you know…how could you _possibly_…after what I _did_ to you…."

"But—but it's like you said," cried Mimi desperately, near tears. "You're not in control of yourself—you couldn't help it—how could I possibly blame you for—when I shouldn't have been out there in the first place, when I knew it was full moon—"

"Mimi, I'm too much of a danger to you," Remus insisted, now looking vaguely annoyed that she wasn't taking him at his word. "We shouldn't—we _can't_—how could you possibly want to, after everything—"

"I was terrified," Mimi admitted softly, moving her gaze from his face for the first time to rest on her half-mangled leg. "For the first time, I understood…I knew why wizards feared werewolves…why they hated them…." She brushed her fingers over the foot-long gash in her skin and stared sickeningly at the green pus that stuck to them. Madam Pomfrey was having quite a time trying to keep the wound from infecting. She'd had a Healer down from St. Mungo's to have a look, but he'd said there wasn't much more the hospital could do for Mimi than Madam Pomfrey was already doing, so she'd simply kept on with applying ointment six times a day and watching anxiously to see how it healed.

"I realized afterwards," Mimi continued, "that the only reasonable thing to do was…was try and help. It _isn't your fault_," she repeated, softer, fiercer. "How you can even attempt to blame yourself when—"

"But I knew better," snapped Remus, looking rather angry that she was not taking him seriously. His voice was still a bit raspy, which only made him sound angrier. "I knew the risks—I've always known—I just couldn't resist because it was _fun_—because it was nice to feel I've got friends, good friends, friends who'd stick themselves out on a limb for me and—" he made a choking, strangling sound and looked intensely at the ground, trying to hide the shimmering tears in his eyes.

Mimi groped for his hand and grasped it, clenching his fingers between hers firmly. "They're not the only ones," she said fiercely, and decided the time was right to tell him about her attempts at potion-making, about her reason for being out on the grounds that night, about her ambitions to help him.

Far from looking flattered and appeased by her explanation, however, Remus looked aghast. "Mimi—I don't—what were you _thinking_? Anything could've happened to you—you could've _killed_ yourself experimenting with Potions—listen to me, it's not worth it—there's nothing you can do for it, it just is what it is—blimey, Mimi, I'm not worth it!"

"_Yes you are_!" she shrieked, anguished, and at this Madam Pomfrey burst from her office and threw back the curtains around Mimi's bed.

"Is everything quite all right?" she demanded, staring at Remus suspiciously.

"Yes," Mimi said tightly. "We're fine, thanks."

Madam Pomfrey eyed Remus for another moment before glancing back at Mimi. "Another outburst, and it's out with visitors," she warned. "You need your _rest_."

And with that she closed the curtains and marched back to her office, shutting the door smartly behind her.

Mimi and Remus regarded each other awkwardly for a moment. Remus took the opportunity to speak first.

"Look, Mimi," he said, all traces of anger gone from his voice. He sounded sad again, his voice low and raspy, and he stared at the floor again as he spoke. "I couldn't…I could never forgive myself if I put you in harm's way. Never. I can't forgive myself for what I've already done…all the damage I've…I _never meant to_…oh, God, Mimi, can't you see? Can't you see what it'll be like for me? Once a month, for several nights at a time, I have _no control_ over who I am. I can't tell the difference between my worst enemy and my girlfriend, and…and worst of all, _I don't care_. When I transform, I…_everything_ changes. And were I to stay with you, there would be simply no way for me to prevent myself…you'd be with me too often…sooner or later, it would go wrong. No, don't! Don't argue, Mimi—it _would_. It already did. And the next time, there…there'd be no one to save you. I could hardly save you from myself could I?

"I'm sorry, Mimi, but it's too much. It…it could never work. It's too risky, and…I care about you too much to let anything happen to you." He paused a moment, shifting uncomfortably. "Like I said, you have no business forgiving me, and it doesn't mean very much—doesn't mean anything at all, really—but I wanted you to know that—I am _so sorry_, Mimi. If I could go back in time and…well, I can't but…but if I could, I—" he cut himself off, sounding strangled again, and let his face fall into his hands.

After this speech, Mimi could think of little to say, so she just stared at him, stunned. She only found her voice again when Remus got up to leave.

"Remus, no," she managed, her voice strangled. "Please. Please…you can't go…this can't be over…_please_…." Hot tears began slipping silently down her cheeks.

Remus paused and glanced back at her face, and for one brief shining moment Mimi thought she'd done it—thought she'd gotten him back—his look of utter anguish was heartbreaking; it had to mean that he didn't want to leave her—didn't want to do this—

But then he looked away again, and, grasping the curtains tightly between his hands, whispered, "I'm so sorry, Mimi," before throwing the curtains aside and hurrying out of the hospital wing.

"_No_," Mimi moaned, half-hoping he'd come back, and she stared at the gap in her curtains helplessly for several moments before the real tears started flowing, and then she was bawling. She couldn't even turn over and sob properly into her pillow, because her injured leg would allow her no such thing. So she just sat there, sobbing, until Madam Pomfrey came hurrying out of her office and force-fed her a potion that not only calmed her crying but sent her into a swift, restful sleep.

* * *

When Remus finally spoke to the Marauders, he said only two words. "Never again," he informed them, his tone absolute.

None of them had the heart to argue with him. Their monthly adventures had been a source of joy, of excitement, for three years, but now, it seemed, the game was finally up. James and Sirius threw away their plans for next month's full moon without further comment, and the Marauders continued their lives in a very subdued manner for the next few weeks, as April sped past and Mimi slowly healed and was finally released from the hospital wing several days before the start of the summer term.

The summer term meant several things: first, that N.E.W.T.s were looming closer and uglier than ever, and second, that the Quidditch Final was nearly upon them, mere days away now. James, despite all that had happened—despite the many extraordinary things he'd seen and done in the past year—could hardly remember wanting to win the Quidditch Cup more. For one thing, it was his last great hurrah as Quidditch Captain—his last shining moment at Hogwarts—his last great opportunity to show the school just what he was made of—to go out with a bang—to prove to Lily that her sodding Ravenclaw Quidditch team was nowhere near as good as his—

Plus—as James so desperately kept trying to forget—it might very well be the last time James would ever get to play Quidditch as part of a real team. His ambitions to be an Auror did not exactly include playing Quidditch on the side. So…so this was it, really. And James, despite his considerable excitement, couldn't help feeling a bit sad that it all seemed to be drawing to a close so quickly.

* * *

The morning of the Quidditch Final, Lily helped Mimi rewrap her wound and hobble down the stairs to the Great Hall for breakfast. She sat at the Ravenclaw table today, thinking it unwise to bother James when he had such a furious look of constipation on his face. Plus she was bedecked entirely in blue, and it was undoubtedly smarter to wear such an ensemble at her own House table rather than parading it in front of a bunch of bloodthirsty Gryffindors who were clamoring for the Cup now more than ever, especially considering the decisive way Ravenclaw had snatched it from them the previous year.

Of course Lily wanted her own House to prevail, but a large subsection of her mind seemed not at all to object to the idea of James hoisting the Cup over his head—of Sirius and Melody whooping in joy at Ravenclaw's defeat—of Lily later sneaking into the Gryffindor Common Room to celebrate with some of her best friends—

It was not the first time in the past year Lily had wondered what it would have been like to be in Gryffindor House…to have known James all seven years instead of just three…. The Sorting Hat had almost put her in Gryffindor, of course, but on a slim decision stuck her in Ravenclaw, and Lily wondered…Lily wondered…

The post arrived in a great flutter of wings and hooting, and Lily was rather surprised when several owls swooped down over her plate and deposited letters.

"What're all those, Lil?" Mimi asked curiously, sniffing a piece of sausage before biting into it. She had a great craving for meat these days, although previous to her moonlight encounter she'd been much more of a fruit and vegetable sort of person.

"Dunno," Lily said absently, picking up the first envelope and ripping it open. As soon as she saw the heading on the letter, she knew—knew what all of them were. "Blimey," she whispered. "They're…they're my decisions. Well—some of them anyway…."

"Decisions? For what?"

"Potions school," Lily said quietly, skimming the first letter with a sinking heart. "I didn't get in. Well—not to this one anyway."

"How can they send you decisions already?" Mimi demanded, snatching the first letter away from Lily. It was for a small Potions school in France, and it didn't seem to think her essay had been quite impressive enough. "You haven't even taken your N.E.W.T.s yet!"

"I know," Lily sighed, "but some of the schools only require O.W.L. results."

"But you got an Outstanding on your Potions O.W.L.," Mimi pointed out. "How can anybody possibly reject you when—"

"I dunno, Mimi," Lily shrugged, ripping open the next one. "Oh, here—here's one in London—I've gotten into this one, but—_blimey_, look at the cost—"

Mimi snatched this one out of Lily's hand as well and her eyes bugged out at the amount of Galleons they wanted per year. "You'd better hope that last one is more reasonably priced," she said, nodding at the last letter Lily was poised to open.

"Yeah," she agreed, and ripped it open fiercely, unwilling to hesitate any longer. It was rather thicker than the last two letters had been, and its contents spilled out all over her empty plate. Lily gawked as she read it, and continued gawking as she picked up a second piece of paper and read that as well.

"What?" Mimi demanded, staring at her curiously. "What _is _it?" She reached over and snatched several of the papers from Lily, and when she'd read them her mouth fell open and she gawked as well.

Lily had not only been accepted at a Potions school—she'd been offered a job, as well. They wanted her to start teaching introductory Potions straightaway, and explained that her wages would be put toward her schooling fees.

"Lily—this is _perfect_," Mimi breathed. "That's amazing—after only receiving your O.W.L. results—what will _James_ say when he finds out?"

Lily blanched, and Mimi blinked at her curiously.

"What? You don't…you don't think James will be happy for you?"

"No, of course he will, it's just…"

"Just _what_?" Mimi exploded, looking exasperated.

"Look at where the school _is_, Mimi. Look at the heading."

"Tarwinian and Garbey's Noble School of Potions, est. 1685, Fremantle, Aust—_Australia_? You applied to a Potions school in _Australia_?"

Lily nodded numbly. "I applied everywhere Dumbledore suggested."

"Dumbledore—Dumbledore suggested _Australia_?"

"Please stop saying it like that," Lily requested faintly. "He just handed me a stack. It seemed wisest to apply everywhere."

"Corking," Mimi muttered. "Corking mad."

"It's just a letter. I don't have to accept."

Mimi regarded her suspiciously. "But you _want_ to, don't you? It's an amazing offer—teaching straightaway—_and_ going to school—"

Lily swallowed, looking vaguely ill, and did not answer.

"Do you think you'll go?"

Lily shrugged mutely.

"What are you going to tell James?"

Lily merely shrugged again, trying to look noncommittal, but her brain was burning with the possibilities. Australia—a new life, far away from memories of home and pain and Voldemort…a fresh start…but a cowardly start, running away from everything that still frightened her…it shouldn't even have been an option…she shouldn't even be considering it…and anyway it wasn't worth mentioning to James, was it? Not if she still had other schools to hear back from—not if she still had to wait for the results of her N.E.W.T.s to hear from some of the places she was really interested in—

Never mind. It wasn't a bother.

Lily gathered the contents of the envelope hastily and shoved them inside. "Don't worry about it," she advised Mimi, coming to her senses abruptly. "It's a good offer, but there will be others. And—and it's Quidditch today, besides. Let's just worry about that for now, shall we?"

And, refusing to say anymore on the subject, Lily stowed the letters deep inside her pockets and served herself some eggs and bacon, shoving all thoughts of Potions school out of her head and trying to think of nothing but the all-important Quidditch match that loomed over the rest of the day.

* * *

A/N: I bet you're thinking, after such a long chapter, that I'm barmy to think it was in any way efficient. But that's all right; if you don't believe me, I'm not going to argue with you.

Anyway, I'm very excited (and a little astonished) to say that there will only be one more chapter of this story, followed by an Epilogue, and then we are through. And—if all goes according to plan—this will all be posted before the seventh book comes out.

A great popping, whirling, booming, whizzing, sparkling, screeching, crackling, illuminating THANK YOU (no, not a 4th of July fireworks display, but a THANK YOU) goes to my many amazing reviewers, who continue to read this story even though the entire thing was negated by canon years ago. I owe you muchly…I love you all, you're all amazing, and if you think I have better things to do with my time than sitting around reading hideously long reviews, then you're dead wrong. Make the reviews as long as you like; the longer the better. (You can tell by the length of my chapters that I haven't got any aversion to words.)

And with all that nonsense said, CHEERS and Happy 4th!

Sierra Charm


	25. The Final Prank

A/N: Greetings, greetings…for the second to last time.

This is the final chapter of "Eyes as Green as a Fresh Pickled Toad." I will post one more time, several weeks from now, the Epilogue to this story, along with a plot summary of the two stories that were supposed to follow this one, but that are now being abandoned as I leave fanfic behind and try to write something that, someday, I can actually publish. (And if I sound melodramatic right now…that's because I am. And also…I've only had three hours of sleep.)

At this time, however, I would simply like to say:

To those of you have been with me since the beginning—a most profuse thanks. I know there are not many who have followed this story through from the time I posted the first chapter in 2001 until now, and if you have been with me that long then you must simply know that, frankly, there was a time when I didn't think this story would ever be finished, either.

To those of you who have read the story in its entirety and who incessantly review, no matter how late or early you jumped on board—I could not have finished this story without you. Fan fiction is basically pointless; we all know this. It is fun, and I must admit I've grown deeply attached to my characters, but it is not, nor will it ever be, publishable. The fact that you read and appreciate the time I put into spinning a story that perhaps need not exist really means quite a lot.

And here's your summary from last chapter:

Melody blubbers to Lily about how she thinks she might be pregnant, but we happily find out during the Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match that she is not. The pregnancy scare, however, causes Melody to think quite seriously about marriage, a subject Sirius attempts to skirt around every time it is brought up. Lin and Bridget have a small run-in with Lucy, Gillian, and Wendy, who are just as nasty as ever, but Rachel puts a stop to a real fight breaking out because she's tired of them bickering all the time. Peter has a very somber conversation with his girlfriend, Sophie, who breaks up with him and informs him that her parents are taking her out of Hogwarts, and following this conversation Peter considers seriously everything he might lose in fighting against You-Know-Who, and wonders if it mightn't be better to join You-Know-Who's side after all. Lily and Dumbledore have a touching moment during career advice, during which Dumbledore also gives her a stack of applications to various Potions schools.

Lily and James conclude their epic tale into the past, revealing that the necklace Lily wears bears enchantments that are meant solely to protect her, but that can never be activated unless the necklace is given as a gift by one of the descendants of Gryffindor to a woman he truly loves. The stronger Lily and James's love, the stronger the power of the necklace, and the stronger the bond between them. This information, of course, is all highly embarrassing for Lily and James to hear, but Gryffindor—who communicates with them by writing with a magical, self-translating quill provided by Dumbledore—does not seem to care.

Meanwhile, Mimi is attempting to brew a potion that can heal werewolf scratches, and enlists Lily's help. The girls shop for Potions ingredients in Hogsmeade together, but Mimi foolishly decides (after learning that Remus spends his monthly transformations holed up in the Shrieking Shack) that she needs to pick some Potions ingredients outside during the full moon, and so she ventures out onto the grounds, where she is promptly attacked by Remus the werewolf—though, thankfully, not bitten. She manages to get away with nothing more than scratches with the help of Padfoot and Prongs, although James sort of blows their cover by transforming from the stag back into a human on the front steps of the school so he can yell at her, and they are both caught and consequently assigned detention by Filch.

Also…Melody gets a letter from Lucifer Malfoy that she does not open, Ravenclaw flattens Hufflepuff at Quidditch (though at the end of this game Frank Longbottom proposes to Alice), aaand apparently Melody still owes Remus five Galleons.

Right…well, now that we're done with that excessively long summary, on with the chapter!

Cheers and happy reading.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Five

The Final Prank

The students stood divided. One half of the stands was a great mass of scarlet; the other, a massive blob of blue. In the midst of all this was a solitary patch of green, sticking out between the other colors like a stubborn grass stain.

"Slytherins," Lily muttered, rolling her eyes and pointing.

"They're such little buggers," Mimi agreed, shaking her head. She and Lily were moving rather slower than the rest of the crowd because of Mimi's limp. Mimi had a small cane now to help her walk, but she much preferred using it to whack the heels of the people in front of her when they got in her way.

"What d'you think they're planning on doing…cheering against both teams?" Lily wondered.

"Well, I for one," came a vaguely familiar voice from behind them, "will be cheering for Ravenclaw, although I think some of my housemates have the general idea of mocking both teams."

Lily turned around and was immensely surprised to see Sally Parkinson walking behind her, dressed mostly in green but with several accents of blue.

"Sally!" said Lily, stunned. She hadn't seen or spoken to Sally much since Auror Training, and in the last several months had hardly given thought to her or Naomi at all.

Sally smiled in a sly sort of way. "I don't suppose you're torn overmuch about the match?" She indicated Lily's robes of vivid blue.

"Ravenclaw _is_ my house, isn't it?" Lily replied, drawing herself up in what she hoped was a dignified manner.

"Indeed," Sally agreed, somewhat vaguely. "But it's not your _boyfriend's_ house, now is it?"

"I don't see what a difference that should make," Mimi said bluntly.

Sally looked at her as though noticing her for the first time. "Perhaps it doesn't," she said, shrugging. "I was just asking…." She trailed off, scanning the crowd. "Well, enjoy the game then…I see my friends…."

With a slight wave she vanished into the crowd.

"I'm not sure I like that girl too much," Mimi said, as they finally made it to the stairs leading up into the stands.

Lily shrugged noncommittally. "She's all right, I guess. She takes some getting used to." But, Lily thought as she and Mimi began climbing the stairs into the stands, it was very reassuring that someone like Sally would still be talking to her at all, when the general trend of the students was to ignore everyone but their own personal group of friends.

"What was the point of her question, anyway?" Mimi wondered, apparently still irritated. "I mean, you _are_ in Ravenclaw, like you said…blue robes and everything…I think it's pretty clear who you're cheering for, isn't it?"

Lily attempted not to blush.

Of _course_ she was going to cheer for Ravenclaw…and it _was_ her house, after all, but…but….

Just at the end of breakfast, she'd looked over at the Gryffindor table to see James staring dimly at his plate of scrambled eggs. He'd blinked at the eggs for a moment, and then glanced up at his teammates before nodding, his mouth set into a thin line of determination. And then, for just a moment, just after James picked up his broomstick and just before he turned to lead his team out of the Great Hall, he glanced in the direction of the Ravenclaw table and his eyes met Lily's. For one brief moment, Lily's heart seemed to leap out of her body, in the general direction of the Gryffindor table, and she could almost swear she felt it leaving the Great Hall as James turned away and walked with his team out toward the pitch.

So she could pretend to cheer for Ravenclaw all she wanted…she could scream and sigh and cheer with her housemates, but…but she secretly knew that in the end nothing would make her happier than seeing James hoist that Quidditch Cup over his head. He'd worked so hard…waited so long…wanted it so badly….

Lily and Mimi settled themselves in the midst of the Ravenclaw section, far from any Gryffindor fans. It felt unusual to be sitting among so many Ravenclaws for a change; Lily had become so used to sitting near the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor split with the Marauders that to change back now felt odd. But this was more for Mimi's sake than for Lily's; Lily scanned her eyes through the Gryffindor crowd and spotted Remus and Peter in the front row, not too far from the great Ravenclaw-Gryffindor divide. It was probably best that they sat this way, but it was still strangely sad not to be sitting with people who cared about James as much as Lily did.

It was the last Quidditch match they would see at Hogwarts…the last James would ever play in…the last Sirius and Melody would ever play in, for that matter. After this, the N.E.W.T.s were just a week away, and then…then….

The crowd erupted. The players had emerged from their respective locker rooms and were now marching purposefully onto the pitch. All non-Quidditch related thoughts flew out of Lily's head as the game commenced, and Third Year Charissa MacKenzie's bubbly, twittering voice filled the stands.

"Here come the players now!" she squealed. "Playing for Gryffindor today, it's Fletcher—Figg—Archer—Cauldwell—Black—Brown—and their Captain and Seeker, James Potter!"

The Gryffindor side roared its approval.

"Potter's shaking hands with the Ravenclaw Captain now, Adam Johnson—such a great Beater—and he leads Filibuster—Gladgrow—Sawyer—Appleton—Croaker—Fulley!"

The blue-clad portion of the crowd erupted in cheers. The Hufflepuffs seemed to be split evenly between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw; whoever won this game would take the House and Quidditch Cups, so it was a match of no real consequence for either Hufflepuff or Slytherin, and Hufflepuff, at least, had the decency to cheer for one side or another.

"Good luck to both teams. Oh—oh—oh—this is going to be so _exciting_!" Charissa shrieked, as Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the players kicked off.

Lily laughed at Charissa's excitement, but tuned the commentary out as the game got underway. It was intense and beautiful from the very first moments. Lily had been right—Ravenclaw's strategy with Gryffindor was much more sophisticated than it had been in their match against Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw's Chasers bobbed and weaved and passed with silky, dangerous precision, in a way they hadn't had to with Hufflepuff, and within the first few seconds of the game got into scoring range.

"Ooh—Sawyer's already in range for the shot—she aims, she—oh watch out, Emma!" Charissa shrieked as a Bludger came hurtling out of nowhere. Emma hastily took the shot and dove to avoid the Bludger, which had been hit by a very smug-looking Melody. The Bludger did the trick; Sawyer's shot was clumsy, and Gryffindor Keeper Anthony Brown snatched it neatly out of the air. He passed it on to Arabella Figg, who made quick work of handing it off to Alina Archer before weaving out of the chaos in the Gryffindor end toward the Ravenclaw goalposts.

The Gryffindor attempt at scoring was unsuccessful as well, much to the disappointment of the scarlet blob on the western side of the stands. The game continued in an agonizing string of near-misses for nearly half an hour before Ravenclaw finally claimed the first goal. Lily screamed with the rest of her section as Emma Sawyer took a victory lap for her hard-earned score, but then Lily made the mistake of glancing up at James, who pounded on the end of his broomstick in frustration and dove down to have a quick word with his team before play resumed. Lily suddenly felt a twinge of disappointment at the goal, but quickly forgot it as Ravenclaw scored again—and then again—and then once more before Gryffindor finally managed a response.

Sirius and Melody practically manhandled the Ravenclaw Chasers with several extraordinary Bludger shots, giving Mundungus Fletcher a chance to snatch the Quaffle away from Louis Gladgrow and streak down the pitch toward the scoring end. Mundungus smartly tossed the Quaffle to Alina Archer as a Bludger came zooming toward his head, and Alina took her first good scoring chance of the game to blast one through the right-hand goalpost—a brilliant shot that the Ravenclaw Keeper's outstretched hand only missed by inches.

"Ooh, and a _splendid_ shot by Archer gives Gryffindor its first score of the game! Forty-ten, Ravenclaw lead!" Charissa gushed.

"Looks like Gryffindor's finally decided to put up a fight, eh?" Lily yelled over the noise, grinning. She nudged Mimi in the ribs when Mimi didn't answer, and Mimi barely flinched. "You okay?" Lily asked, managing to tear her eyes away from the action, and she saw that Mimi wasn't paying attention to the match at all.

"Hm?" Mimi managed, absently, and looked over at Lily with a vague expression in her eyes. Lily sighed.

Mimi's eyes had been trained, somewhat obviously, on a scarlet-clad figure in the front row of the Gryffindor section. Lily watched for a moment as Remus whooped in joy (Gryffindor miraculously got its second goal of the game just seconds after scoring the first), and then she looked back at Mimi, who had a deeply pathetic look on her face.

"Have you talked to him lately?"

Mimi sighed and shook her head. "He hasn't given me a chance. Every time I try to talk to him, he—" she shrugged helplessly. "What can I say? He's a Marauder, he knows more secret passages than Filch. He disappears every time I try to catch his eyes and I just…can't keep up with him to catch him alone."

Lily mulled this over for a moment. "Have you tried ambushing him in MHQ?"

"Well…well _yes_, but he's almost never in there and the one time I _did_ manage to catch him, he hurried out before I had a chance to say anything. And…and they changed the password last week, so I can't get in anymore."

The crowd erupted around them in cheers as Ravenclaw scored another goal, and the last of Mimi's words were drowned out.

"_What_?" Lily yelled. Mimi waited for the noise to die down and then repeated her statement. Lily frowned. "Why didn't you just ask me what the new password was?"

Mimi shrugged, looking back over at Remus. "Dunno."

"'This is an annoyingly complicated password.'"

"What? The new password for MHQ is?"

"Yeah. That's it." Lily returned her eyes to the action and became momentarily distracted as both Seekers shot off toward one of the Ravenclaw goalposts. She sighed disappointedly when it turned out to be a false alarm.

"Well?" Mimi prompted.

"Well…well what?" Lily blinked and stared at her with blank green eyes.

"Aren't you going to tell me what the new password is?"

"I just did!"

"I must have missed it."

"Oh, sorry. 'This is an annoyingly complicated password.'"

Mimi blinked and stared at her. "Yes…you said that already."

"That's the password."

"The password is 'an annoyingly complicated password'?"

"No, no… '_This_ is an annoyingly complicated password.'"

"So… 'This is an annoyingly complicated password' is the new password for MHQ?"

"Exactly," Lily agreed, thrilled to be done explaining herself. She returned her attention to the Quidditch match.

"That _is_ an annoyingly complicated password," Mimi muttered, and she rejoined Lily in watching the match, only occasionally allowing herself to be distracted by the brown-haired Gryffindor boy screaming his lungs out in the first row.

* * *

Lin was sitting with Anthony, Bridget, and Jen, one of Bridget's friends. She sat wedged in between Anthony and Bridget, which was turning out to be rather annoying, as the two had very different opinions about Quidditch and insisted on arguing about the game over Lin's head practically nonstop. Lin attempted to tune them out by focusing alternately on the Quidditch game and the fact that Anthony's hand was currently wrapped around hers, but she was only mildly successful. Mostly her mind was boggled by the extreme boring-ness of their endless chatter about defensive schemes, Beater strategies and Keeper follies. Jen, it seemed, was too enthralled with the game to notice. 

Several rows behind them, Lucy sat with her Fully Pure Club friends, glowering down at Lin and Anthony's interlocked hands. Twice, Gillian tried to comment to Lucy about the Quidditch match before she realized that Lucy wasn't paying attention.

"What are you—oh." Gillian rolled her eyes. "Lucy, I know you like him and everything, but…if he's going to associate with _them_ don't you think it's better for you to just forget about it?"

"I don't get it!" Lucy fumed. "What has _she_ got that I don't? She has no family—no connections—no nothing—and besides, she's an absolute raving lunatic! All those _visions_ she claims to have, and yet she never even _predicts_ anything—it's not as though she's a Seer or something—and she's not even that _pretty_, is she?"

Gillian sighed. Lucy was in a particularly nasty mood this week; her father was facing an inquiry at work (though about what, she wouldn't say) and she'd gotten particularly bad marks on her last Charms exam. "No, I s'pose she isn't very good-looking," Gillian agreed absently, her eyes trained back on the Quidditch match. She winced suddenly as James Potter nearly got decapitated; he'd apparently been en route toward the Snitch and the Ravenclaw Chaser had been too far away to compete with him for it, so one of the Ravenclaw Beaters lobbed a Bludger in Potter's general direction to prevent him from ending the game.

"And she hasn't got _any_ fashion sense," Lucy added sourly, pursing her lips.

Gillian thought she heard an irritated sigh coming from the other side of Lucy.

"Maybe," Rachel said, sounding a little impatient, "you're simply not Anthony's type."

Lucy snapped her gaze over to Rachel fiercely. "What are you saying? Do you think _I'm _not smart and pretty enough for Anthony?"

"I'm saying I don't think that's got anything to do with it! I know Anthony's good-looking, but that doesn't make him shallow. Maybe he just likes Lin because she's _Lin_."

"But—but—but what's there to _like_?" Lucy sputtered. "You said it yourself, didn't you, Wendy?" she demanded, leaning back to see Wendy, who was on the other side of Rachel. "She got all weird and moody and dark after her family died—didn't she?"

Wendy shrugged uncomfortably. "Yeah…pretty much."

"Doesn't sound to _me_ as though she's got much personality at all," Lucy sniffed.

"Well, maybe she's gotten better," Rachel suggested. "Who knows? But whatever the case, I really think you ought to get over it."

Lucy looked deeply affronted. "Just whose side are you on, anyway?"

"Whose side—_whose side_—what _is_ it with you and sides?" Rachel snapped, her face suddenly pink with anger. "You're on the right _side_ if you're in the FPC, you're not on our _side_ if you're a Muggle, we're not on You-Know-Who's _side_—honestly, Lucy, what makes you think it _matters_ so much?"

"I—you—sides are—sides are _all_ that matter!" Lucy spluttered. "We're in the middle of a _war_!"

"No we're not," Rachel said bluntly. "_We_ aren't in the middle of anything. _We _are fourteen-year-old half-trained witches who haven't got any business sticking our noses into things we have absolutely no control over."

This statement seemed so obtuse that Gillian, Wendy, and Lucy could do nothing but stare at her.

"Rachel," said Gillian, who recovered first, "I think you've missed the entire bloody point."

"We're going to be out in the world _eventually_," Wendy pointed out, "and what are we supposed to do then? Turn our backs on everything that's been going on?"

"Don't be silly, that's not what I meant," Rachel snapped, turning back to the game. "I only meant that if you want to _actually_ do something about the war we're _eventually_ going to have to face, then what you're doing with the FPC is a complete waste of time."

"How can you say that? It's all about _networking_—about knowing who you can _trust—_about—"

"About excluding perfectly nice, good people just because of who their parents were?" Rachel exploded. "About deciding you can only _trust_ people who are just like you? Who have the same views as you, who have fathers in the Ministry like you or—or—who _suck up _to you because they think you've got connections, or because you're pretty or—I don't know what—and frankly, I don't know why some of these people even _bother_. Your opinion is no more or less important than anyone else's, Lucy, and the sooner you get that through your head, the sooner you'll be able to do something worthwhile instead of acting like a big whiny _git_ all the time!"

Rachel had, apparently, been wanting to say this for quite some time, because when she was finished she looked neither regretful nor uncertain. She stared at Lucy head-on, brown eyes blazing, nostrils flared in an eerie kind of triumph. Lucy gaped at her, painfully aware of the number of people who had turned to watch their argument, including, several rows in front of her, Jen, Bridget, Anthony, and Lin.

"Well—I—that's—you—you're completely out of line!" Lucy managed, her cheeks flaming. She was unable to hide the hurt in her voice.

"Brilliant," Rachel said, still with that same vicious blaze behind her eyes. "You know something, Lucy? _I don't care anymore_. And this is all killing you because you know I'm _right_."

"I don't think we know anything of the sort!" said Gillian shrilly. "I think _you're_ just jealous because you didn't think of it first."

Rachel barked out a laugh. "Your brain would collapse if it tried to hold half the thoughts rolling around inside my head, Gillian. You don't have the slightest _inkling_ of what I think or what would make me jealous."

Rachel stared Lucy down for one long moment, the Quidditch match forgotten amidst their anger.

"Fine then," Lucy spat. "Since we're all such big idiots, why don't you just go sit somewhere else? _We_ certainly won't miss your company."

"Yes, I think I will," Rachel said airily, and with that she squeezed out of their row and disappeared into the stands.

Lucy, still hurt and bewildered, attempted to trace the steps of her former best friend through the crowd, but she was immediately distracted by the great roar of the Gryffindor crowd as James Potter went into a spectacular dive, starting from a hundred feet above the rest of the match. Lucy watched numbly as he streaked down, down, down—he weaved in and out of the action, dodged one Bludger—then another—the Ravenclaw Seeker had apparently seen the Snitch too; he was right on Potter's heels—then—

* * *

Lily's breath had become permanently jammed somewhere in between her mouth and her lungs. It often took her a whole minute just to remember that she needed to breathe at all. This was easily the most nerve-wracking game of Quidditch she'd ever watched, and it didn't help that she couldn't quite make up her mind who she was cheering for. Every time James or Sirius or Melody did something brilliant, she wanted to cheer with the Gryffindors. Every time Ravenclaw scored, she jumped up and cheered enthusiastically with the rest of her House. 

But then the final moment came, and she couldn't sit on the fence any longer. James threw himself into a spectacular dive, right in the midst of a gaggle of Chasers all convening on the Quaffle, and all of Lily's bodily functions seemed to cease. She clutched at her necklace instinctively, holding the "L" pendant in between her fingers and whispering words of nonsense under her breath, urging James on, advising him not to crash and die, praying that he'd get the Snitch—

The Ravenclaw Chaser was right behind him, but Lily didn't care, she didn't pay attention—James was a better flier, James was thirty feet ahead—James would grab the Snitch and soar back up into the stands triumphantly, providing he didn't face plant right into the ground—

Lily seemed to go numb for a moment as James stretched out his right hand—the noise of the crowd roaring around her seemed to momentarily die out—she clutched her necklace tightly and stared with all her might as James's fingers grew ever closer to the fluttering golden ball—closer—closer—

Lily closed her eyes as a great jolt ran through her. Her necklace glowed in happy warmth beneath her fingers and for a second she could almost swear she felt the cool round sphere of the Snitch in her hand….

Then the stands erupted into life around her. The Gryffindor section was a mass of absolute chaos—scarlet-clad figures were jumping up and down, shrieking, hugging each other, sending red and gold sparks into the air—someone conjured a great sparkling lion's head and sent it soaring around the stands, roaring in victory—Professor McGonagall seemed to be jumping up and down in the commentator's booth, and Lily—Lily entirely forgot herself.

Not caring anymore that she was entirely clad in blue or that she was supposed to be disappointed at Ravenclaw's loss, she plunged into the crowd and allowed its momentum to carry her down the stairs and onto the pitch, where the Gryffindor team was being congratulated by a gaggle of enthusiastic fans. Lily shoved her way through the blob of scarlet to the seven screaming lunatics with broomsticks and practically threw herself at James. He, too, seemed to forget for a moment that she wasn't in Gryffindor, because he picked her up and twirled her around and kissed her without any hesitation at all, as though it was perfectly obvious that Lily supported Gryffindor's win and that she had been secretly cheering for them all along.

James set her down and she looked up into his face, laughing. She couldn't quite remember seeing James look so positively…_giddy_. He bent down to kiss her cheek and then whispered (or attempted to whisper; whispering wasn't really a practical possibility with the noise of the crowd around them) "ginger root" into her ear, before turning around to whoop in joy with his teammates. Lily laughed as she watched them retreat, leading the way back to the Gryffindor Common Room for what would surely be an excellent party. She grinned as the crowd thinned around her and a group of disappointed Ravenclaws appeared at her back.

"Enjoying yourself?" Mimi asked, sounding slightly put out.

"You might say that. Listen—would you mind if I ran ahead? I think…I think I've got a little party to go to."

"Go on," Mimi sighed. "I'll see you back at the common room later?"

"Yes—we'll have a chat then, all right?" Lily called over her shoulder, already heading back to the castle. Mimi nodded and waved her on, and Lily wasted no time in hurrying back up to her dormitory. She quickly donned different-colored robes and headed to Gryffindor Tower, where the password "ginger root" admitted her into a frenzy of scarlet and gold.

James was waiting for her. He took her hand as she climbed through the portrait hole and welcomed her once more into his crazy, sugar-drenched, prank-filled Gryffindorian world.

* * *

Lily didn't return to the Ravenclaw Common Room until very late, and so it wasn't until the next morning that she remembered about her letters from Potions school. Unwilling to make up her mind about any of them, and yet a bit more unwilling to even mention the word "Australia" to James, she decided to write to her mother asking for a bit of advice. She didn't think much of it at the time, nor did she anticipate that her mother's reply would cause a bigger row with her boyfriend than she'd had with him for months. 

But those were worries for next week. At the moment, what with a depressed Mimi and the ever-approaching N.E.W.T.s on her hands, Lily had quite enough to be getting on with.

* * *

The last week of classes before N.E.W.T.s and O.W.L.s commenced in a frenzy of homework. Monday and Tuesday were the last real lessons of the year; after that, all of the teachers threw a flurry of material for review at the students, claiming that it was for their own good and that it would help them on their exams. James, personally, felt that it would have been more helpful for Professor McGonagall to run around the classroom beating them all over the heads with their disturbingly large Transfiguration books than to try to cram seven years' worth of review information into two lessons, but what did he know? He was not, by any means, a professor—nor was he overly concerned about the second-to-last Transfiguration lesson of his life. 

Trying to ignore the fact that he would be leaving Hogwarts for good in less than three weeks, James nonchalantly dropped a small piece of parchment over his shoulder and onto Sirius's desk. Sirius, he suspected, was doodling little pictures of his motorcycle again, rather than re-copying the notes on Invisibility and silent Human Transfiguration that McGonagall had charmed onto the board. James, personally, was doodling the initials _L.E._ onto his parchment and trying to suppress an enormous yawn. Lily sat several seats in front of him, looking miraculously as though she were paying attention.

A crumpled-up piece of parchment came flying over James's shoulder. With a careful (and hopefully attentive-looking) glance up at Professor McGonagall, who appeared to be only halfway through her lecture and nowhere near the point of asking them to get their wands out, James surreptitiously smoothed out the piece of parchment and grinned at Sirius's response.

James had written, _How do you feel about pulling one final prank before NEWTs start next week?_

Underneath, Sirius had scribbled _WICKED_, with several enthusiastic underlines. _MHQ tonight to plan?_

James glanced over his shoulder and nodded briefly at his partner in crime, who grinned wickedly before returning to his doodles.

"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall called from the front of the classroom, and James froze. "Kindly come up here and silently transfigure Miss Fleming into a goat."

James half-suspected that this was punishment for not paying attention, but seeing as turning people into animals had become something of a specialty of his, he felt none too abashed by it. He strolled to the front of the classroom and calmly turned Andrea Fleming, a Seventh Year Hufflepuff, into a rather fine-looking mountain goat.

"Very well, Mr. Potter…and back again, if you would be so kind…."

Andrea was human once more, and she returned hastily to her seat.

Professor McGonagall, it seemed, was not angry with him at all; in fact, James could have sworn he saw her give him a faint smile as he returned to his own seat. Apparently, the Head of Gryffindor House had not quite gotten over the euphoria of the match on Saturday, and was prepared to cut her Quidditch Captain a modicum of slack for passing notes, so long as he could, among other things, still turn his classmates into furry, hoofed animals.

James scribbled the last note he dared before the practical part of the lesson began and dropped it casually over his shoulder onto Sirius's desk.

_Eight o' clock then. No girlfriends._

* * *

"We are here," James began imperiously, "to implore you." 

"Implore us…to what?" Remus asked wearily. He was looking rather careworn these days, and hadn't been in a joking mood since the night he'd attacked and nearly bitten Mimi. Not even the excitement of Gryffindor winning the Quidditch Cup had been enough to bring him entirely out of his funk.

"To act on your sworn duty as a Marauder," Sirius added pompously, bringing a fist to his chest. "To solemnly swear by the statutes laid down by our own loyal Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs—"

"To boldly prank where no student has pranked before—" James added, banging his fist against his own chest.

"To remain vigilant and unwavering in the face of infuriatingly sensible rules, even those that have been thought up for our own good—"

James nodded briskly and cut in again. "To, in short, to swear by that most noble and honorable of all Marauder creeds—the one which we swear by most frequently and effectively, in the way only a true troublemaker knows how to swear—I think you know, dear comrades, to which phrase I am referring…."

"'Bloody hell'?" Peter suggested.

"No, no, Wormtail, not _that_ kind of swearing—" Sirius said, exasperated.

"Honestly, Peter, what kind of filthy rule-breaking organization d'you think we are?" James asked in mock-disgust.

"Oh…you meant the _other_ thing we swear by," Peter said lamely.

"Yes!" James agreed triumphantly. "_And_ _it_ _is_…?" he demanded of them, waiting with an almost theatrical sense of expectation for them to respond.

"That we are up to no good," Sirius, Remus, and Peter finished, with varying levels of enthusiasm, Remus being the dullest and Sirius the most frighteningly eager.

"Look," Remus began, after a moment of silence. "I'm not sure—considering the things that have happened—well—d'you think a prank right now is really such a good idea?"

James nodded as though he'd been expecting this. "We anticipated your reluctance, Moony, and we are thrilled to report that we've come up with an entirely non-violent, inoffensive, unharmful, non-directly-Slytherin related, non-werewolf related, good, clean, wholesome prank that will, among other things: affect many more people than our usual level of prankage, amuse many more people than we would normally be able to amuse, and yet break only about half the school rules we'd normally have to shatter to engage in anything nearly so entertaining—"

"With the added benefit that we likely won't get into as much trouble as we normally would," Sirius interjected. "Especially considering it's going to include us for a change."

"Indeed, Padfoot. Well spoken. And—though it will be tricky to pull off without a hitch—it would be a lovely farewell to the students who have seen so many of our glorious works over the years. Don't you think so?"

Remus and Peter regarded them warily.

"I find it a bit difficult to believe that you've come up with a final prank that can accomplish all that," Remus said finally.

"Curiosity has spoken!" Sirius cried triumphantly. "So you're with us then?"

Remus considered. "Well—if it's not—not going to _harm_ anybody—"

"Excellent! Glad to have you on board. You as well, Wormtail?" James grinned.

Peter twitched uncomfortably. "As long as we're not going to get in _too_ much trouble—"

"Fantastic! We'll have a go of it, then."

"Hang on just a minute, James," Remus protested. "You haven't even told us what we're going to be doing. I'd like a little more description first before—"

"Nonsense!" James cried, looking thrilled. "It'll be more fun if you haven't a clue what's going on until we've got all the supplies here."

"Supplies?" Remus echoed, looking somewhat less sure of the idea.

"Naturally," Sirius replied, whipping out a large scroll of parchment and clearing his throat. "Ahem. Marauders pay attention. We will need the following materials—"

"_Hang on_," Remus said firmly. "Are you forgetting about the massive piles of homework we've all got for tomorrow? I don't know about all of you, but I'm nowhere near finished reviewing my notes for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and if we've got our final review session tomorrow then I want to be ready with questions so Professor—"

"Calm down now, Moony, don't get your knickers in a twist," James said calmly. "Luckily for us, this is a fun activity we can accomplish _alongside_ our homework."

"And, happily, it's something we have two whole nights to complete," Sirius pointed out. "So as long as we get the preliminary supplies in order and get everything rolling for tomorrow night—"

"There's no reason we shouldn't have this whole thing whipped up and coordinated by lunch on Friday!" James concluded triumphantly.

"Lunch on Friday? Really, _what_ are we—" Remus began, but Sirius cut him off again.

"All in good time, Moony, all in good time. _Now_ then—the following supplies must be obtained by the various members of the Marauder crew." Sirius held up the scroll of parchment so that it blocked his face. "Master Moony! Kindly report with your cauldron and some of your finest potions ingredients. Master Prongs?" Sirius prompted, sticking his nose over the top of the scroll, and James brandished a smaller piece of parchment containing a list of the necessary Potions ingredients, which he handed to Remus. Remus accepted the piece of parchment rather reluctantly and frowned as he read the list.

"Master Wormtail!"—Peter squeaked in response—"Kindly procure your copies of _Advanced Potion-making_ and _Confoundingly Complicated Upper-Level Charms_ for us." Peter nodded, looking relieved.

"Masters Prongs and Padfoot!"—James snapped rather unnecessarily to attention—"Kindly proceed on specialized mission to the kitchens for goblets and pumpkin juice."

Remus and Peter exchanged rather bewildered glances.

"No questions!" Sirius cried, rolling up the scroll of parchment off which he'd been reading and which, upon further inspection, proved to be entirely blank. "All will be revealed in due course. For the moment, however—"

"Marauders, move out!" James cried, in the most military-like fashion he could muster, and he and Sirius marched rather ridiculously out of MHQ, leaving behind an extremely skeptical and bewildered Remus and Peter.

* * *

The potion-brewing and goblet-charming took rather longer than expected, and resulted in a very late Thursday evening, but on Friday afternoon the Marauders proceeded with their most complicated prank to date. 

"Have you got it, Moony?" James hissed under his breath as they walked into the Great Hall, following a particularly brutal end-of-term Potions lesson. Remus nodded solemnly and patted the pocket of his robes reassuringly. James then traded significant glances with Sirius, who also nodded and patted his own pocket confidently. Peter had long ago done his part, and his job at present consisted mostly of trying not to look too eager.

"What's going on?" Lily asked absently, fishing through her Bottomless Bag for something.

"Food, that's what," James said swiftly as they neared the Gryffindor table. It was somewhat trickier pulling the prank at this particular lunch break than it might have been, seeing as the Marauders shared Potions class with Lily and Melody, and there was no good way to ditch them and sprint to the Great Hall to set things up without them. The Marauders, therefore, had planned to covertly execute the prank right under the girls' noses.

"I hope they've got turkey," Lily said vaguely, still rifling through her bag. "I've been craving turkey."

"Turkey. Absolutely," James repeated as they sat down, but he was distracted by the first phase of the Marauders' prank. Sirius produced a goblet from the pocket of his robes, and Remus swiftly pulled out a small vial of the potion they'd whipped up the previous night.

Lily didn't notice the mysterious appearance of the goblet or the surreptitious tipping of the potion into the goblet, but she did notice James's violent lunge for the pitcher of pumpkin juice as food and drink magically appeared on the table.

"Thirsty?" she asked, half-amused, as James sloshed pumpkin juice into the goblet until it was nearly overflowing.

"Parched," James replied, hoping his voice sounded vaguely raspy. "Care for some pumpkin juice, Lily?"

"All right then," Lily agreed, finally abandoning the search through her bottomless bag. She tied it shut and shoved it under the table as James filled her goblet, then happily seized one of the turkey-pastrami sandwiches that sat on the platter before her. "Excellent," she said, before taking an enormous bite.

"Here, Lily, wash that down," James said, shoving the goblet of pumpkin juice into her hand.

"Ffanks," Lily managed, but she looked at him oddly.

James looked away quickly, determined not to let his excitement show. He passed the pitcher of pumpkin juice along to the rest of the Marauders and waited until all of them had filled their goblets before nodding briskly. As one, the Marauders took up their goblets of pumpkin juice and drained them.

_There_, James thought, setting down his goblet with a decisive _thunk_. _It's all even now_.

He watched happily as Lily washed down her first bite of sandwich with a large swallow of pumpkin juice, and then glanced around as the first effects of the potion started to take place. Shrieks of laughter, surprise, and then astonished horror echoed off the walls as, all over the Great Hall, people who had drunk the enchanted pumpkin juice began to shrink.

* * *

Just moments after Lily swallowed her first gulp of pumpkin juice, she began shrinking. The table became higher and higher, rising up at an extraordinary rate, and everything about her was becoming rather smaller—her arms and legs were shorter, her head and her waist were shrinking slightly—even her chest was flattening out and becoming more prepubescent by the second. Across the table from her, Melody was giggling ridiculously. 

"Lily, what's the _matter_?" Melody asked, trying to sound concerned, but she couldn't hide the laughter from her voice.

All around the Great Hall, people were crying out, clearly astonished, and Lily whipped her head around to see that, at every House table, dozens of people were succumbing to the same shrinking effects Lily was experiencing. It took Lily a long moment to realize that she'd stopped shrinking, and another moment to realize that James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter—who were sitting off to her right—were all positively dying with laughter.

"James Christopher Potter!" Lily shrieked, in a much higher-pitched and girlish voice than she was used to having. She was rather astonished to see that James, even in all his amusement over the situation, was looking quite a bit smaller and—did he look younger?—himself. "What in the name of Merlin's beard have you _done_?"

James, between fits of laughter—which were rather higher-pitched than Lily was used to hearing from her boyfriend—managed to get out, "Reverse—Aging—Potion!" before collapsing against the other Marauders, who could only manage to sit upright and look around for a few seconds before falling back onto each other in laughter again.

"Reverse Aging—what—in the _pumpkin juice_?" Lily demanded, her voice squeaking in a way that it hadn't since she was eleven years old.

"Uh-huh," James managed, nodding and wiping tears from his eyes. He also sounded as though he were eleven—and, more to the point, he looked it. Despite his youthful appearance, however, Lily felt not a trace of sympathy for him, nor did she find his prank nearly as amusing as he did, and so she felt no remorse at seizing the ill-fated pitcher of pumpkin juice and dumping its contents violently onto James's head.

* * *

The effects of the Reverse Aging Potion could not be sorted out immediately—although, James assured the student body, they would not last much longer than the end of this afternoon's lessons—and so it was that half the students at Hogwarts (and some of the Professors, to boot) exited the Great Hall looking six years younger than when they had entered. For some of the First Years, this meant having to toddle off to class looking five years old, shouldering book bags that were nearly bigger than they were. (In such cases, the students were allowed to place Weightless Charms on their bags before heading off to class.) For many of the Seventh Years, this meant going off to class looking as though they'd only just completed their first year at Hogwarts, which many of the teachers could not help but find humorous. 

The most amusing bit of the prank, perhaps, was not that so many of the students had ingested the Reverse Aging Potion, but that an equal number of their classmates had not. About half of the N.E.W.T.-level Transfiguration class that afternoon looked as it normally did: like a group of seventeen and eighteen-year-old witches and wizards ready to take their exams and tackle the real world. The other half of the class looked like a bunch of surly First Years, some of whom seemed bent on hexing the living daylights out of James Potter and his friends, but some of whom seemed to find the whole thing rather amusing.

Professor McGonagall, who had herself drunk the enchanted pumpkin juice, had a couple fewer gray hairs on her head, but otherwise looked much the same as she had the entire time the Seventh Years had known her.

"Welcome to our last Transfiguration class," she greeted them, looking slightly less stern than usual. "I would like to begin by saying that it has been a privilege teaching the lot of you, and in a few specific cases"—her gaze landed briefly on James and Sirius—"something of an experience. I am very pleased at how each and every one of you has progressed from your First Year"—her mouth twitched in unmistakable mirth—"to this N.E.W.T.-level class. As you all received an 'E' or 'O' mark on your O.W.L.s, I expect nothing less of you during the N.E.W.T.s. I am quite happy with your progress these past two years, and I wish you the best of luck as you finish your time at Hogwarts and move out into the greater wizarding world.

"Normally I would take this opportunity to implore you to think back on your first year at Hogwarts, and to congratulate you all on how you've progressed throughout the years. However, it seems that some of your classmates have taken then liberty of bringing your first year rather farther to the forefront of your minds than you may have ever wished." Her eyes lingered on the group of apparently eleven-year-old students in the class. "Although this bout of rule-breaking will not go unpunished, we must acknowledge the unprecedented opportunity it allows us." The class stared at Professor McGonagall, feeling rather dumbstruck. To what good use could their stern, no-nonsense Transfiguration teacher possibly put this _ridiculous_ prank of James's?

"Never in my life," stated Professor McGonagall, "have I had the opportunity to teach a First Year student capable of advanced Transfiguration. It is not to be expected, and it would be most astonishing and suspicious if a First Year were capable of performing any one of the spells each of you has mastered in N.E.W.T. level. However, while we have this most unique opportunity…Miss Evans, if you would be so kind."

Lily shot James a furious glare and marched purposefully to the front of the room, feeling preposterously like a midget.

"Please Transfigure my desk," Professor McGonagall requested, indicating the large piece of furniture that, for today, was only a foot shorter than Lily, when normally it only came up to her thighs.

"Into what?" the childlike voice of an apparently eleven-year-old Lily Evans asked.

"Anything you like, so long as the spell is silent."

Lily, whose mop of red hair now cascaded around her shoulders and ended past her waist (instead of stopping just below her shoulder blades), turned her very freckled face toward James, who was happily swinging his feet (which now only just hit the floor) under his chair. She silently and furiously thought of the Transfiguration spell, and pointed her long willow wand at Professor McGonagall's desk. _You're going to get yours, James Potter,_ she thought, just before a jet of white light burst from the end of her wand and hit the desk, Transfiguring it into a beautiful tawny doe.

There was something eerily awe-inspiring about seeing an eleven-year-old perform a N.E.W.T.-level spell, and it seemed to have the effect on the class that Professor McGonagall desired. "Now then," she said, indicating with a nod that Lily should return to her seat. "Kindly take your inspiration from Miss Evans and perform the list of spells on the board, beginning with the one that was just performed." McGonagall flicked her wand and a list of complicated Transfiguration spells appeared on the board. "When you have completed this review and had all your Transfigured items properly approved by me, you may go." She flicked her wand, and boxes containing all the necessary supplies appeared on either side of the room.

Lily refused to speak to James for the rest of the lesson, but she sat right across the aisle from him, and engaged in a sort of silent war with him for the remainder of the period. Each object that James Transfigured, she attempted to Transfigure better, or with more flourish, until finally she Transfigured one of her classmates into a great purple peacock that had such large plumage it filled up nearly half the room and disrupted a number of her classmate's spells. James sniggered as Professor McGonagall gave Lily an exasperated scolding, and after she had gone, Lily angrily conjured up several large flies that she enchanted to buzz around James's head for the rest of the lesson.

When Lily finally had all her Transfiguration spells approved, she hastily packed up her bag and hurried from the room. Unfortunately, James—who was still, infuriatingly, more at ease with Transfiguration than Lily—finished just behind her, and hurried to catch up.

"Lily! Come on—wait up! You can't be mad at me forever, you know," the eleven-year-old James informed her.

"Oh yeah? Says who?" Lily demanded in an exceptionally juvenile tone of voice.

"Says _me_, that's who," James said, grabbing her arm and turning her to face him.

Lily glared down at him and opened her mouth to retort angrily, but stopped short when she realized something. "You know—I'm taller than you like this."

"You are not," James said quickly, straightening up. It didn't make all that much of a difference, however—Lily was still about an inch taller than him.

She grinned, amused for the first time since lunch. "You are _too_." She straightened up and stood on her tiptoes, peering over James's head. "Hey—I can't do this normally. This is pretty cool."

"Stop it. You are _not_ taller than me. You just—think you are," he protested lamely.

"I am too, shorty," Lily said, returning to the flats of her feet and poking him in the arm. "That's what you get for reverse-aging me, you know."

"What, a poke in the arm?"

"_No_—an inferiority complex." Lily smirked and tossed her insanely long-looking hair over her shoulder.

"Has your hair always been that long?" James demanded.

"No, silly—it just looks longer because my waist is shorter."

"Oh." He rocked back and forth for a moment, considering. "So are you still mad at me?"

"Mad at you? Of course I am!" Lily said, remembering, and she turned away and continued walking down the hall.

"But _why_? Don't you think it was at least a little funny?" James caught up with her and seized one of her hands.

"It's funny that I'm taller than you," Lily said thoughtfully.

"_Besides_ that," James said hastily.

"I think—well, I think—" Lily cut herself off, apparently reluctant to voice her true opinion.

"Yes?" James prompted, looking eager. Lily trained her eleven-year-old eyes onto his and considered.

"I think you should have let me in on it!" she burst out finally, and pouted as only a child can pout.

James looked stunned for a moment, and then laughed. "Lily—you are positively the most brilliant girlfriend in the world."

"I—well—you—" Lily spluttered, but she didn't get a chance to say anymore, because just then, quite suddenly, James grew. He shot up over her head so that he was truly taller than her once more, and Lily absently noted that her hand seemed to shrink inside his as his palms grew bigger. Before James reached his proper height, Lily began to grow as well. She shot up next to James and her robes fit her correctly once more as she filled out in all the appropriate places. Her hand reclaimed its normal size and fit itself comfortably inside James's as they both reached their normal proportions.

James grinned, looking pleased with himself. "See? That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

Lily declined to answer directly. "How'd you do it, anyway?" she demanded, still a little miffed.

"Ah, yes, you wish to know our brilliance!" James grinned cheekily and Lily rolled her eyes at him. "Well, the Reverse Aging Potion was the simple part—that's easy enough to brew—but the really tricky part was to enchant the goblets so that once we dumped the potion in and mixed it with the pumpkin juice, all the other pumpkin juice poured into any given goblet within the Great Hall would instantly contain the potion as well."

Lily's eyebrows shot up well toward her hairline. "I'm impressed," she admitted.

"Of course you are, it was brilliant," James grinned, and continued quickly as Lily glared at him. "Anyway, we had to use a Protean Charm to sort of make all the goblets mimic the contents of our goblet, but that was tricky, seeing as we couldn't get our hands on all the goblets at once. So we sort of just had to add a little charm that would make the other goblets _recognize_ the contents of this goblet and then decide to mimic it of their own accord…sort of a—a—lemming charm, if you will. _Then_ we had to charm the potion itself with a sort of…automatic refilling charm, so it wouldn't run out…what's the matter? You all right?"

Lily was gaping at him. "James…for someone as brilliant as you, you sure do waste your time on some idiotic schemes."

James looked extremely flattered. "Thanks, Lily. I appreciate that."

"And…" Lily added, still feeling slightly miffed.

"Yes?" James wanted to know, looking smug.

Lily stuck her tongue out at him. "And I still think you should have let me in on it."

"It was a top secret mission! I couldn't betray the trust of my friends," he protested, but he was still grinning and looking immensely pleased with himself.

Lily gave him a somewhat pointed 'I-don't-believe-you' look and turned to continue down the hallway. As James was still holding onto her hand, he followed.

"I s'pose I could've saved myself from having a pitcher of pumpkin juice poured on my head, couldn't I?" he reasoned after a moment of silence.

"Mm," Lily agreed, and after some consideration squeezed his hand reassuringly. With that, Lily and James went back to normal, and as the final effects of the Marauder's spell work wore off all around school, the Seventh Years were propelled most unpleasantly into the agony and frustration of their Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests.

* * *

Lily nearly forgot about her mother's reply. Though she received it Friday morning, she didn't get a real chance to read it until Saturday afternoon, and after she had, she shoved it back into her Bottomless Bag and resolved to forget about it until after exams. 

_Lily dear,_

_I'm so glad you decided to write me about this. This is a big life decision, and I'm thrilled you want my opinion. That said—congratulations on all your acceptance letters! Mrs. Potter has explained about the N.E.W.T.s to me, and I think you're absolutely right in waiting to make a final decision about Potions school until you get your exam results back._

_However, out of all the offers you've gotten from Potions schools so far, I encourage you to strongly consider the offer in Australia. I know that it's far away from home, and please don't think I want you to move so far away simply for the sake of moving. But, Lily darling, it is an opportunity to go to school and start teaching straightaway, and I don't know that you're going to get a better offer than that! _

_Furthermore, although the distance may make things more difficult, I believe it might be better for you to move away for a while. Please, dearest, don't think of it as running away. There is nothing more important to me than the safety of you and Petunia, and with everything that's been going on lately I worry that Britain may not be the safest place for you any longer. Please consider it, for my sake. I wish for nothing more than your safety and happiness._

_Good luck on your exams, and I can't wait to see you soon!_

_Love,_

_Mum_

Lily's insides churned unpleasantly at her mother's suggestion. True, she'd briefly had the same thoughts about moving to Australia herself, but—but _still_. How could she just _abandon_ her home and her friends for money and a job and…

_Poppycock. Don't think about it, _she told herself sternly, shoving the letter deeply into her bag, where it got itself mixed up with books and quills and Charms notes for days until anybody read or even thought of it again.

* * *

It was a mark of the seriousness of the N.E.W.T.s that the deserted classroom Melody and Sirius had holed themselves up in was actually being used for studying. They had shoved several desks together, and the desktops were all strewn with hastily-written and poorly organized Defense Against the Dark Arts notes, which Melody and Sirius were attempting to understand and memorize before ten o'clock, when they were supposed to meet Lily, James, Remus, and Peter in MHQ to do a final review of Potions notes. 

The Seventh Years had sat through their first round of written exams today, which (all things considered) hadn't been exceptionally brutal. The Herbology written exam had been first thing in the morning, followed by a glorious free afternoon and evening of studying for Melody and most of her friends. The Care of Magical Creatures and History of Magic written exams were held in the afternoon and evening, but Melody hadn't pursued N.E.W.T.-level study in either of those subjects, though she vaguely thought James and Remus might have gone to sit for the Magical Creatures exam.

Either way, those exams were over with for now, and weren't really worth worrying about. Melody was far more concerned with getting through her Defense Against the Dark Arts notes and getting through this review session without exploding than she was about whether she'd gotten question seventeen wrong on her Herbology exam.

Melody hadn't been alone with Sirius for weeks, and now that she was, she desperately wanted to talk to him about something entirely non-N.E.W.T.-related, but she wasn't sure it was an appropriate time for her to broach the subject. The topic of marriage had always been tricky to bring up around Sirius, but now it was especially so. When Melody had tried to bring it up again after Frank Longbottom's rather public engagement, Sirius had flatly refused to discuss the matter, and lately when it seemed like group discussion might turn toward marriage, Sirius hastily steered the subject in another direction.

If only Sirius could be a little bit more like James in the matter, Melody thought, sighing. She could have _sworn_ she'd overheard James discussing something about a ring with one of the Marauders last week….

"Sirius, where'd we put those notes on Disillusionment Charms?" she asked absently, trying to keep up the façade of studying.

Sirius glanced up from a paragraph he'd been reading about Dark Detectors and began rifling through a large stack of notes to his right. "I think in here—_somewhere_—"

Melody yawned and leaned back, stretching her arms over her head. "I feel like we've been doing this for _ages_. Maybe we ought to take a break."

Sirius glanced at his watch. "We've only got another hour before we're supposed to meet James and everyone, we should really start cramming—ah—here you go—"

He handed her the stack of notes on Disillusionment Charms and Melody sighed, picking up her quill again. She had a whole scroll of parchment on which she was taking notes of her notes, creating a condensed version of (hopefully) everything she'd need to know for the exam. She spent a valiant minute trying to read the new page of notes before her eyes started drooping and her brain started buzzing unpleasantly. This was a clear sign of overload.

"No, really, Sirius, I _can't_…please let's just take ten minutes…"

"Oh, all _right_," Sirius agreed finally, setting down his quill. He rubbed his eyes and let his head fall over onto the desk. "Naptime," he announced.

Melody giggled and laid her head down as well, but on the opposite side of the desk from Sirius so she could still look at his face.

"You know, I find studying for Defense Against the Dark Arts really frustrating," she commented, reaching over to brush back a lock of dark hair that had fallen over Sirius's eyes.

"Why is that?"

"Because—I dunno—I feel like I basically _know_ all of it, I just…don't know how to _phrase_ any of it, that's all. I feel like I'm constantly second-guessing my definitions and explanations of things, and…well, what's the point of a written Dark Arts exam _anyway_? Shouldn't it all be centered on the practical?" Her reasoning trailed off into a string of mumbling. Her brain really was quite tired—and it was only _Monday_. "Unghhff," Melody grunted, before Sirius had a chance to reply. "I don't know if I can take much more of this."

Sirius sat back up and reached over the desk, gently taking one of Melody's hands in his. "Think of it this way," he said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. "If your brain ends up feeling like a big runny blob of useless jelly when exams are through, then you've done your job."

Melody half-giggled, half-groaned. "I think we're already most of the way there, to be quite honest."

"Excellent. You'll get high marks for sure at this rate."

Melody grinned and wrapped her fingers around Sirius's. He laid his head back down on the desk and they regarded each other for a moment, in an upside-down sort of fashion, twirling their fingers on each other's skin in intimate circles until Sirius took firm hold of Melody's hand and brought it to his lips, kissing the back of it gently.

Melody felt some of the tension leave her body and she sighed and closed her eyes, allowing herself to relax. Her brain still felt like a big pile of mush, but her limbs were far looser, and the crick in her neck seemed to ease somewhat as she closed her eyes and allowed Sirius's thumb to make soporific circles against her palm. When she finally opened her eyes, it was to find Sirius still gazing at her. She grinned faintly and squeezed his hand. "Love you," she whispered, and he brushed his lips across the back of her hand again.

"Love you too," he murmured back, but this time he did not meet her gaze.

"Sirius," she said faintly, looking at him until he looked at her. This was probably a bad idea, but she had to talk about it…she had to know…. "Have you thought much about life after Hogwarts?"

"Of course I have. It's practically upon us, isn't it?"

Melody nodded slightly, and gazed at their interlocked hands. "Have you thought much about…us…after Hogwarts?"

Sirius visibly stiffened. "I…I've…yes, I have."

Melody couldn't hold herself still any longer. She sat up, and Sirius followed suit, but their hands remained entwined on the center of the desk. "And…what do you think?" she asked, suddenly feeling rather short of breath.

Sirius stared very determinedly into his lap. "I think…I think we ought to be together."

A tiny glow of hope sent warmth spiraling through Melody's chest. "Sirius—do you mean to say—"

He looked up at her sharply. "I meant exactly what I said. Nothing more."

Melody's hope flickered and disappeared at the near-scowl on Sirius's face. "Sirius, can we at least _talk _about the subject of mar—"

"I think we've got rather a lot of studying to do, don't you?" he said flatly, withdrawing his hand from Melody's.

"_No_," Melody said angrily, and lunged across the table, taking hold of Sirius's wrist. "I'm sick of you avoiding the subject. I want to know what you think about it. I want to know if we've—"

"I think it should be rather obvious what I think about it," Sirius fumed, looking frustrated that Melody refused to drop the subject.

"Yeah? Well apparently it's not obvious enough because _I need to hear it_."

Melody stared him down, unwavering, and Sirius unsuccessfully tried to withdraw his hand from hers. "I—well—look, since you're so keen on the subject, why don't you tell me what _you_ think about it first? You haven't exactly stated your opinion flat out yet, have you?"

"_Me_?" Melody cried, abashed. "Sirius—if I haven't already made everything perfectly clear to you—" But Sirius looked unconvinced, so she finally relinquished her hold on his hand, got up, marched around the group of desks they'd pushed together, and fell to her knees beside Sirius's chair, grabbing both his hands in hers. "Sirius—for goodness' sake—_I'm in love with you_! I want to be with you—I want to _marry_ you, Sirius, and have a family, and—"

Sirius pulled his hands from hers and dropped his head into them, taking rather forceful hold of his hair. "Merlin's _beard_, Melody, I—I don't know what to—"

But Melody, who felt quite suddenly abandoned, wrapped her arms around herself and shook her head. "I don't know that it matters what you say now. I think…I think I understand you." She couldn't help the silent tears that began dripping down her face.

Sirius glanced up at her and looked positively horrified that she was crying. "Melody—_don't_—" He shoved his chair behind him and dropped to his knees across from her, taking her hands back into his. "Look, I want to be with you, all right? I've said that. I just don't know—_right now_—look, I'm not ready. That much is evident, isn't it? And—and you shouldn't want to be married to someone who's not ready."

Melody knew she was acting like a moron, but for some reason she couldn't stop herself from crying. "I _don't_, but—but _I'm _ready, Sirius, I _want_ to be married—I want to be married to _you_, and I just—I just always thought—" She paused as a particularly vicious sob caught her off guard. "I always thought when I was ready, you would be too."

Sirius held her hands pointlessly for a moment, completely unsure what to say. "I'm—sorry," he managed finally. "I just…I don't know why it's so important to you that this all happen right _now_. We're young, aren't we? We're—we're too young for this sort of thing, really, and why do you want to rush into this when we've got our whole lives ahead of us to—"

"Our whole lives? _Really_?" Melody hissed, her sobs halting suddenly. Her cheeks still streamed with glistening tears, but she had stopped crying. "And how long do you think those lives are going to be, exactly?"

"Well—_long_, we hope—" Sirius stuttered.

"Yeah, we _hope_, but we don't _know_, do we? We're both going to be fighting You-Know-Who after we leave school, aren't we? We're both going to be doing everything we can to save more innocent people from dying? And—and we both know what generally happens to people who get in You-Know-Who's way."

"So what are you saying? You're planning to leave Hogwarts and throw yourself into the path of a premature death?" Sirius's grip on her hands tightened angrily.

"_No—_I'm saying—I'm saying we don't know _what's _going to happen after we leave school—who knows what could be waiting out there for us, and—well—you can't deny the fact that people die every day…people who oppose You-Know-Who…."

"So you're saying this is a reason to rush into some rash decision that will affect the rest of our lives—"

"Rash? You think marrying me would be _rash_?"

"At seventeen, what decision _isn't_ rash?" Sirius bellowed.

Melody's face flushed angrily. "Oh, that's rich—sage words coming from a person who last week thought it would be amusing to turn half the student body into ten-year-olds—"

"Oh, come off it Melody, that's got nothing to do with this, and anyway you can't pretend you didn't think it was funny—"

"Anyway, I don't know why I didn't see it sooner—you're still pulling pranks, you're so immature—probably never crossed your mind to do something responsible like get married—"

"_Responsible_? Married at seventeen? Melody, how do you even know if that would be a responsible decision or not—what if it turned out to be a big fat mistake—"

Melody recoiled as though she'd been slapped. "Mistake?" she echoed, her voice hollow. "Mis—_mistake_? Is that what you think it'd be? Is that what you think _I'd _be?" She slowly withdrew her hands from his. "I see," she said coolly. "I think I see what you mean now. How foolish of me to speak of marriage—what a _mistake_ I've made—"

Instead of crying now, she was shaking. In white-faced fury, she rose from the floor and walked back around the desks, seizing her book bag and tossing parchment, quills, and ink back into it with unwonted venom.

Sirius blanched, realizing his mistake. He leapt from the floor and jumped over the desk, trying to stop Melody from packing up and leaving, but she wanted no part of it and jerked away from him furiously, attempting to go about her packing as though he wasn't even there.

"Melody—_please_—that's not what I meant to say, it came out all wrong—you put me on the spot—_don't go_—I never meant to—Melody, please, _wait_—I love y—"

"You love me?" Melody screeched, wrenching herself away from the grip Sirius was attempting to place on her arm. "Are you trying to say you _love_ me? How could you _possibly_ love me? You don't want to marry me—you think it would all be some big _mistake_—" Hot, angry tears popped into Melody's eyes, and she backed away from Sirius, hoping he wouldn't try to touch her again, because if he did she didn't know what she would do. "If we're too young to handle marriage, how could we possibly be mature enough to handle something as big and complicated as love?" She backed herself up against the door and groped for its handle.

Sirius advanced on her, but she held up her hand, unwilling to hear any more.

"Why don't you just think on that for a while?" she suggested. "Maybe try getting back to me when you've grown up enough to handle it. Wouldn't want you saying anything _rash_, after all—God forbid you make any more _mistakes_," she snarled. Her hand found the doorknob, and she wrenched the door open, slamming it behind her practically right into Sirius's face.

_What a load of shit_, she acknowledged as she strode back to the Gryffindor common room, hastily wiping tears from her face. Whether Sirius wanted to marry her or not, she was still in love with him. _It has to be love_, she reasoned. _It has to be, because nothing else could possibly make me feel this miserable._

* * *

Exams the following day swallowed most of Melody and Sirius's agony, but they could not temper or prevent the argument that disrupted Lily and James's relationship later that evening. 

It happened at around nine o'clock. Lily and James were drowning in Charms and Transfiguration notes, which they'd spread all over MHQ in preparation for their most difficult day of written exams. They were moving along quite companionably until James, rifling through a stack of Lily's Charms notes, found a piece of parchment there that didn't quite belong.

Lily, who was deeply absorbed in her notes on conjuring furniture, didn't notice the look of consternation on James's face as he read and then re-read the parchment several times, nor did she notice when James let the piece of parchment fall into his lap and then gazed at her for a solid minute, dumbfounded.

Just when Lily seemed to be on the verge of understanding her notes, James found his voice. "Lily?" he managed, sounding a bit hoarse.

"Mm?" Lily replied absently, scribbling something down on a spare bit of parchment.

"When were you planning to tell me—bout—this?"

"Hm?" Lily blinked and looked up from her notes, puzzled. As soon as she spotted her mother's letter lying open on James's lap, she knew. "Oh—_oh_—James—I'm so sorry—you really weren't supposed to see that—"

"Clearly," James said tightly, and he picked up the letter and scanned it again. "But this is really very interesting, Lily. See—here—this line about Potions school—in _Australia_?"

Lily winced. "James, please. I know you're upset, but I can explain—"

"Explain _what_? That you've already been accepted to Potions schools all over the world but have mysteriously forgotten to tell me? Or that you're _secretly planning to move to Australia_ and—whoops!—the details just seem to have slipped your mind?" James's face was bright red, but at this point it was difficult for Lily to tell if this was from anger or hurt.

"Well—it's just an _offer_, James—it really doesn't mean anything—"

"Oh, no, of course not! Nothing at _all_, except your mum wants you to take it! Wants you to—to move halfway around the world, leave behind all your friends—and your _boyfriend_—"

"James, it's not like that!" Lily cried, but James was already beside himself. He stood up and began pacing the room furiously.

"You know, Lily, it seems to me that if this were _really_ nothing, you would have told me about it by now. It seems to me that the only reason you've been keeping this from me is because you're seriously considering it, and—and—_Australia_? Lily, how could you be so _daft_?" he demanded, halting and whirling to face her.

Lily's cheeks heated angrily. "It's not _daft_, James—if you'd seen the letter from the school you'd know it wasn't—and I'm not trying to keep things from you, it's just that I…I'm just…there's a lot going on right now, and I'm uncertain—"

"_Uncertain_?" James repeated incredulously. "I don't understand why you're contemplating the offer at all! It's _halfway round the world_, Lily, and—"

"Yes, it is halfway round the world!" Lily agreed shrilly, and she threw the stack of notes on her lap aside and stood to face James. "Thus the basis of its appeal!"

James jerked and stared at her as though he'd been slapped. "Appeal?" he echoed flatly. "I see. So all this—hogwash about moving away from Britain—you're actually taking it seriously, are you?"

Lily didn't know why she was feeling so defensive about all this. She didn't particularly like the idea of moving to Australia herself, and she wasn't sure she'd ever had any real intention of following her mother's advice. The thought of leaving James made her stomach curdle, and she couldn't quite imagine truly choosing to turn her back on her home—her friends—her boyfriend—

But stupid _James_ was the one being daft about all this, wasn't he? He was the one attacking her—he wouldn't even _listen_ to her—and on top of that, Lily's brain already felt so befuddled by Charms notes she wasn't sure how much rationality she had left in her. She was tired, she was hungry, she was stressed out from N.E.W.T.s, and right now the last thing she needed was James questioning her and insulting her mother's advice.

"You know what, James? Maybe I _am_!" Lily yelled, taking several steps toward him so she could scream properly into his face. She felt like a dirty liar the moment the words left her mouth, but she couldn't help herself. She felt immensely, twistedly satisfied at the look of furious frustration on James's face.

"But—but _Lily_—" he sputtered, "what about _us_?"

"Oh, what _about_ us?" Lily snarled, feeling quite nasty.

James blinked and stared at her, looking struck, and most of the color seemed to drain from his face. "You don't mean that."

Lily fidgeted uncomfortably, unwilling to lose her ground. "Well—well maybe I do," she lied, feeling like an idiot, but James didn't seem to think she was lying at all.

"Lily—how can you _say_ that? Don't you want to be with me after Hogwarts?"

"Well—I do, but—but—" Lily flustered, cheeks blazing. Perhaps she'd gone too far, but she wasn't quite sure how to turn back now. "But it is a wonderful offer in Australia and this is a very important decision I need to make about my life and if in the end it seems like the best thing for me then you're just going to have to deal with it as it comes, all right?"

She said all of this very quickly and in one breath, and after she'd finished she realized, with no small amount of horror, that she'd said "you're" instead of "we're" and had virtually disrespected their relationship right out of existence.

"I'll just have to deal—_I'll_ just have to deal with it, shall I?" James demanded, looking dangerous and pissy again. Lily steeled herself for an attack, but still wasn't quite prepared for the explosion. "So the last few years mean nothing to you, do they? I mean nothing? I'm so inconsequential you can just up and leave for Australia AND NOT EVEN BOTHER TO BLOODY TELL ME ABOUT IT, EH?"

"Well maybe if you didn't have your big fat head so far up your own ARSE, you would've tried to let me explain everything to you calmly instead of MAKING A BIG BLOOMING IDIOT OUT OF YOURSELF!"

"Oh, my head's up my arse now, is it? So I suppose my head's not good enough for you now either? First Britain's no bloody good for you—next my head—well, I suppose after all that Hogwarts is a bit inconsequential to you—you might as well not bother with the rest of the bloody N.E.W.T.s—hell, what do they mean to you anyway? You've already GOT A BLOODY JOB WAITING FOR YOU IN AUSTRALIA—I mean, why stick around really? It's not as though there's anything here you're going to miss—why don't I just go grab some you some International Floo powder right now so you can bugger off? I'm sure your bags are already packed, and—well—it's not as though you've got anyone you might want to say good-bye to, is it? So what are you bloody waiting for? Don't you just want to be ON YOUR MERRY WAY?"

His voice echoed briefly off the walls, and after that the only sounds in the room came from Lily and James's angry breathing as they stared each other down.

James's outburst had only poorly disguised the deep amounts of pain and betrayal he was feeling, but Lily was so hurt by his speech that she didn't quite care how James was feeling at the moment.

"As it happens, James," Lily said, giving an enormous sniff, "my bags _aren't_ already packed." She picked up her Bottomless Bag and made a great sweeping motion with her wand, so that all of her notes flew neatly back in. "But now that _this_ bag's taken care of, perhaps I should go up to my room and sort out the rest."

Lily had no intention of leaving Hogwarts or Britain, but she felt so wounded by James's accusations that she couldn't quite stand being in the same room with him any longer. Plus, she thought as she turned away from him and the first tears began dribbling down her cheeks, she wasn't sure she could handle him seeing her cry.

She left so hurriedly James didn't have time to say anything, and she was so distracted by her thoughts that she nearly bowled over the first person she met in the hallway—Melody, as it turned out, who appeared to be walking in the general direction of MHQ.

"Lily! I heard shouting—what—oh, Lily, what's the _matter_?" Melody cried, noticing the tears on Lily's face.

"It's nothing—I just—I'll explain later," Lily managed, and hurried off down the hallway, leaving a very astonished Melody behind.

* * *

Melody hovered outside MHQ awkwardly for a moment, listening to James curse and rave and knock over what sounded like extremely large pieces of furniture. Then, with one final extremely loud and vulgar curse, there came one last faint _thud_—it seemed James had thrown something against the wall. There was silence after that, and Melody, making what was possibly a very stupid decision, slid open the panel to MHQ. 

She found James stalking around the room, picking up various pieces of quill, impatiently repairing ink bottles, and hastily shoving leafs of parchment back into his bag.

"Um…everything all right?" Melody managed awkwardly, and James scowled up at her.

"Everything's lovely," he spat, and picked up the last pile of parchment, stuffing it rather violently into his bag. "I hope you weren't listening to that," he added, and Melody shook her head quickly. "Good," James said darkly. "Enjoy MHQ. It's all yours." With that, he stalked past her and left.

The room still crackled with eerie tension after he'd gone, and Melody walked around carefully, gently setting right all the furniture. She was prepared to leave the room as it was and find somewhere else to study, but as she turned to go, she spotted something lying near the far wall.

It was a small, innocent-looking black box. This must have been the last object James had thrown, Melody realized, and with a sense of overwhelming curiosity she strode to the wall and picked the box up. It was velvety and rounded at the edges, and even before she opened it, Melody recognized it as a jewelry box, the kind that usually contained—

"Oh," Melody breathed, and clapped a hand to her mouth. Nestled between cushions of black velvet sat an exquisite diamond and emerald engagement ring, sparkling innocently in the firelight.

* * *

The Charms and Transfiguration N.E.W.T.s were so monumentally important Melody didn't have the heart to tell Lily about the ring until they were over. The Charms written exam took place Wednesday morning, followed by a break for lunch, and then Divination and Muggle Studies students sat their tests, followed by dinner. After dinner, all the N.E.W.T.-level Transfiguration students poured into the Great Hall for their written exam. This test was, by far, the hardest they would have to sit, and certainly far more intimidating than the Transfiguration practical they would face on Saturday. Performing Transfiguration spells was one thing—explaining the theory and methodology behind them was quite another. 

Once Melody was finished with her exam, her brain felt like a rather large bowl of pudding. It was a good thing the only exam she had tomorrow was her Herbology practical, or she might not have been able to handle it.

"How'd you do?" she asked Lily wearily as the Seventh Years trudged out of the Great Hall.

"Mmpf," Lily managed, and looked pointedly through her bag for something as James and Sirius walked by.

"Have you talked to James at all today?" Melody asked quietly, and Lily shook her head. Melody sighed. "I know how it is. I haven't spoken to Sirius either."

Lily looked at her curiously. Because of exams, the girls hadn't had a real chance to talk lately.

"Thank _God_ the written exams are over," Mimi said, limping up behind them. "If I have to write one more essay I'll go insane."

Lily and Melody grinned weakly.

"What's gotten into you two?"

"Boy trouble," the girls murmured, and Mimi looked quite unhappily surprised.

"Not—not Sirius and _James_?" she cried, and Melody and Lily looked carefully away. "Well, that just isn't _fair_…I mean, it's one thing that I've been having boy trouble, but you two…."

"No luck with Remus for you yet, eh?" Lily asked, and Mimi shook her head.

"Nah, he's impossible to get alone. I've got—I've got some ideas, though."

Lily and Melody helped Mimi jump the vanishing step halfway up the staircase.

"It seems to me, ladies," Melody announced, sounding quite matter-of-fact about things, "that we need a girls' night. Come on—grab your Herbology notes and we can pretend to study while we chat."

* * *

The girls used one of Lily's private Head Girl rooms to get together and stuff their faces with chocolate while complaining about tests, relationships, and boys in general. Mimi vented her frustrations about Remus, Melody recounted her agonizing fight with Sirius, and Lily produced the letter from her mother and rehashed her rather unnecessary and shameful fight with James. 

"I just—I can't—I have no idea what to _do_ now!" Lily wailed. "He was _so_ furious—and some of the things he said were _so_ hurtful—I just don't even know where to begin."

"So…you don't really want to move to Australia?" Mimi clarified.

"Of _course_ not…I couldn't leave my home…I couldn't just turn my back on everything that's happening…."

"I just can't believe _James_ of all people would be so—so pigheaded about something like this. I mean…well, he's a _boy_, so obviously he's a bit of an idiot, but isn't he normally—you know—sweet?" Mimi ventured.

"Well, he _is_—that's the _thing_—he's very romantic generally…you know, when we're not around other people and everything…but what I still can't get my mind around is that he didn't even let me try to _explain_. He was just so—so _furious_ at the thought of me leaving, like I'd broken some sort of promise to him by writing to my mum about it—by even appearing to consider it—"

"And then he basically backed you into a corner and made you feel defensive about it," Melody summarized.

"Well—_yes_," Lily agreed. "That's exactly what he did. So—so I couldn't just_ let_ him, I had to save face, so I argued back, but—I didn't really mean most of it…."

Mimi sighed. "Boys really are _fantastic_ idiots, aren't they?"

Lily sighed as well, wanting to agree, but she knew James wasn't entirely to blame. "I can't say they're not, but all the same, I should have told him…I shouldn't have let him get to me like he did…I've just been so stressed _out_ this week, and…well…what should I do _now_? I want to talk to him, but I don't even know where to begin. And—I don't know—maybe he's still mad at me. What if he doesn't want to talk to me and we just end up _fighting_ again?"

"Lily," Melody began carefully. "When you two were fighting, d'you think James seemed more…hurt, or more…angry about things?"

"Well…hurt, I guess."

"Like he really didn't want you to leave?"

"Well, of _course_ he didn't want me to leave."

Melody nodded, and began searching through her bag for something. "Yeah. I think…I think I might know why he reacted so…violently to all of this."

Lily and Mimi both stared at her. Melody's hand closed around the small velvet box and she hesitated for a moment. "After I ran into you outside MHQ—after your fight with James—I…um…sort of stood there for a moment and heard James cursing and throwing things around the room. And…and when I went in, he left, and I found…um…I found this." She slowly withdrew her hand from the bag and opened her palm.

Lily froze and gazed dumbly at the jewelry box for a moment.

"Holy poo on toast," Mimi said, and Lily numbly reached out and took the box.

"You—um—you found—you're sure this is James's?"

"Yeah. I think he sort of…threw it against the wall and then stormed out."

"Ah. I see," Lily said blankly, and, with a shaking hand, reached over and cracked the box open. "Ohmigod," she breathed, as a cluster of sparkling diamonds and emeralds came into view. "James was—you think he was going to—I—" Lily's breathing became very uneven, and then, quite suddenly, she was crying. "No _wonder_ he was so upset—I can't believe he—_when_ could he have bought—d'you suppose he was just carrying it around with him and waiting—?"

Beneath her tears, Lily looked at once both miserable and ecstatic. Melody's stomach churned in bitter envy. _Why_, if James was ready, would Sirius not—why couldn't Sirius—

Melody was happy for Lily, but quite suddenly she began crying as well.

"Oh, _Melody_," Mimi breathed, and hobbled over to the couch to give Melody a hug.

"Oh _no_!" Lily cried, when she saw Melody crying as well, and she scooted over on the couch to wrap her arms around both of them. The ring sat sparkling on her lap, and the girls admired it awkwardly, four of six eyes glistening with tears.

"My goodness, we do carry on, don't we?" Melody sniffed, attempting to wipe off her cheeks. Lily and Mimi both laughed briefly.

"You know," Mimi mused, still gazing at Lily's engagement ring, "for as big of idiots as boys can be, sometimes I wonder if girls aren't just as big of idiots as well."

* * *

Mimi had stopped caring that Remus didn't want to talk to her. Well, perhaps this wasn't _entirely_ true, but at the very least Mimi had stopped obsessing over it. She had other things to worry about—like N.E.W.T.s, for example, and her friends…and the Potion she still had brewing that she hoped might help Remus some day, if he ever decided to speak to her again. She desperately wanted to test it, and had the somewhat less-than-brilliant idea that it might be helpful to test it on the scar on her leg. However, she did have enough sense to realize that if something went terribly wrong, she wouldn't be able to properly finish out her exams, so she simply left the Potion brewing and waiting…waiting…waiting…. Mimi had become rather good at waiting.

* * *

On Friday the Seventh Years were put through their paces during the practical Potions and Charms exams, but then they had a glorious evening off to reflect and prepare for the Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration practical exams they had the next day, which would mark the end of the N.E.W.T.s and the beginning of their long, glorious week of freedom before the end of term. 

By Friday evening, Sirius and Melody were on speaking terms again, though they carefully avoided having any real conversations, and Lily and James, though they weren't exactly speaking to each other, had at least begun acknowledging each other's presence. Despite the tension, they were all sharing MHQ and using the space to practice their best hexes, shields, and Transfiguration spells in preparation for the last exams they would ever take inside Hogwarts.

The study session quickly deteriorated, however, into a long-winded conversation about how this was their last night of studying at Hogwarts, and how none of them could believe it was ending. This, in turn, led to a long rehashing of their seven years at the school, and an even longer bout of James and Sirius retelling some of their various petty misdeeds, to great laughter and occasionally great skepticism from the girls.

Although this was a great deal of fun, it did not manage to properly conceal the fact that the relationships of both couples were rather on edge. When they'd finished pretending to study, Sirius and Melody shared only a brief kiss before parting, and Lily and James an even more awkward hug. Ignoring the conflicts hadn't caused them to fade; instead, things felt a little more complicated.

And Melody realized, as she briefly chatted with Lily and then trudged back up toward her dormitory, that she didn't know how much energy she had left to deal with all of this. Sure, she still wanted to be with Sirius, but she couldn't keep banging her head against the wall trying to convince him to do something he clearly had no interest in, and that he was even a little bit—should Melody think it?—afraid of.

Sickeningly, thoughts of marriage these days sent Melody's thoughts drifting to the one person she most sincerely did _not_ want to think about—the one person to whom, coincidentally, Melody could most decidedly become married with very little preamble, or, in fact, consternation from her potential partner. The only problem with this was that Melody was still very much in love with Sirius, and besides the fact that she very much wanted to be married, she still had little desire to marry Lucifer Malfoy.

But she'd found, lately, that she couldn't quite put him out of her mind, and his unread letter had been haunting her thoughts ever since her argument with Sirius.

On Friday night, Melody gave in to her curiosity. She rifled through her trunk and found the letter that she'd shoved in there so many weeks ago. What could Lucifer possibly have to say to her? What could she have to say back?

She cautiously unrolled the scroll, and although the sight of the spindly writing made her stomach lurch unpleasantly, she managed to get all the way through the letter without wanting to vomit—so that, perhaps, was a good sign.

_Dear Melody,_

_Although I hope you have given some thought to my proposal, I have not written you to discuss marriage again. I most enjoyed seeing you over Christmas holidays, and I wonder if you're going to be staying at Hogwarts for Easter holidays as well? If not, you are of course invited to visit me in London._

_More to the point, I recently had a friend come to visit who is involved in professional dueling. I know you have some interest in the sport, and I mentioned your name to him. He has not, as yet, heard of you, but he seemed most interested when I outlined your enthusiasm and your considerable hand at spellwork. (Hans tells me you are a first-rate dueler—are you not?)_

_This friend of mine, coincidentally, owns a firm that manages duelers on the International Dueling Circuit. He professed interest in speaking with you about dueling, and, if your spellwork measures up, his firm might consider managing you during the coming summer tournaments. You would, of course, need a sponsor, and I would be most happy to fulfill that role._

_Looking forward to hearing from you,_

_Yours most sincerely,_

_Lucifer Malfoy_

"Sincerely my ass," Melody muttered, dropping the letter onto her bedspread. Her hands, however, were tingling excitedly, her fingers itching for her wand the way they only did when she had the urge to duel.

This was hardly sinister at all…of course, he had still mentioned marriage in the first line of the letter and he was offering to give her money (like she hadn't heard _that_ one before), but—but still. _Dueling_. How many wizards had the opportunity right out of Hogwarts? And—well—if she _was_ sponsored, it would mean she wouldn't have to worry about finding a job right away, either. The prize money for dueling was nonexistent in amateur tournaments, and hardly substantial in professional tournaments until you reached a certain rank and seed within the International Dueling Circuit, but if she had a good sponsor…a very wealthy sponsor….

Marriage shoved completely out of her mind, Melody impulsively rifled through her trunk again and seized a quill and a spare bit of parchment.

This might be the dumbest, rashest decision Melody had made to date, but she scribbled out a response before she could think about it. _I want to know more_, she wrote, and hastily cobbled together a suitable reply, which she sent off first thing the next morning, not caring how belated her response was or how much of an idiot she was being. If it didn't turn out to be a total load of hogwash, it would be an absolutely amazing opportunity, and if it brought her one step closer to facing You-Know-Who…well, then damn the consequences.

* * *

The Defense Against the Dark Arts practical was a little nerve-wracking, but by the time she was through, Lily didn't care about it quite as much as she cared about getting back into the Great Hall for lunch. When she was finally seated at the Ravenclaw table with a sandwich in her hand and a glass of lovely, non-potion-filled pumpkin juice in her other hand, she felt much better. She'd had an almost constant headache since Thursday evening, and couldn't wait for N.E.W.T.s to be over. _Just one more…just one more…_ she kept telling herself, wearily sipping her juice. 

The part of Lily's brain that wasn't occupied worrying about exams had been buzzing since Wednesday evening wondering what to do about the engagement ring. As far as she knew, James had no idea she had it, and she suspected that by now he would probably realize that he'd lost it and start panicking. But—how to bring it up? "Oh, here James, Melody found this in MHQ…thought you might want it back…thought perhaps you might want to use it to ask me to marry you one of these days…"

Lily snorted and bit into her sandwich. Mimi gave her an odd look, but she ignored it.

Just as Lily was contemplating what life would be like after her last exam ended, screams erupted in the Great Hall, originating from a point somewhere behind her, and Lily whirled around to see that the cause of the commotion was at the Gryffindor Table—and that the girl screaming was none other than Lin, who had doubled over and was now shrieking as though she was being attacked.

* * *

Lin had never had a vision this bad before. One moment, she'd been sitting upright, enjoying a lunch with Anthony, Bridget, and Jen, and the next she was sucked into a vision so rapidly she gasped, and nearly fell face-first into her bowl of soup. Normally during visions she didn't move or shriek, but during this one she convulsed, shaking all over, and screamed uncontrollably as grotesque visions of a man being tortured appeared before her eyes. 

Then, suddenly, images began flashing before her, faster and faster—mental replays of all the visions she'd ever had, in a sort of macabre reel that she couldn't shut off no matter how tightly she squeezed her eyes. Her brain, unable to process all the images and all the pain, went over the deep end. She couldn't stop screaming, and the real world seemed to fade around her as her shrieks grew ever more distressed.

She was completely unaware of Anthony and Bridget on either side of her, shaking her, speaking to her, trying to calm her down, and she was further unaware of the teachers who hurried down from the staff table to see what was wrong. Lin was so deep into her visions by the time they removed her from the Great Hall that she had no idea they'd carried her up to the Hospital Wing, and she had shrieked herself so senseless that she didn't even notice when Madam Pomfrey placed a Silencing Charm on her and drew the curtains around her bed shut, shooing Bridget, Jen, and Anthony out of the ward.

The rest of the school, however, was in a frenzy over Lin's episode. Lin appeared to have lost her mind, and furthermore, her visions usually seemed to indicate that an attack had just been made on the family of someone who was currently attending Hogwarts. The students regarded each other carefully in the hallways for the rest of the day, wondering who it could possibly be, and whose family would be next….

* * *

Exams ended on this somber note. Lily didn't know how well she'd done on her Transfiguration practical and she didn't much care; all she knew was that N.E.W.T.s were over and she couldn't be happier to be finished with exams. She and a great number of the other Seventh Years spent most of Sunday sleeping and lolling about in the Common Room and doing as much of nothing as they could muster. Occasionally Lily took out the engagement ring and gazed at it, wondering how to go about giving it back to James, but mostly she let her mind wander and tried not to think of anything. 

The students had freedom for one more glorious week, and then it would be time to board the Hogwarts Express and ride back to London one last time. What had once seemed an interminable amount of time into the future was now only days away, and whether or not the Seventh Years were ready didn't matter—the end was coming anyway, and there was nothing any of them could do to stop it.

* * *

On Monday morning, the student body discovered which student Lin's vision had concerned. An official-looking owl from the Ministry of Magic swooped over the Gryffindor table and deposited a somber-looking envelope into Lucy Forester's lap. Lucy's entire face went white, and her friends Gillian and Wendy, who were sitting on either side of her, stared at her with horror-struck faces. 

Shaking, Lucy picked up the envelope and fumblingly tore it open. After reading its contents, she burst into tears.

Her father had been attacked. Her father was dead. Lucy's whole world was suddenly empty, and the only thing the Ministry could offer was cheap condolences; they didn't even have the decency to say how he'd died.

Abandoning her breakfast and her bag, Lucy ran from the Great Hall. Gillian and Wendy exchanged a glance and then hurried after her.

Lucy ran up the stairs and tore through secret passageways left and right, making it very difficult for Gillian and Wendy to follow. She did not, however, head for Gryffindor Tower as they'd expected. Instead, she made her way to the hospital wing, where Gillian and Wendy were extremely shocked to find her asking for Lin.

"I don't think she should see any visitors right now," Madam Pomfrey was saying firmly. "She's not in a fit state."

"_Please_," Lucy blubbered. "She saw what happened to my dad—I _know_ it—I need to talk to her—"

Madam Pomfrey's mouth was set into a grim line. "Even if she were in a fit state to receive visitors, I would certainly not permit you to ask questions about any visions she may or may not have experienced. She's upset enough already."

Gillian and Wendy burst into loud protests, and Madam Pomfrey turned on them, hushing them angrily and informing them that their pleas would not help them or their friend gain admittance to the Hospital Wing.

While Madam Pomfrey was busy scolding Gillian and Wendy, however, Lucy slipped into the wing and tiptoed her way over to Lin's bed.

Lin was thrashing about underneath the covers, her mouth opened in a horrible silent scream, the sound of which, Lucy could tell, was being suppressed by spellwork. Lucy tried to speak to her, but Lin didn't hear. Lucy tried to grab her hand and calm her down, but Lin didn't notice. Her eyes were unfocused, her mind seemed unhinged, and she was blatantly unaware of her surroundings.

Lucy's cause was lost. Lin couldn't tell her anything about her father…there was no point being there, no point sticking around. Lucy left the hospital wing, still crying, and Gillian and Wendy hurried after her.

"What was _that_ about?" Gillian demanded, rather heartlessly. Wendy looked somewhat more sympathetic. She grabbed one of Lucy's hands and squeezed it reassuringly.

"I was _wrong_," Lucy sobbed, choking and shuddering as her world came unhinged. "My father's dead. I was—I was wrong about everything, but—Lin, she—_she_ knew what was happening, she's seen what's been happening to people—" Lucy squeezed Wendy's hand very hard, until Wendy thought her fingers might break. "I was wrong," Lucy repeated, looking ill. "There's nothing I can do…I was wrong…and now my father is…my _father's_—"

But she couldn't finish; she burst into wretched sobs, finding it impossible to keep herself together as her world came shattering apart.

* * *

On Tuesday, Lin was sent off to St. Mungo's for intensive treatment. Lucy spent most of the day holed up in the Fourth Year Girls' dormitory, refusing to speak to anybody, but she finally emerged around dinnertime with puffy red eyes and a pathetic look on her face. When she entered the Great Hall, the first thing she did was approach Bridget DeBeauvois and, in a horribly timid and shaky voice, ask if she could sit down and join her for dinner. Bridget, who was too astonished to say much of anything, nodded dumbly. A great paradigm shift seemed to occur as Lucy settled in next to Bridget and her friends and calmly asked Jen to pass her a bowl of broccoli. 

Lily, who was watching them from across the Great Hall, recognized the significance of this moment, and for some reason seeing Lucy communicate humanely with Bridget made her realize, quite suddenly, that she couldn't avoid James any longer.

They hadn't truly spoken since their fight last week, and the ring had been burning a hole in Lily's pocket for days. She couldn't go on agonizing over this, and it seemed brutally unfair to force James to do the same thing, so she finally caved. After she finished eating, she approached the Gryffindor table and asked James if he wouldn't mind taking a walk with her around the lake after dinner.

James still didn't look too keen on speaking with her, but he didn't refuse, and so it happened that after supper, Lily and James were to be found on the far side of the lake, James sitting somewhat distantly on a rock that only had room for one, Lily sprawled out on the grass before him.

"So what's going on, Lily?" James asked, sounding rather as distant as he'd made himself look.

Lily quit picking at the dandelions around her and looked up at James. She had decided that the most direct approach would be the best, and so she wasted no time in explaining herself. "I don't want to fight with you anymore," she said quietly. "I miss you."

"I see," James said stiffly. "So I suppose you're just going to take it all back then? Say that you never meant any of it and that you're not going to move to Australia?"

"Well…yes," Lily said slowly. "Yes. In a way, I am."

"In a way?" James echoed.

"I'm not going to move to Australia. I don't want to move abroad _anywhere_. Britain's my home, and as long as Voldemort's still around, I…I have no business leaving. Besides," she added softly, "I'd be making a huge mistake if I left _you_."

She looked steadily into James's eyes and saw them flicker with emotion.

"So…just like that?" he said. "You're taking it all back?" He still sounded a little defensive, but his expression had softened considerably, and he looked almost—well—_hopeful_ about things.

Lily nodded briefly. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I am. I think we both said a lot of things we didn't mean, and…and I'm sorry for not telling you everything sooner. I just thought—with exams and everything—you had quite enough on your mind."

James considered this and scratched his head uncomfortably. "Well—yeah—I suppose you have a point there." He grimaced, and Lily expected he was thinking over some of the rather vicious things he'd said. "Listen, Lily—I did say an awful lot of things—things that I don't—"

"Hush for a moment," Lily said, holding up her hand. "I think…I think I have something here that can help clarify a lot of things."

James watched her curiously as she pulled the small velvet ring box from her pocket and opened it so he could see the ring sparkling inside.

He blanched.

"Lily, you—_where_ did you—you weren't supposed to see—"

"Now, now, James," Lily said, waving his protests away. "Can't you see there's something important to be done here?"

He stared at her, looking at once uncertain, nervous, and embarrassed.

"Ahem," Lily said, and got on one knee, facing—instead of James—a patch of thin air. "Lily dear?" she said, and then set down the ring, jumping up quickly to turn and face her imaginary kneeling self.

"Yes?" the standing Lily replied, giggling foolishly at the sight of the ring.

She turned around and kneeled again, picking up the ring. "I have something very important to ask you."

She jumped up again and giggled furiously. "Oh—oh my—that's really so beautiful!"

She got back down on her knee. "Will you—that is, d'you think you might want to--?"

Lily stood one last time, and whirled around, staring at the ring. "Yes! Oh—yes yes yes!" She shrieked, picking the ring up and twirling around with it. "Oh—James! Haven't you heard?" she cried, hurrying over to him and making room for herself on the rock he occupied. "Look!" she said, waving the ring in front of his face. "We're going to be married. I'm going to marry—_me_! Isn't it marvelous?" She looked at the ring and sighed, then threw her arms around herself violently, giving herself a massive hug. "I'm so happy!"

James couldn't help himself. He grinned, and then laughed, and then pulled Lily into his lap and wrapped his arms around her, still laughing. Lily joined in, giggling, and slipped her arms around him as well. The ring lay in her lap, still sparkling.

"It's really beautiful, James."

James gazed at the ring for a moment and then, decisively, snatched it up, snapping the box shut and shoving it deep into his robes. "What's really beautiful?" he asked absently.

"I—well—_James_—"

"The lake _is_ rather stunning, I suppose…"

Lily gave him a tight squeeze. "Come on."

James looked at her, _really_ looked at her, for the first time in days, and brought a hand to the side of her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb gently. "I said a lot of things I didn't mean, Lily. I think maybe I ought to grovel at your feet first."

Lily grinned and squeezed him again, affectionately. "Oh no, no groveling required."

"Excellent. Well, even so…" James tilted his head toward hers and kissed her. Lily's necklace glowed happily. It was brilliant to be able to have made up with James so quickly. He seemed to know that Lily, simply from finding the ring, understood a lot better why James's reaction to her mother's letter had been so violent. Lily also realized that James, by taking the ring and refusing to talk about it, was reclaiming his power over the situation. It seemed understood, through their kiss, that James would spring the ring on her again later, when she wasn't expecting it, and it seemed further understood that, however James asked, there was no doubt as to what Lily's answer would be.

* * *

On Wednesday evening, Mimi's potion was finally set to use. It was a gurgling, bluish-greenish substance, and smelled like rotten egg yolk—but sometimes, she'd noted in Potions class, the foulest-smelling potions had the finest results. 

After doing a quick test with her wand to make sure the potion wasn't toxic (it would glow briefly red for a moment if it was), she siphoned off part of the potion into a small vial and attached a small rubber dropper to the top instead of screwing on a cap, so she could administer the potion to her wound in small doses.

Mimi hobbled over to a chair and eased herself into it, unwrapping the nearly-invisible bandages on her thigh that made it appear as though her leg was still normal. In reality, there was still a score of terrible gashes in her thigh where Remus's claws had dug into her, but recently they had begun to close up slightly. If all went well, this potion would accelerate that process, and if not…well, Mimi _thought_ that she had the right substances present to act as antidotes, but she wasn't entirely positive, and she sincerely hoped it didn't come to that.

"Here goes nothing," she whispered nervously, her mind flashing back briefly to the moonlit night and the original potion that had caused all this trouble in the first place. She squeezed the dropper gently and a small drip of potion came out, landing in the smallest of her scars. For a moment, nothing happened—the potion simply spread along her scar, cool and gentle, and for a fleeting second Mimi thought she'd come up with a potion that actually worked.

Then terrible things began to happen. Small boils popped up along the length of her scar, swelling and bubbling, and then finally bursting, releasing pus and blood and that same awful rotten egg yolk smell the potion gave off, and Mimi gasped and clutched her leg in pain as the boils spread, bursting into each of her scars and releasing the foul combination of bluish-greenish pus and dirty looking blood that dribbled down her thigh and streamed all over her calves.

Gasping for breath, tears pouring out of her eyes, Mimi dragged herself back to her potions stores and dumped essence of murtlap on herself, crushing up mint leaves with aloe and smearing them over her leg, but these alleviations to her pain were brief and unsatisfying. The boils continued popping up, mercilessly, and Mimi could do nothing but sob and drag herself across the floor, fumbling pitifully at the doorknob for a long moment before wrenching the door open.

"_Help_!" she wailed into the empty hallway, and the only creature listening was Mrs. Norris, who bounded off immediately. Just seconds later, the caretaker burst from one of the secret passages, wheezing. It was the only time in her life Mimi could remember being happy to see Filch. "Here—help," she gasped, and howled in pain as a particularly vicious boil bubbled up underneath her skin and then burst all over her leg. Pain seemed to explode inside her head, and she sobbed onto the stone floor for a brief moment before she blacked out entirely.

* * *

"We've got to stop coming to see you like this," Melody said, as Mimi blinked open her eyes. Melody, Lily, James, Sirius, Peter, and even Remus were standing crowded around her bed. 

Mimi grinned faintly, vaguely aware that she should still be in enormous amounts of pain, but the lower half of her body had gone mysteriously numb. "You all didn't have to come," she mumbled. "I'm fine, I promise." Her eyes fluttered closed and she had to force them open again.

"Mimi, what on earth were you _doing_?" Remus asked, looking pained.

"Testing potions," Mimi said absently, as though she wasn't quite aware of the conversation.

"On—on _yourself_?" Remus said, looking horrified.

Mimi shrugged limply. "No one else to test them on," she pointed out.

"Jumping toadstools," Remus vented, letting his head fall into his hands.

"Well—at least you're going to be all right, Mimi," Lily said gently. "That's all that matters."

"Was I going to…_not_ be all right?" Mimi wondered.

Her friends exchanged nervous glances.

"Well…there was a period where you were sort of just shrieking uncontrollably, kind of like…like…" Lily trailed off, looking stricken.

"Like Lin," Melody finished.

"But you're all right now," Sirius said roughly, before the girls got too emotional.

"Yeah. All right now…" Mimi agreed vaguely, and turned her head in Remus's general direction. He had taken a seat to her right and still had his head in his hands dejectedly, as though this was somehow all his fault. "So sad," Mimi observed, frowning, and slowly reached out one of her unsteady hands to touch his.

Remus lifted his head and looked at her finally, allowing her to curl her fingers around one of his hands.

"Mimi—what in the bloody hell ever made you think of doing something so _stupid_—" he began, and then choked on his words. He clasped her hand in between both of his and then bowed his head again, resting his forehead against their interlocked hands.

Lily, James, Melody, Sirius, and Peter gazed at each other awkwardly, and murmured unheard good-byes before shuffling out of the hospital wing.

"Sh," Mimi advised gently, once she registered that Remus was crying. "I'm all right. Everything's going to be all right…"

Remus tried to speak but choked on his words instead, and Mimi simply put a cool hand to his forehead and stroked it gently, murmuring words of comfort and occasionally just sounds of comfort until she couldn't speak or keep her eyes open anymore.

And with that, she drifted sweetly off to sleep.

* * *

The end-of-term feast was upon them before they knew what to do with themselves. Lily spent most of the evening preceding the feast running around her dormitory, shoving things back into her trunk in a haphazard manner and trying to ignore how sad she was that this day had finally come. She was leaving Hogwarts behind forever, and…oh well, never mind that sentimental nonsense, she'd have plenty of time for that later. 

Although Lily felt that it was her duty, particularly as their Head Girl, to sit with the Ravenclaws at the beginning of the feast, by the time dessert rolled around she'd happily squeezed herself in between James and Sirius at the Gryffindor table, and was enjoying her last-ever meal at Hogwarts with her boyfriend, trying desperately not to think about how this was her last evening here. James and Sirius were busily stuffing their faces with every manner of dessert they could get their hands on, and Lily and Melody were pointedly sighing and rolling their eyes at them.

Once all their bellies were happily full, and once the platters of cakes, truffles, pies, and puddings had disappeared, Professor Dumbledore stood to give his final speech of the school term—and, to the Seventh Years, his final speech as Headmaster.

"We have reached the end of another year at Hogwarts. To those Fifth and Seventh Year students who have survived their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, I congratulate you." A brief and somewhat unnecessary smattering of applause filled the Great Hall. "I must further congratulate Gryffindor on their excellent performance in the House and Quidditch tournaments. Well done, well done indeed," he said, and the Gryffindor table erupted in cheers, each pair of eyes at the table glancing up proudly at the gold and scarlet banners that decorated the Great Hall.

Professor Dumbledore let them carry on for a moment, and then held up his hands for silence.

"In addition to our merrymaking, however, we must also consider the graveness of the events that occur daily in the greater wizarding world. During the course of this school year, many of you have suffered terrible losses. I do not believe there is a person in this room who has not been affected by the Dark wizard known as Lord Voldemort."

A great gasp and shudder ran through the students at the mention of You-Know-Who's name.

"For those of you leaving us this year, I sincerely hope your seven years at Hogwarts have taught you more than just wand work. We are facing dark times, and I must impress upon each and every one of you the importance of recognizing what is right and doing whatever you can to fight for it. If we are to withstand this attack on wizarding society as we know it, we must stand united.

"For those of you not leaving Hogwarts—I encourage each and every one of you to return to school next year. I know that many of your parents have become nervous and fearful of the attacks that have been plaguing us recently, but I hope that you have all come to understand the importance of an education, particularly in times like these. Please know that as long as Hogwarts remains open, its doors are open to you.

"I wish you all the best of luck in the coming months, and I hope to see your happy, shining faces once more at next year's start-of-term feast. And to the Seventh Years…a fond farewell."

There was a brief moment of silence as Professor Dumbledore's twinkling blue eyes swept the hall, resting briefly on the faces of each and every one of the Seventh Years. Was it just Lily's imagination, or did he actually pause and smile briefly at the sight of Lily sitting inappropriately at the Gryffindor table? But then the moment passed, and Dumbledore clapped his hands and spoke again.

"Now—off to bed you go! Chop-chop! You have a long journey ahead tomorrow."

The spell of silence was broken, and there was a great burst of chatter and scraping of benches as the students moved away from the House tables, and—in the case of the Seventh Years—headed, for the last time, up to their dormitories to sleep.

* * *

Lily couldn't sleep. She still couldn't quite wrap her head around the fact that this was _it_—Hogwarts was over. It was done, done, done, done, done. This was the last time she'd ever sleep in the Head Girl's room—this was the last night she'd ever spend inside this marvelous castle—ever gaze out Ravenclaw Tower's windows onto to school's sweeping lawns and the icy black lake that, tonight, reflected the half-moon and a million shining stars in its inky depths. 

Lily curled up in a seat by the window and tried to imagine a life in which Hogwarts did not participate. She found it impossible, and stopped trying.

Of course she was excited about the prospect of being an adult, of attending Potions school and starting a life with James and having her own flat and whatnot…. But right here, right now, Lily still felt a small bit childlike. It was impossible, now, to separate memories of her youth from memories of Hogwarts, and she found herself reluctant to let those memories go. When the time came tomorrow, she would board the train and not shed a tear as it pulled away from Hogsmeade and began zooming across the Scottish countryside. But for right now…so long as she had the night to herself to think over everything she had to say good-bye to…the tears slipped freely and silently down her cheeks, and she itched for the opportunity to run through the halls of Hogwarts and bid farewell to all the places and people she loved most.

She could not manage, however, to tear herself away from the window, and so she sat there and consoled herself by gazing across the grounds, mulling over the countless generations of students who had prowled the grounds before her, and the hopefully countless generations that were to come.

But Lily wasn't the only Seventh Year at Hogwarts who couldn't sleep, who didn't want to say good-bye to Hogwarts, who could barely resist the thought of running about the grounds to bid farewell to her school. Over by the Quidditch pitch, rapidly approaching Lily's vantage point, were two dark figures that came bounding across the lawns. A great shining stag and an enormous black dog were racing each other across the grass, and Lily laughed as they stopped at the edge of the lake and dove in, splashing each other violently for a moment before streaking off toward the Forbidden Forest.

* * *

The train ride passed in a great blur of sugar and laughter and memories. Lily, Sirius, James, Melody, Peter, Remus, and Mimi all shared a compartment, four squished in on one side and three on the other, and swapped stories and sweets all the way back to London. Every so often, a fellow Seventh Year would stop by to bid them farewell, and the Marauders and their girls greeted each one gaily. Arabella Figg came by first, happily informing them she'd gotten a job at Eeylop's Owl Emporium in Diagon Alley, and urging them all to visit her. Mundungus Fletcher came by next, offering to sell them talismans that he claimed would help ward off Dark creatures and, coincidentally, help prevent dandruff. Being perfectly aware of the bogus nature of Mundungus's schemes, they all politely declined, but Mundungus merely grinned and headed next door to try to hawk the items to a group of Third Years. 

"D'you think we ought to warn them?" Lily asked. They could faintly hear Mundungus giving his sales pitch next door ("Prevents dandruff and wards off hinkypunks, all in one! Even said to slow the growth of unpleasant nose bogeys!"). They all looked at each other for a moment and then burst out laughing.

"Nah," James and Sirius said, waving their hands dismissively.

Matt and Susie came by next to bid farewell to Lily and Mimi. Matt was wearing a pair of musical socks again, but this time he'd enchanted them himself—they played the Hogwarts school song over and over, at various tempos and in various styles. The Marauders twittered excitedly as the socks changed from a slow funeral march to a smooth reggae rhythm, which they all started singing along to, using the walls and floors of their compartment as impromptu bongo drums.

"Oh, yah man, learnin'…learnin'…learnin' til our brains…all rot!" they sang for the finale.

With that, Matt and Susie bid them farewell, holding—as Lily noticed for the first time—hands with one another as they walked down the corridor.

Bridget and her friends showed up next, twittering excitedly about Quidditch, and imploring several of them—namely Lily, whom Bridget had seen nearly die, and Melody, whom Bridget had played Quidditch with—to keep in touch. Bridget's group of friends now most conspicuously (to Lily, anyway) included Lucy, Wendy, and Rachel, and they brought news of Lin.

"She's still at St. Mungo's," Wendy said glumly. "I just wish…I wish I'd had a real chance to talk to her before this happened. After her village was attacked, she wouldn't talk to me anymore, and…things just got so confusing…" She shrugged and stared sadly at the floor of the train compartment.

"Well, at least now," Lily said, trying to sound reassuring, "you'll know what to say to her when she does get better…right?"

Wendy nodded, looking a tad happier at this thought. "Yeah," she agreed. "She's got to get better—hasn't she?"

"Let's hope so," said Lily, smiling.

"Ooh—the trolley's coming down this way!" Bridget exclaimed, looking down the hallway. "Come on girls, I'm starving!"

They left in a great flurry of good-byes, and after they were gone, Mimi said curiously, "So um…who are they again?"

Lily laughed. "It's kind of a long story," she said, waving it away. "They're just…sort of friends of mine."

"That Bridget girl is in Gryffindor," Melody added. "She plays Quidditch. Her father's a professional, he plays for France, he's pretty good…she'll be replacing James next year as Seeker…."

"Hey!" James said, sounding miffed. "She may be taking over as Seeker, but I don't think anybody could ever _replace_ me! I mean—aren't I brilliant?"

"Sure you are, James," Melody said dryly.

"Who won you the Quidditch Cup, eh? Who made that fantastic dive through all the action to grab the Snitch? Who has the sharpest eyes in all of Hogwarts?" he ranted, climbing on top of his seat to gesture.

"Sharpest eyes? Um, that would be me," Lily said calmly, and tugged him back down.

James looked surly, but the rest of the group laughed, and they were interrupted momentarily by the trolley, off of which they purchased another round of unnecessary sweets.

As they stuffed their faces, Peter excused himself for what he promised would only be a moment, but he didn't come back for another hour. Mimi ran off to find some of her other Ravenclaw friends, Lily and James left to "patrol the corridors" one last time, and Remus suddenly remembered that he'd borrowed a book off one of his classmates and never returned it, so he rifled through his bag briefly and set off down the train with the book in hand, leaving Sirius and Melody alone for the first time in days.

They were all right around each other so long as no one in the vicinity mentioned the "m" word, but their relationship as a whole still felt rather rocky.

"So," Sirius managed awkwardly, taking a large bite out of a Chocolate Frog.

"So…" Melody repeated, nodding and gazing out the window. "Um…what're you going to do now? Have you figured it all out yet?"

"Mostly. I think," he said, shrugging. "I'm moving out of my mum and dad's house, that's for sure. I'm going to stay at James's for a while, 'til I find a flat in London. Then…then I've got some interviews lined up, got some tryouts and things."

"Tryouts?" Melody repeated, her interest piqued.

"Erm…yeah. I've been trying to keep it kind of quiet, but um…I've got tryouts for the Wasps in a few weeks, then the Cannons the week after that."

"Did they…did they approach you about it?" Melody asked, beginning to feel slightly injured that she hadn't been scouted by any professional teams. Sirius was a good Beater, but surely he couldn't be _that_ much better than Melody…could he?

"Nah," Sirius said, scratching his head. "I contacted them, asked if they had any openings. I don't expect I'll make it, but…should be a good experience just to try out, don't you think?"

"Yeah…I expect so," Melody agreed. There was an awkward pause, and Melody asked another question, hoping to ease them into real conversation. "So…so you've got interviews too, eh?"

"Yeah," Sirius nodded. "With—ah—with Gringott's, as a matter of fact, and then one with the Ministry…curse-breaking's very big these days, you know, and…and the Ministry's got some postings in the Department of Magical Games and Sports, and in—ah—International Magical Relations."

"You're not going for the Auror program straightaway?"

Sirius shrugged. "It's more James that's into that stuff than me, honestly. I mean, I think I'd like to do it, but I'm not so sure I'd like to do it right _now_. Maybe in a couple years, after I've trained myself up a bit more…and I daresay in a few years they're going to need all the help they can get."

"Mm," Melody agreed, nodding, and she gazed out the window once more.

"So, erm…what about you then? Got something planned?"

Melody grimaced. This was the part of the conversation she'd been hoping they wouldn't reach. "Yeah, as a matter of fact," she said quietly, examining her fingernails. "I do."

"Well?" Sirius prompted.

"Dueling," Melody replied, glancing up at him briefly before looking down at her hands again. "I'm going to enter the International Dueling Circuit, starting almost straightaway."

"Wow," Sirius said, looking impressed. "Melody, that's—you're really going for it, huh? That's fantastic. I think you'll do well, I really do."

Melody looked up at him and grinned. "You really think so?"

"Yeah," Sirius grinned back. "I think you'll be great. You'll write to me while you're away, won't you?"

"Of course."

"All the time?"

"As often as you like." Melody couldn't help smiling at him, but it was bittersweet. He didn't know…he didn't know all the details…. Her smile faded slightly.

"What's the matter? Aren't you excited?"

"Yeah, I am, of course I am, it's just…." She sighed. "Sirius, you're not going to like this."

"What? I mean, you are—you are _just_ dueling, aren't you? You're not doing anything—bad—that might go along with it?"

"No, of course I'm not, Sirius, it's just…when you first start out dueling, you need a manager and a sponsor, too, because it's expensive. And—and I think I've got a manager, and I've got a sponsor, too, but…but my sponsor is…um…he's…."

Melody trailed off, feeling uneasy, not wanting to look into Sirius's eyes and say the name.

"Just spit it out, Melody," Sirius demanded, his voice tight.

Melody stared very pointedly at the floor and mumbled out, "Lucifer Malfoy," half-hoping that Sirius wouldn't hear.

"Lucifer—Lucifer _Malfoy_?" Sirius exploded, and Melody winced. "Bleeding billywigs, Melody, have you lost your mind? Haven't we already had this conversation—a _hundred times_?"

"Yes, we _have_," Melody said firmly, looking him dead in the eye, "and I've made up my mind about it, so I'd greatly appreciate if you'd just lay off."

"Fine," Sirius said sourly, "I will lay off. And I wash my hands of your stupid decisions, Melody. From now on, whatever Lucifer Malfoy may or may not do to you, I don't want to hear about it. You want to be an idiot—great. _You_ deal with the consequences, because I've had it."

"_Fine_," Melody snapped, crossing her arms, and she resumed staring out the window.

Thankfully, Lily and James stumbled into the compartment within the next minute, laughing, and broke up the tension in the compartment by telling them how someone had hexed Snape so that he stuck to one of the compartment doors on the train, and had to slide open and shut along with the door because no one could figure out how to take him down.

"Well, that's quite an appropriate end to Snivellus's time at Hogwarts, isn't it?" Sirius said, cheering slightly.

After that, Mimi soon rejoined the group, and Peter came hurrying back some time later, apologizing for his absence and retelling the same story about Snape, only his story had the rather disappointing ending of Snape being let down from the door by some of his fellow Slytherins and then attempting to hex everyone in the vicinity.

"Aw, you shouldn't have told us, Wormtail," James said, sounding disappointed. "I was rather enjoying the thought of him stuck to a door on the Hogwarts Express for all eternity…."

Sirius chortled in laughter and Lily failed to suppress an eye roll.

They were nearing London now, and the last few visitors stopped by their compartment to say farewell. Vivian Horvath of Slytherin appeared with her boyfriend, Adam Johnson of Ravenclaw, and with them was Sally Parkinson, who commented vaguely on Gryffindor's win at the Quidditch Final (with a pointed look at Lily) before disappearing down the train. Next, Frank Longbottom and his fiancée Alice stopped by, both grinning like madmen, and they distributed invitations to their wedding in July.

After that, the Marauders somberly changed out of their school robes and back into street clothes as they prepared to disembark from the Hogwarts express for the last time.

When the train finally pulled into the station, Lily didn't know what to make of it. She'd expected she would feel very sad, but she found that she didn't have much of a feeling about it at all. She'd already spent so much time talking over leaving with her friends that, now that the moment was actually here, she found she could go through with it without worrying too much about it.

There was a great commotion as all the students emptied their belongings from the luggage racks, dragging their heavy trunks behind them along the long train corridors, shouting back and forth to each other, making promises to keep in touch over the summer, the younger students shrieking excitedly that they would see each other next year.

For Lily, however, this was all there was. She walked with her friends toward the barrier that separated Platform Nine and Three-Quarters from the Muggle world, and she and James moved forward as the wizard who was letting students back through the barrier told them it was their turn.

"You ready?" James asked, taking her hand.

"Not at all," Lily realized suddenly, but she squeezed James's hand anyway, and together they stepped through the barrier and out into the great wide world that awaited them.

* * *

**End Seventh Year**

* * *

A few weeks later, Lily and James were sitting on the beach in the indoor gardens at Potter's Cottage, watching the sun set. They'd gotten their N.E.W.T. results back a few days ago (Lily had passed everything, but excelled in Charms, Potions, and Transfiguration), and just yesterday Lily had accepted enrollment at a very good, reasonably priced Potions school in Edinburgh, where she would begin studying in the fall. James was currently in the midst of jumping through red tape at the Ministry trying to get into the official Auror training program, and in the meantime he had a part-time job at Florean Fortescue's serving people ice cream and cleaning up after messy customers. 

Lily was living at Potter's Cottage for now, where her mother was still staying, and Lily felt very much back in touch with the small fragment of her family that remained. Every great once in a while they'd get a letter from Petunia, who'd recently begun a serious relationship with a man called Dursley, who was currently working as a salesman in a large department store, but had ambitions to become a salesman at a much larger company. Lily thought he sounded dull as beets, but never had the opportunity to say so to Petunia, who apparently found it too stifling to visit them at Potter's Cottage.

Lily and James had been getting on very well since school ended, though lately Lily had become increasingly concerned that she had not seen, nor heard talk of, the emerald and diamond engagement ring. Neither of them had mentioned it since the day James had snatched it back from her by the lake. Sometimes they would do romantic things—like sit on the beach and watch the sunset, for instance—and Lily would keep expecting him to pop out the ring and propose, but he hadn't yet, and she was becoming a bit anxious that it was taking so long. Really—honestly—how hard was it to find the perfect moment?

The sun had finished setting, and the first stars started to appear in the sky, twinkling brightly against the backdrop of gradient blue. Lily sighed. Twilight really was a very beautiful—and often overlooked—time of day. She was quite content to just sit here and watch the sky darken, gazing as a new silvery star appeared in the sky and winked at her out of the blackness every minute or so.

James, however, stood, brushing the sand off his pants, and held out his hand for Lily. "Come on," he said. "Let's go for a walk."

"All right," Lily agreed, sighing, and she took his hand, standing and slipping her shoes back on as they walked away from the beach.

"So how is it?" James asked conversationally as they walked along and the beach melted away into a Japanese garden. "Being out of Hogwarts?"

"Oh…I dunno," Lily said as they crossed a small, arched bridge, underneath which a stream full of large orange catfish bubbled pleasantly. "Sort of…weird, I guess. All that time in school, you…you don't really know what the next year's going to be like, but…but at least you know what _school's_ going to be like. I don't think I've felt this uncertain about the future since…since I got my Hogwarts letter, actually."

James nodded, ducking slightly as they passed by the low branch of an oak. They were now entering a more foresty area of the gardens. "I know what you mean. It's like…I _sort_ _of_ have a plan for my future, but…who knows if it'll work out or not? Who knows if I'll be an Auror? Who knows where I'm going to live when I move out?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah. And…and you try to wonder where your life's going, but you realize…you have absolutely no idea what's going to happen, and…there's really no point trying to figure anything out, is there?"

James grinned. "Yeah…yeah, I think that's about right."

They had now reached Lily's favorite part of the indoor gardens, a grove of large pine trees, all nestled up against each other like old friends. This was where James had given her the necklace…this was where he'd first told her he loved her…this was where…

"Oh, James, I love this place," Lily breathed, sighing, gazing up at the tall old pine trees. "If only it were winter—it's _so­_ pretty in winter—"

"It's quite pretty in summer, too," James noted, and then suddenly out of nowhere appeared dozens of glimmering fairies. They adorned themselves all over the pine trees, creating a great ring of sparkling light that encircled the grove.

"Oh, _James_," Lily breathed, bringing a hand to her mouth. The fairies seemed to become brighter and more beautiful as the sky dimmed around them, and Lily tilted her head back to see that the sky was now strewn with a glittering explosion of stars. "It's so beautiful…I…" She couldn't seem to find the words.

Lily felt James moving beside her, and his grip on her hand changed as he turned to face her. Lily tore her eyes away from the stars in time to see him fall to one knee in front of her. Lily gasped and clapped one hand to her mouth, her heart whomping wildly inside her chest.

"Lily," James said seriously, his voice rather deeper than usual. "I love you…I love you so much."

"I love you too," Lily managed to squeak out from behind her hand, and the emotions swelling inside her chest became so great that she started to tremble.

James reached into his pocket, and Lily, who knew exactly what was coming, could hardly contain herself. He let go her hand so he could open the ring box, and Lily's newly released hand flew to her mouth as well. The sight of the diamond and emerald engagement ring brought the first hot tears of joy to Lily's eyes, and she was touched to see that James actually looked a little nervous. He wiped his palms off on his pants before he spoke again, and when he did, his voice sounded a little dry.

"I—you—Lily, wehlyou—that is—will you—will you marry me?"

Lily tried to speak but found that she could barely form words. "Uh-huh," she managed, nodding her head, tears streaming down her cheeks, and she burst into sobs of intense happiness as James stood and fumblingly slipped the ring onto her finger. Laughing and grinning beneath her tears, Lily pulled James toward her, and he wrapped her in an enormous hug, smiling like a madman.

Lily could never remember feeling so happy—her chest swelled so proudly with joy she thought that it might burst—

And as Lily welcomed James's lips onto hers for what she knew must be the thousandth time, she couldn't help thinking that this, right here, was the most important thing in the world. Love was all that mattered—_James_ was all that mattered—and no matter what they faced in their uncertain futures, everything came back down to this.

* * *

A/N: And…and there. We have an ending. (You know…mostly.) 

I finished this chapter at approximately 3:00 PM on July 20. I bought the seventh book at midnight and, taking only a three-hour break to nap during the night, managed to finish it by 1:00 PM. I must admit that I went back and edited this chapter after reading HP 7, but as you can see there are no spoilers in it, and nothing has been altered except a few lapses in grammar…although considering I am still running on only three hours of sleep, there may be a few lapses in grammar that I haven't caught. As far as I know, there is only one word in this entire chapter that betrays the fact that I've read HP 7, and it's such a random minor little detail I just couldn't resist.

Anyway, that said, I must confess that I'm quite sad this is all coming to an end. It was my goal, of course, to finish this story by the time HP7 came out, and judging by all technicalities I've done that, but…but still. I've been reading the Harry Potter books for eight years and writing this story for six. I feel as though there's a great void in my life that's going to take a while to fill back up—a void that should not, perhaps, exist. This is kind of an embarrassing manifesto, but honestly if you're reading this I daresay you have some inkling of what I mean. (Or, you know…you know me personally and you're just being nice.) And at any rate, some of the details in the seventh book did sort of break my heart. Of course, we knew this story was shot to begin with, seeing as it's a prequel to an Alternate Universe fic in which Lily and James don't die…but still…now it's really just totally and completely shot and there's nothing I can do about it.

Ah well.

I also must say that now that we've reached the end, and now that the Harry Potter series has come to an end, this MWPP-era fic isn't remotely what it should be. It's too late to go back and change it, of course, as the whole thing was pretty much plotted out pre-OotP, but…all the same…if I'd read all the books before writing this, it would have been a much different story. Or, conversely, had I simply not written this and gotten all these fancy notions in my head of how James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, and Peter really were when they went to Hogwarts, perhaps I wouldn't be so saddened by or resistant to some of the details in the seventh book. (Come on, come on—you must know what I'm talking about.)

Also I know it's somewhat fruitless to post this chapter now; I don't expect anyone will have a great deal of interest in reading it for another week or two or maybe longer, but who knows?

Now that we've got all that nonsense out of the way, the time has come for my last-ever thank you section. (I will, of course, be thanking all my reviewers at the end of the Epilogue, but as the Epilogue is also going to contain a rather lengthy plot summary, I felt it wisest to include this last and most massive of thank you sections in this chapter.) So, here we go…

A great itching, burning, tingling, throbbing, stinging, vision-inducing, curse-repelling, midget-in-glasses-marking THANK YOU (no, no, not an enchanted scar shaped like a lightning bolt, but a THANK YOU) goes to:

**Stardust** – Let's face it, Holly. This fic would never, never, never have gotten finished if it weren't for you. _Can you even freaking believe it's finished???????_ I can't. I really can't. I started writing the Epilogue today and I nearly cried. (Although perhaps that has something to do with the fact that I'm running on three hours of sleep and I still haven't had anything to eat. Unless you count that Gatorade. You know, whatever.) Also what I really can't wrap my mind around is, first of all, that there are no more Harry Potter books coming out, and, second of all, that our summers in the pool plotting fan fiction are coming to an end. You know how I feel about this whole growing up thing, Holly. I'm having a rough time with it. If only I were still an adolescent…if only I still had free time…if only I could go back to a time where I was worrying about college applications instead of college loans and the big fat honking problem of, "Hey! I don't know what I'm doing with my life!"

Basically what I'm gathering from all of this is that I'm in dire need of football season. (Or, you know, a life. But whatever.) Not that I'm in any way emotionally prepared for that, either, but you know…it'll give me a new obsession to spend all my time on. Honestly, though, and seriously—if you did not still love this story, and did not still badger me in person to keep writing it and finishing it, it would just be a lost cause. (An obscenely long lost cause, but a lost cause nonetheless.) Really what I'm hoping is that if I get some more sleep, I'll feel more rational about my life and sort of less manically depressed that there are going to be no more books coming out about bespectacled wizards with bad haircuts and itchy scars…it's all quite depressing, really…. Oh, and P.S. The first time Luna said "Nargles" in HP 7 I really wanted to be like, "Holly! This is how you spell 'nargles'!" …but I figured since you were reading it too, that would be pointless.

**Sedri** – At least, I'm fairly certain that's your pen name these days. At any rate—I owe you. So hugely. It's been fantastic writing back and forth to you all these years, and of course we're going to continue to do so, but I'm really, really glad that you've become my beta, and that you've never gotten mad at me for doing dumb things like posting chapters before I send them over to you. Your prompt replies always astound me, and not once did you fail to pull me out of a mid-chapter slump. Plus your Best Line Awards for many of the chapters have been absolutely flattering and wonderful beyond all reason, and it makes me feel better about having spent so much time on this story. Also you've put up with all my raving and ranting about school, my family, my house being under construction, etc., for I don't know how long, and that's fairly astounding as well.

I feel like there's much more I ought to say, but perhaps it would be better said in an e-mail. At any rate, I hope you know how much all your help has been appreciated, and how marvelous all your reviews have been. And if I've ever seemed like a bigheaded prat while talking to you about this story, I apologize. It's possible that I'm a little bit in love with it.

**Janus –** Well, obviously you've been with me forever, but it's really hard to describe how much I appreciate your reviews. If I ever seriously wanted to edit this fic and, you know, smooth out all the inconsistencies and take out the bits that have no real purpose, you are one of the people I'd most want to track down and beg to help me. As it is, however, I think I may have indulged too much time on this story, and so I'm just going to let it lie with all its imperfections. That said, you are one of the few reviewers who ever points out all of the little things in every chapter that I myself have had doubts and questions about. For example—the opening scene, last chapter; you may have been the only person to comment on the actual quality of the writing in that scene, as opposed to just its content, and actually I'm kind of thrilled you noticed. My confession: I wrote that scene three years ago after one of my friends in high school sprang on me that she thought she might be pregnant. I've barely touched or looked at it since—it's just been sitting in my hard drive, waiting for the appropriate chapter to come along. When I pulled it out and dusted it off and stuck it in this chapter, I didn't do a great deal of editing or polishing to make it fit, and I'm so attached to the essential dialogue of that scene that I couldn't bear to trim any of it down. (Also, you know, I'm rather lazy, and some of the pruning I could've done to make it read better—like taking out some of the stutterings—I just didn't bother with.) But yeah, I'm glad you noticed…wasn't exactly my best effort.

Also I'm thrilled you were a little disappointed with the time traveling scenes, because so am I. Originally those scenes with the Founders weren't supposed to be in this fic at all; they were planned for the sequel's sequel to this fic, which I am now never going to write. When I originally plotted out this fic (which, somehow, turned into a trilogy), Lily wasn't supposed to learn very much about her necklace until Harry's Seventh Year at Hogwarts (keeping in mind, of course, that Eyes is technically a prequel to a fic in which Lily and James don't die), and all the massive time traveling stuff was going to be much more complicated, involve a larger group of people (including Sirius and Melody and Lily and James's children, who end up " "accidentally" tagging along), a longer stay in the past, and—originally—three other necklaces. But what am I saying? This should all be in the summary at the end of next chapter, I shouldn't be babbling it out now…

At any rate, what I'm really trying to say is you've been a fabulous reviewer. What I'll probably miss most about fan fiction is the stream of reviews pouring in after every chapter, and I think I'll especially miss yours.

**DeppGirl14** – Thanks so much for all your reactions, your criticisms, and your time. You've been with this story forever too, and I'm really glad you still enjoy it after all these years. (Whoo!) Also glad you liked the romantic L/J scene in the last chapter…you're right, it didn't technically have a purpose, it was just sooo cute. Also, I would just like to say (if I hadn't before) that anyone who includes the word "Depp" in their pen name deserves like three bonus stars or something.

**ELPHIESchihuahua -- **I don't remember the last time you reviewed either, but I remember you, and I'm glad you decided to review again. I'm sorry that you're disappointed I won't be posting anymore, but I'm glad that you've stuck with me this long, and I hope that one day you do get a chance to buy a book I've written, even if you don't know it's me. Also, I know what you mean about wondering if boys really are like James, particularly in some of the mushier scenes I've written…I will admit that there is, perhaps, some exaggeration to these, but overall I think you might be surprised at how romantic some guys can be when they think they're perfectly alone. I have a guy friend who has specifically discussed with me, before, his idea of a romantic date, because he wants to do romantic things with his girlfriend and he likes to get a girl's opinion on things before he goes ahead with them (so he doesn't make an idiot out of himself, you see). I'm constantly astounded by his level of romantic accuracy—at least as far as my opinions on romance are concerned; I think every girl has a slightly different idea of what is romantic and what isn't. Also I was really thrilled that in your last review you quoted a random Sirius-Melody conversation from some chapter a long time ago. Pretty much rocked my socks off.

**lizziee** – Really, I'm glad that so many of my reviewers are as sad to see this all end as I am, because it kind of justifies this whole ridiculous, disturbingly long fic. And particularly all the ones like you who've been around forever…I'm glad we've both stuck it out to the very end.

**jlmoth** – Um, stop it, you're making me too sad. How am I supposed to be grown up and mature about all this if you guys aren't? I mean…is it wrong to be so emotionally attached to characters who don't exist? Ay caramba…. But at least there's still the epilogue, right? I mean, that's something…it'll be shorter than most of the usual chapters, but still worthy, I hope…. All things considered, though, I'm rather impressed with myself that I even made it to the end. (This is not something I'm particularly good at.) I only regret that none of my original fictions are as richly detailed or stunningly characterized as JKR's…but ah well, there's always hope for the future…at any rate, thanks for sticking around. It means muchly.

**Eriskay** – Thanks for always being understanding about the considerable gaps between updates—you're one of the few. Not that reviews made a great deal of difference, really, in how fast the updates came, but I did feel bad about all the delays. (Life has a nasty habit of taking over sometimes, doesn't it? Plus, you know…I'm lazy.) Glad to have written something that you enjoyed, and particularly that made you laugh. (I do enjoy being amusing.) We're almost done now…aack!

**Squeak4ever** – I'm positively thrilled you think my writing gets better with every chapter. I'm certainly glad to hear it. (I do try.) 

**Kat44** – Hopefully this chapter satisfied you with decent amounts of fluff. Cheers!

**Katdance666** – A sincere thanks for reviewing so long and so well. 

**Akt5us**– I'm happy you've enjoyed this fic so long, and I hope the conclusion is satisfying.  Sadly I won't be writing anymore, but like I said I will be posting a summary of the sequels to this fic, so at least you'll get to find out what happens…

**sexyteluguchica** –I can't believe it's ending, either.

**redglasses** – Glad you've enjoyed so far, and glad you're here for the end.

**.Sorrowful.Bookworm** – Glad you like the long chapters; they're my specialty.

**An Aspiring Author** -- I'm glad you agree that getting proposed to at a sporting event wouldn't be romantic, either. I certainly don't think so.

**TheAllKnowingTonks **– I'm glad you found this fic again, after losing track of it, and I'm kind of thrilled, actually, that you thought so many of these storylines were in different fics. At least they were memorable, right? Cheers to that!

**Secret world**

**-MaRaUdErLoVeR423-**

**RainbowCrayon** – Loved all the questions in your last review. Although I have to say that Mimi does not brew any sort of potion to help Remus in the sequel to this fic; not sure where you got that idea…the Wolfsbane Potion does exist, but it wasn't created by Mimi…sadly. Ah well, no matter. Greatest thanks.

**Ginny-Harry-2gether-4ever**– But I loooove the long reviews. Also I had to laugh when you mentioned the length of Stardust's review…hers are always long, but this is mostly because we know each other personally; half the time she isn't even talking about the fic, she's just babbling about other random stuff…and anyway, you should see some of the reviews my beta used to leave me, they were massive…I love all reviews, though, no matter the length.

**Amisara** – Well, of course I'm insane…I've been writing this fanfic for six years. Also…don't tell me you've never been smacked in the face with a warm piece of pie? I thought everyone had! (Just kidding.)

**kittiegoddess**– Thanks a lot. It has taken me forever to write this, but I'm glad people still read it, at any rate.

**rika**

**soleil3**– Thanks for sticking around so long 

**LivEvil –** I had forgotten, I think, just how many reviewers have stuck with me for so long…it floored me to go back and re-read some of them and realize that they, like you, have been reviewing foreverrrrrr. Um…you guys rock, basically.

**DancingCavalier** – I agree. Yay for you for reviewing.

**Haley **– Of course Arabella Figg was a Squib, but I didn't know that when I started writing this fic, so I made the grand mistake of making her a student and never had the desire to change it, mostly because I really like the name Arabella. Also there was this complicated subplot to make the Arabella Figg from the books a real character, and make her be my Arabella Figg's great-aunt or something, but, clearly, that never came to fruition.

**Sweettarts –** Yay for being caught up! Thanks for all the reviews!

**LazyBoyGilmore**

**STA**

**wicked.witchy.princess**

**LilyJames addict**

**Lola**

**Leitheindel**

**Lunna.moon**

**peacemakern**** –** Your reviews are amazing, basically, and I'm glad you reviewed mid-story even though most of the other reviews I get come from the most recently updated chapter. I read and appreciate them ALL, and yours were quite wonderful and funny.

**oi4ka**

**Charlotte Donahue**

**Jojo **– Tremendous thanks for the proper German. If I haven't fixed it already…I should go back and fix the dialogue, because I know my original translation's awful.

**Meggily**

**Bininny**

**Lastjumpfalls**

**Mashiara14**

**smileenov**

**Cajun Rogue **– Basically you and your reviews are amazing, and I'm not sure I have anything else to say besides that. (If this response seems a little disappointing, I apologize, but know that the great words of praise I've heaped on others also applies to you.)

**Stormrocks**

**Mirrorbay2000** – I…really…like…can't you be a book editor? I wish you were, because then when I finally finish something original I could send it to you and then maybe the New York Times really would give me a star and…I…yeah, that would be wonderful. Basically it's my dream. We'll see how it goes.

**1ss2cs3pa4gf5op6hbp**

**Thu**

**codswallop**

**Arista Ramabra**

**PiperPaigePhoebe01**

**Chrissy Sparkle** – Where have you gone? I hope you come back…I'd love to hear from you again.

**Mandarina Ballerina** – Um…same as above.

**allthecolorsoftherainbow**

**JK**

**SugarHi Marauders**

**Radish Earrings**

**Libeku Taganashi**

**grapesRgone**

**lilypad-7879**

**sugarspun**

**diamondreamer**

**Lioness Amythest**

**Paddikins**

**meek-bookworm**

**tropicalpunch9812**

**Kim**

**famousindafuture**

**lovely ravenclaw**

**teneraestnox**

**aragorn is mine**

**LoveToRead11**

**mystikalolo (Sasparilla) **–Thanks for sticking around so long, girly. It's been fun.

**spaceshipjamies**

**Littera**

**Jutey**

To those of you who reviewed in ages past, but probably have not touched this fic in years, I also extend my greatest thanks. Without your feedback along the way, this story would never have been finished: 

**Harmony Slytherin – **Let's face it, one day you'll finish this and I'll finish NTB (you know…or not) and this thank-you will be necessary. Plus you can't deny that you've helped me out with plot points several times, even though you haven't read this fic in years. I can't believe it's overrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! AAACK! Our youth is ending, and I am pathetic about it.

**SilverPhoenixWings** –You probably will never read this, but according to my review history you are the first person to ever review this fic, and as long as I'm wrapping things up to say good-bye, you need to be included here. Ah, the crazy days of youth when we'd insert ourselves into each other's profiles…good times. I will always be fond of fanfic, even if it is mostly useless.

**Britz** – Remember the good old days? We were…how shall I put it?…insane. Good times, though. You, much like SPW, will probably never read this either, but just in case you need to be on this list as well. Normally I just list all the reviewers who have reviewed since the last time I posted a chapter, but since this _is_ the last chapter and all…I thought I'd go all out.

**Wildcat Ohrya** –I don't know that you will ever read this, but your reviews were absolutely fantastic and stupendously appreciated while they lasted.

**Alyssa **

**Care**

**Chained Dove**

**Agent--Kiwi--Snoop**

**Lethal**

**Kimmy Larisa**

**Princess Gin-Gin**

**Selena Miller**

**Celtic Ember**

**PrincessLesse**

**Mandy**

**Pennies from Heaven**

**Zetta**

**Solesista**

**Luna**

**Jenny-chan**

**Halo and Wings**

**bubblegumgirl**

**everblue3**

**lama**

**Professor Weasley**

**The Great Offenders**

**LadyElla64**

**Mrs. TOM Felton (Or Ex…)**

**monkinO**

**Veronica**

**Erica the Flying Tree**

**funkycanadianrocker14 (or just funkyrocker)**

**limbo-gal**

**Lil Bazza**

**Chiquita-3**

**ffaddix**

**kitty**

**monkinO**

**siriusforeva**

**dancinqueen**

**Emrisah**

**Amethyst Prongs**

**Yanlira**

**TheRiddle**

**Miranda**

**MilesFromNormal**

**DistinctVagueness**

**Happy Feet**

**Evil-Angel-911**

**purebristles**

**miz-attidude**

**Beyond the Wreckage**

**xDreamerx**

**ebec**** –** I don't know that you ever got caught up, but I hope so.

**Faded Memories**

**Tania**

**Irish Silhouette**

**Nightbolts101**

**everblue3**

**moony128**

**dobbyisapenguinindisguise**

**xDreamerx**

**-KattyKoo-**

**hayhay**

**highlandhottie**

**Temt Kaos**

**Malignant Malfoy**

**Aria327**

**PotterChick958**

**Aura of Chaos**

**PotterChick958**

And…and that's it. If I've left anyone out, I apologize profusely. Know that you are not unappreciated—I'm just stupid.

Also if I didn't write you anything specifically, really don't feel unloved or unappreciated…I'm just dumb and lazy sometimes. You have all made it worth it to keep posting, no matter how despairing I felt about any of my chapters, and now that I've reached the end…I'm thrilled to have gone through this with all of you.

I really can't believe HP is over…I really can't believe this is over…but that's life, is it not?

Well, as mentioned previously, I will be posting an epilogue in a few weeks, so be sure to stay tuned for that, and otherwise, please, please review. The review thank-you next chapter will not have any specific responses in it, or listing of names, so this is pretty much it…but I'd still like to hear from you all and say farewell. If you ever want to get in touch with me, my e-mail address is the same it's always been… sierracharm AT hotmail DOT com. (I don't know if ffDOTnet is allowing us to post hyperlinks yet, so…that's the best I can do. There should be a link to my e-mail in my profile, at any rate.)

As always…

Cheers,

Sierra Charm


	26. Epilogue: The Wedding

A/N: Greetings.

I'm not going to post a summary of the last chapter, because quite frankly if you're reading the Epilogue and you can't remember enough about the story to understand what's going on here…you probably shouldn't be reading the Epilogue.

For those of you who thought the last chapter was the last thing I was going to post…bwahaha. You were wrong.

That said…this chapter is every bit as ridiculous and terrible as the rest of the story.

Enjoy.

Epilogue

The Wedding

"All right, everyone, hold still!"

The twenty people posing for the camera beamed, and with a great flash and a puff of smoke, the Order of the Phoenix was captured for the first time on film. No one stood behind the camera; with the flick of a wand, it had taken the picture on its own.

"Excellent, excellent," said Albus Dumbledore, stepping forward from among the group of people being photographed. "Once again, I cannot tell you enough how valuable your efforts are." He pulled a large silver watch from the pocket of his robes and glanced at it briefly. "Until we meet again—keep your spirits up." He smiled kindly at them all with a familiar twinkle in his piercing blue eyes, and then turned to Alastor Moody. "Alastor, will you kindly see that everyone gets a photo?"

"Of course," said Moody gruffly, and he limped over to the camera, his wooden leg clunking oddly on the floor. The wooden leg was a recent addition, and seemed to other the members of the Order of the Phoenix a grim sign that things were starting to get much worse.

It had been over a year since Lily and James's engagement, and about ten months since they had first heard of the secret organization called the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore expressed his regrets, many times, that he had approached Lily and James about joining so soon after they finished at Hogwarts, but neither second-guessed their decision.

Lily wasn't quite sure now what she would do if she didn't have the Order to depend on. Events grew ever grimmer, but Order meetings somehow lifted their spirits. Dumbledore knew a great deal of things that weren't printed in the _Daily Prophet, _and it seemed to Lily that as time went on, Dumbledore was perhaps the only person able to devise the truth behind a great number of mishaps and unfortunate events that the Ministry was trying ever harder to hush up.

Beyond that, the people at the Order meetings made it easier to cope with the devastation beginning to permeate every aspect of wizarding life. James and Sirius, remarkably, seemed to have developed an excellent feel for when it was appropriate to make jokes during meetings and when to hush up. Their humor helped remind everyone just what they were fighting to save. Furthermore, simply being around one another seemed to give the Order members an extra, silent strength to keep carrying on—to fight however they knew how—to stand up against Voldemort knowing, as so many wizards did not seem to know these days, that their efforts would not go unnoticed—that, most importantly, they were not alone.

Order members were milling around now, chatting with one another and wandering off one by one to Disapparate and return to their normal lives. Dumbledore approached James and Lily before he left. "My sincerest congratulations to you both," he beamed, placing one hand on Lily's shoulder and one on James's. "Your ceremony is Saturday, unless my memory fails me."

Lily nodded, grinning like a fool. "Please come if you get the chance—to the reception, at any rate."

"But of course! How could I pass up the chance to enjoy a perfectly good wedding cake?"

Hagrid came up behind Dumbledore, beaming. "This is gonna be great, you two, jes' great. Blimey, I love weddings."

With a glance at his watch, Dumbledore said, "I really must be going. I am, once again, deeply sorry I cannot make it to your ceremony. I am sure it will far eclipse whatever nonsense I have planned instead." With a final smile, Dumbledore left.

"Well, at least you two are givin' people somethin' to be happy abou', eh?" Hagrid smiled and thumped James on the back, which sent him flying into Lily. "Yeh'll have ter excuse me, though—I've got somewhere ter be as well. See you lot on Saturday, then!" he called to the rest of the Marauders, waving as he departed.

Many of the other Order members had left by this time, but a few stuck around to offer their congratulations in advance to Lily and James as well. Most of the Order were invited to the wedding, but a few simply couldn't make it, and others couldn't attend because they were supposed to pretend they didn't know Lily and James in public.

"The very best wishes to you both!" squeaked Dedalus Diggle, coming over to shake Lily and James's hands.

"Save me a piece of cake, will you?" joked Benjy Fenwick, with a wink.

"I bet it'll be such a lovely wedding," sighed Marlene McKinnon, coming up behind Benjy. "Lily, have you finally got a dress?"

Lily beamed. "Yes—found the perfect one just last week."

"Oh, _good_. You'll bring in pictures, won't you? Wish I could be there…but of course I'm not really supposed to know you…."

Lily nodded. "I'm sure there will be more than enough pictures to go around."

"There will indeed, if I have anything to say about it," Sirius said, coming up and clapping James on the back. "As Best Man, I feel it's my sworn and honorable duty to catch every moment of the ceremony on camera…James stuffing his face with cake, James drinking too much of the bubbly, James making an idiot of himself on the dance floor…"

"Yes, that sounds _lovely_," Lily said dryly, turning back to Marlene. "We'll have a professional photographer, of course, and I'm sure my mum will have a bunch of _nice_"—she shot a look at Sirius, who looked innocently away—"photos everyone will enjoy."

"Good, good…well I must be off then…but congratulations!"

Lily and James milled around until most of the Order members presented their congratulations, and then gratefully fastened up their cloaks and Apparated back to Potter's Cottage—which was, for the time being, home.

* * *

"Mimi!" Lily shrieked, and streaked down the front walk of Potter's Cottage to throw her arms around her friend. 

"Hi Lily," Mimi said, laughing, and she awkwardly returned the hug. She was impaired by the great crutch that sat under her right arm.

"I feel like I haven't seen you in ages," Lily gushed, taking one of Mimi's bags for her and leading her toward the house. "How's your leg been?"

"Oh, you know," Mimi shrugged, "hasn't gotten any better, hasn't gotten any worse."

It had, however, become permanently ruined by the Potion she'd used on it last June, and now it seemed her right leg would be forever gimpy.

"You haven't been…making any more Potions, have you?" Lily asked, her voice slightly hushed as they reached the front door.

"No," Mimi said, shaking her head. "I've done with that. I was never very good at it anyway, and…well, there are other ways to help," she added, sounding rather grim.

Lily looked at her, puzzled, as the front door closed behind them and a house-elf ran up to assist with Mimi's bags, but Mimi waved her hand dismissively at Lily's concern. "Nothing to worry about; I just have some ideas is all."

Lily thanked the house-elf, who hurried upstairs with Mimi's bags trailing behind her.

"Have you been speaking with Remus?"

Mimi gazed shiftily to one side. "Not…exactly."

Lily frowned. "He said he saw you the other day."

"Did he?" Mimi said vaguely.

"Yes, he did," Lily said flatly. "Where did he see you?"

"Could've been anywhere," Mimi offered, and then decided to change the subject. "So, how's your house hunt going?"

Lily gave a little squeal of excitement. "Didn't I tell you? James and I found the _perfect_ little cottage, right in Godric's Hollow—"

And she continued to chatter about her and James's cottage as she led Mimi into the kitchen, where Mrs. Evans, Mrs. Potter, Lily's Aunt Emma, and Lily's cousin Molly were seated at the table. Molly and Aunt Emma had recently been floored to learn that Lily was a witch, and had spent the past two hours or so wandering around Potter's Cottage in complete awe. They would, unfortunately, have to have their memories modified after the ceremony (according to the guidelines of the International Statute of Secrecy), but for right now it made things easier for them to know. Molly beamed as Mimi took a seat from her across the table.

"So Mimi," Lily began, before Molly could badger Mimi with any probing questions like she'd been doing with Lily all morning, "how's life at the _Daily Prophet_? It's a newspaper," she added to her cousin, before she could ask.

"Oh, all right I suppose," Mimi sighed. "Mostly they've got me doing the horoscopes—the horoscope lady got sacked a couple weeks ago, so now _I've_ got the lovely task of making predictions up for people. Horoscopes are about all the writing they let me do, anyway," Mimi sighed. "Ever since I tried to slip in that pro-werewolf article I think the editors have decided I'm a bit dodgy. Plus I got into it with Rita Skeeter a couple weeks ago, I'm sure that didn't help…."

Mrs. Potter's face darkened. She was clearly remembering some of the articles the _Prophet_ had published recently regarding her husband's policies at the Ministry. "Yes, how _is_ Rita Skeeter doing? Is she as odious in real life as she seems on the page?"

Mimi made a disgusted face. "She's as much of a nosy, no-good wart as she ever was…same as at Hogwarts, always snooping around looking for a story…."

"You knew her at Hogwarts?" Mrs. Potter pressed.

"Yeah, she was a few years older than us. Really annoying. I think James and Sirius turned her into a donkey once."

Lily snorted in laughter, remembering. "I thought it was Melody who turned her into a donkey."

Mimi shrugged, grinning at the memory. "Maybe so."

"Where is Melody, by the way?" Mrs. Evans asked, taking another sip of tea.

Lily glanced at the clock on the wall. "She should be here within the hour. Apparently she's right in the middle of a tournament in Bulgaria, and she's had a tricky time working all this around her schedule."

"But she _will_ be able to stay through the weekend?" Mrs. Potter pressed, looking anxious. Both she and Lily's mum were a bit frazzled with details, and a bit more on edge than usual.

"Well, apparently when we're done with dress fittings today she has to go back. She has a match on Wednesday, and if she wins that she's got another on Sunday—she'll be here for the rehearsal and the ceremony, though."

"Match?" Molly echoed. "Does she play…tennis or something?"

Lily and Mimi traded and awkward glance. "Um…no," Lily replied. "She, um…she duels."

"_Duels_? Like…like with a _sword_?"

"No…with her wand."

Molly gaped at her for a moment, but before she could speak the door to the kitchen swung open, and in rushed Melody in all her glory.

"Sorry I'm late!" she panted, smiling winningly at them all. She was wearing an exquisite golden traveling cloak, which complemented her blonde hair and her golden-brown eyes, and underneath she donned a smart blue dueling suit, with a padded vest to help ward off weaker spells. Her hair was partially pulled back, the top half of it pulled away from her face and fastened with a thick golden ribbon tied in a bow; the rest tumbled past her shoulders in elegant curls. "The match went overlong," she explained, pulling off her dueling gloves, "but I made it."

Lily got up and rushed over to give her a hug. It was amazing how much older they all seemed these days, a little more than a year out of Hogwarts, and—was it possible, or did Melody look disturbingly prettier than usual?

"How did you do?" Mimi asked, limping over to give Melody a hug as well.

"I won!" Melody burst, grinning wildly. Her face was flushed with pride, her eyes shining with excitement—she launched into a rapid run-down of the match, blow-by-blow, with a detailed description of the final maneuvers used to knock her opponent out of contention.

It struck Lily during this enthusiastic retelling that perhaps Melody looked prettier because she looked so much like—_her_. She wasn't fussing with the fake, caked-on beauty that had won her acceptance in her uncle's social circles; she didn't, in fact, seem to be wearing make-up at all. Instead, she was looking rather more tan than usual, her skin a lovely shade of light brown and her hair bleached a good shade lighter than it had been over Easter holidays, when Lily had last seen her in person. The sun had even brought out a few light freckles on her skin, which, rather than taking away from her already considerable beauty, complimented it. Everything about her looked a bit wilder, a bit more untamed than it had at school, and she glowed in it. No—she _basked_ in it. The expression she held as she talked about dueling was unequal to any other Lily had seen on her face—except, perhaps, the way she looked just after a victorious Quidditch match.

Even if she was cavorting around with Lucifer Malfoy these days, it appeared Melody had found something that struck home.

Lily's cousin looked positively enraptured with Melody's description of the duel, although as far as Lily knew, she didn't understand half the things that were coming out of Melody's mouth.

"_Wow_," Molly breathed once Melody had finished. "You must be _amazing_."

Melody beamed, looking thrilled with the praise, but she tried to temper it with modesty. "Well, I'm still just starting out, you see…I've had a lot of luck so far though…and I've just found out—oh, Lily—Mimi—I'm _ranked_!" she squealed, clapping her hands together excitedly and bouncing up and down on the spot.

The girls shrieked in surprise and another round of hugs and exclamations went round the room, and then Melody plunged hastily into the pockets of her dueling suit and pulled out a crumpled program. "See—there—" she said, pointing out her name.

It wasn't an official list of rankings; it was just the program for the dueling tournament she was currently in. _Melody Cauldwell vs. Scotto Pelrump_, the program read, and next to Scotto's name were tiny numbers—_98_—and next to Melody's—_119_.

"You're…you're ranked a hundred and nineteen?" Mimi asked, her voice rather mysteriously void of emotion.

"Yes!" Melody shrieked again. "Isn't it marvelous?"

Lily and Mimi exchanged a furtive, doubtful look, but Madam Flannery got up from her chair and patted Melody on the back. "That's simply wonderful, dear," she beamed. "My son used to duel. Never cracked the top hundred and fifty." The dressmaker didn't allow Melody to carry on any longer before taking command of the situation. "Shall we?" she said pointedly, gesturing toward the door.

"Oh—of course!" Melody cried, whirling around. "Sorry—I'm very sorry about being late, too—it was a bit chaotic after the match." She turned to Lily as they walked out of the kitchens, looking prematurely apologetic. "And I'm _really_ sorry, Lil, but I'll have to duck out quickly, too, Lucifer's got a party all planned for me—see, they only bumped me up to one-nineteen after I beat Scotto, and this is the first time I've been in the top one twenty-five _ever_, and—what?"

The disapproving expression on both Lily's and Mimi's faces was unmistakable, and Melody turned away looking embarrassed. "I'm _really_ sorry," she repeated, mumbling, as they began climbing a staircase.

"How _is_ dear old Luci these days?" Lily asked, trying to sound casual, but there were a lot of unspoken questions underneath her words.

"_Please_ don't call him that," Melody pleaded. "I—I misjudged him, he's really great—he's helped me so much, I—"

"Lucifer Malfoy? Lucifer _Malfoy_? Lucifer Malfoy's been really _great_?" Mimi repeated, looking floored, and Melody stared pointedly away.

"You're starting to sound like Sirius," Melody muttered, still avoiding looking at them. "It's—it's fine, everything's fine, I'm having a great time. All right?"

Melody was saved from further interrogation by Madam Flannery and her assistants, who shoved the girls behind several dressing curtains to change into their bridesmaid dresses for the fitting.

"So Lil, have you finally decided what colors you're using for the wedding?" Melody asked, examining her pale, somewhat colorless gown with distaste. "Last I heard James was fighting for red and gold."

"Yes," Lily agreed, "but I convinced him that the scarlet would clash horribly with my hair, so he fought to keep gold, and I decided the other color ought to be blue. The trick is to charm the dresses a shade that will work for all of you. Melody—I want you to have a gold one, since you're my Maid of Honor and I know you look good in it, and…Molly and Mimi, I think I'll have you in blue."

Melody emerged from behind her dressing screen first. "It's a little loose," she complained, but Madam Flannery simply gestured her onto a stool and began flicking her wand about, tightening various parts of the dress while loosening others, lengthening the skirt slightly, and briefly adjusting the cut of the top before giving her wand one last _flick_ and charming the dress a pale, but still pure-looking, shade of gold.

"Ooh, Melody, that looks smashing," Mimi gushed, emerging from behind her curtain, and for a brief moment Lily considered kicking Melody out of her wedding party.

Melody was _gorgeous_—what was Lily _thinking_, allowing her to stand next to her on her wedding day? Lily would look like a complete hag next to Melody, even in her extraordinary wedding gown…nobody would be looking at her, they'd just be gawking at how gorgeous Melody was….

"What do you think, Lil?" Melody asked, turning to her, unnecessarily smoothing out the soft material, appearing to enjoy the feel of it underneath her hands. Madam Flannery beamed at the bride-to-be, apparently quite pleased with herself.

Lily glared at her best friend and stuck a childish tongue out. "You look disgustingly beautiful. I'm going to look like an old hag next to you."

Melody rolled her eyes. "Oh, _Lily_…don't be ridiculous…you're very pretty anyway, but I'm sure when you're standing up there next to James you're going to look so obscenely fantastic that no one's even going to notice I'm there…let alone what dress I'm wearing."

"Her wedding dress is killer—you guys _have_ to see it!" Molly said as she emerged from behind her own dressing curtain. "Trust me, Lil, absolutely no one is going to care what we look like as soon as they see you in that dress."

"Yes, yes, yes, it's marvelous. Now _you_ go change before you rip something," Lily said, poking Melody in the shoulder. Melody hopped off her stool so Mimi could take her place, and Molly stepped onto the other stool. Madame Flannery and her assistants flitted around, making the necessary adjustments to the fabric, and then Madam Flannery stepped back and considered for a long moment before charming the dresses a shade of deep, oceanic blue.

"Ooh," Mimi breathed, turning slightly to examine herself. "Looks pretty good, Lil, doesn't it?"

"Mm," Lily agreed, circling them carefully. "But you know what would look _really_ nifty…."

She pulled out her wand and started flicking at the material, lightening the top of the dress to a more cerulean shade of blue, and darkening the bottom of the skirt to a deeper sort of navy blue. With another flick, Lily added a stream of golden sparkles that stretched from the uppermost left-hand part of the dress down to the right-hand side of the skirt, exploding all over the darkest material like a thousand shimmering stars.

"What do you think?" she asked, backing away, and glancing back and forth between the somewhat astounded-looking seamstresses happily.

"Well, it certainly is…unique…for a bridesmaid dress," one of the assistants managed.

"You know what it makes me think of, Lil?" Mimi said, looking down at hers. "Twilight."

Lily beamed. "That's the general idea. That's when James proposed, you see…and we're having our ceremony so late in the afternoon, I thought…." She trailed off and shrugged, looking happy.

Melody emerged from behind her dressing screen. "Ooh, _nice_, Lily. Although, you know…." She tilted her head, examining the dresses. "If it's meant to be twilight, it's backwards. Twilight makes the sky darker on top, not the bottom."

"Yes, I know, but I sort of think it looks better this way, don't you?"

"I like it," Molly announced, spinning herself around.

"Perfect," Lily beamed. "Let's just do the final measurements then, and we'll be all set to go."

* * *

The Marauders came roaring into Potter's cottage Wednesday evening, and by Thursday afternoon the whole event felt sort of like a Hogwarts reunion. Melody arrived a bit later on Thursday than she'd predicted, full of apologies and news, bubbling with excitement that she'd won yet another match and been bumped up to a ranking of 108. After a round of drinks and congratulations and a general celebration of the fact that they were all together again, they moved from the living room to the indoor gardens to swap stories and catch up. Molly—though Lily loved her dearly—was thankfully being distracted by her mother and her aunt. They'd decided it was best if she didn't hear too much about what was going on in the wizarding world, because that would make her memory much harder to modify later. 

As it was, however, Lily soon found that there was a good deal she couldn't reveal to her own friends about current events in the wizarding world. As members of the Order of the Phoenix, Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were obliged not to reveal anything they knew through Dumbledore—or, indeed, to reveal the fact that an organization like the Order of the Phoenix existed at all. They had to pretend to be just as clueless about recent goings-on as Mimi and Melody, and they further had to pretend that they didn't see each other rather more often than they'd been seeing Mimi and Melody.

Luckily, however, in the year and several months that they'd been apart, there were rather a lot of other things to catch up on that had nothing to do with Voldemort.

"So, Lil, how's Potions school going?" Mimi asked, tossing Peter the bag of sugar quills Sirius had found in the kitchen.

Lily groaned. "It's dreadful. The potions are so hard, I—"

"Nonsense, Lil, you're doing fantastic," James objected, biting the end off his own sugar quill.

"Don't listen to him, it's very difficult. I'm doing all right in classes," she clarified, before James could contradict her again, "but overall it's far harder than I imagined. There are a lot of students there much older than me, and a lot of them have worked very intensely with Potions before, as apothecaries and such—"

"Well, then what are _they_ doing in Potions school?" Melody wanted to know.

Lily shrugged. "Oh, different reasons. Some of them want to fine-tune their skills; others want to go into teaching, like me, and others—"

"Have the hots for the professors?" Sirius suggested, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

Lily couldn't help laughing. She'd invited her favorite professor, Amorelia Wittle (Lia for short), to Potter's Cottage for Christmas dinner last year, and Sirius had taken an extreme shine to the single, thirty-something witch, who looked quite a bit younger than she actually was. "The potions professors don't all look like Lia Wittle, Sirius," Lily pointed out.

"Shame, that," Sirius commented. "You'd have a lot more blokes interested in Potions if they did."

"Are you suggesting that Lily won't make an extremely attractive Potions professor?" James demanded, gesturing over at his fiancée.

"Nothing of the sort, mate," Sirius replied calmly. "It's just that Lily's not exactly single. Not so easy to fancy her with a big, jealous bloke like you hanging around all the time, now is it?"

"How exactly did _you_ meet Lia Wittle?" Melody said curiously, staring at Sirius, who was sitting next to her.

Sirius suddenly became extremely interested in his sugar quill, and shoved half of it in his mouth at once. "Ifff a ffuggy ffowy, affuwy," he managed, bits of melted quill dribbling unattractively down his chin.

Melody gave him a look of disgust and directed her gaze at Lily, who rolled her eyes and explained about Christmas.

"She has no family, you see, so I thought it might be nice to invite her over here for part of the holidays."

"I see. Over Christmas, was it? How very interesting, Sirius, that you two met over Christmas," Melody said pointedly, and Lily and the rest of her friends traded bemused glances.

"Nuffing 'appened," Sirius said thickly, swallowing most of the sugar quill.

Melody looked over at Sirius for one tense moment and then, seeming to remember herself, dropped her gaze to the carpet of soft, thick grass on which they were all currently lounging. "Right. Of course," she said quickly. "None of my business anyway, right?"

Sirius stared at her as though she'd just sprouted another ear in the middle of her forehead (something Lily had actually seen somebody do as the result of a failed Ear Healing Potion). "Right," he agreed, looking bewildered.

There was a moment of awkward silence in which Sirius stared at Melody, Melody lunged over and grabbed the bag of sugar quills from Peter, and the rest of the group stared at the both of them, hoping for an explanation. Neither of them said anything; Melody began sucking quite intently on the end of a sugar quill, fiddling with the collar of her shirt and staring pointedly at the ground as her cheeks turned red. Sirius took another bite out of his own quill and chewed on it thoughtfully, looking as though he were trying to pretend this was all perfectly normal.

Finally, Remus cleared his throat. "So, Lily…you were saying…."

"I was?" Lily said faintly.

"About potions school…the other students…" Remus continued desperately, even as all the others continued to glance over at Sirius and Melody awkwardly.

"Oh, right…right!" Lily agreed, jumping on it. "The, ah…other students…brilliant, they are…and, ah…some of them…some of them are doing very important ongoing research! Yes! Extremely important, really exciting…completely, um, fascinating…." She trailed off, still unable to remember where she was going with this.

"Have you run into Damocles Belby at all?" Mimi asked, continuing the attempt to change the subject. "He used to be a student there. I think he teaches occasionally."

"Damocles Belby…Belby…" Lily muttered, rolling the name around in her head. "No, but the name sounds _so_ familiar…"

"Well, he ought to," Mimi added, "he won the Flamel prize when he was there."

"Oh—_oh_!" Lily exclaimed, smacking herself on the forehead. "Right! Damocles Belby! We learned about him in History of Potions, he—"

"History of _Potions_?" Peter interjected. "History of Magic was bad enough, but _potions_?"

"Yeah, well, in case you hadn't noticed by now—Lily's a bit of a nerd, really," James commented.

"Oh, shut up, James," Lily huffed, and poked him with her sugar quill.

"Ow!"

"Oh, don't be such a baby…."

"If she's this abusive before you get married, mate…imagine what she'll be like after," Sirius noted, shaking his head solemnly. Both he and Melody seemed to have recovered from…whatever it was.

"Ha ha ha, Sirius, you're so clever," Lily said flatly.

"Yes, well…I'm glad someone noticed." He grinned cheekily.

Melody poked him with her sugar quill.

"Ow!" Sirius glared at her, rubbing his arm. "Now I know how James feels all the time."

"Excuse me? _All the time_?" Lily fumed.

"So, Mimi," Remus said loudly, raising his voice over the pointless bickering, "how do _you_ know Damocles Belby?"

Mimi looked suddenly as though she wished she hadn't brought it up. "Oh, we've…we've met. I've run into him a few times since…since Hogwarts."

Remus's eyes narrowed slightly. "You mean since you started living in…." He trailed off and glanced at Lily, James, Sirius, and Melody, but they didn't seem to be paying too much attention.

"Yes," Mimi said quietly, and Remus looked suddenly furious. Peter glanced between them curiously, but neither offered an explanation.

"Mimi, I thought we talked about this. I thought you agreed you weren't going to be doing any more research—"

"I'm _not_ doing anything dangerous, Remus—at least, not more dangerous than I have been—"

"Look, I just don't think you should be associating with people like him, he's—"

"He's brilliant," Mimi said harshly. "He could help, you know he could—"

"I don't _know_ anything, Mimi, not really—no one does—and I'm sure his work is important, but I've told you a thousand times, I don't want you getting mixed up in all of this—"

"And I've told _you _a thousand times, it's too late for that, I'm already deep in it, and—"

The others had stopped fighting about the relative abusiveness of Lily and James's relationship and were now staring at Mimi and Remus.

"Can we talk about this later?" Mimi hissed. She and Remus had a furious, silent staring contest, which Mimi seemed to win, and then she directed her gaze at Lily and said in an unnaturally loud voice, "So you were saying about Potions school?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Lily said, throwing up her hands. "I'm done pretending any of you care what I have to say about Potions school. If we're not going to talk about what's really going on, can we at least talk about something we're all interested in?"

"Right," Sirius said quickly. "So about the Wimbourne Wasps this season—Ludo Bagman's been playing spectacularly, hasn't he?"

"Haven't seen a Beater like him in years," James agreed, his eyes already beginning to glaze over with the joy of Quidditch talk.

"What was it like trying out against him?" Melody wondered, looking nearly as dreamy as James.

"Sirius couldn't have tried out against Ludo, could he?" Lily frowned, confused. "Ludo's been playing for a while, hasn't he?"

"Well, all the blokes trying out have to play against the starting team. Ludo was already one of the Wasps' star Beaters when I went out for the team, so I got to scrimmage against him. Smacked me good in the head, he did. It was an honor," Sirius recalled, his own eyes looking a little misty.

"This is your brain," Mimi said, pointing at herself. "This is your brain on Quidditch," she continued, pointing at Sirius.

"Hush now, Mimi; you can't appreciate the moment because you weren't there," Sirius replied, his gaze growing ever mistier.

"Yes, and I'm terribly devastated about it," she replied dryly. "Who wouldn't want to sit around for hours waiting for someone to get knocked upside the head? Sounds thrilling."

"It's a wonder you didn't make the team, Sirius," Remus said solemnly. "Staying on your broom after a hit like that must've been fairly impressive…though I expect you were weaving all over the place and running into people, knocking teammates off brooms, that sort of thing."

"Nah, I fell straight off. Landed face first on the ground. I expect that's why they didn't ask me back for the second day."

"That couldn't've been it, mate," James said dismissively. "I'll bet it was a conspiracy."

"Oh, like what?" Melody asked, rolling her eyes. "Like Ludo Bagman felt threatened by his stunning good looks and purposely sabotaged him during try-outs?"

James considered this for a moment. "Yeah. Yeah, that could've been it…."

"Oh, _honestly_," Melody said, and fell forward onto the grass to stretch out.

"Are you suggesting that Sirius is not possessed of stunningly good looks?" Mimi teased.

"Not that Sirius needs me to butter up his ego or anything, but no, that's not what I was suggesting. Sirius is perfectly good-looking and he knows it."

Sirius puffed out his chest pretentiously. "Why thank you," he said imperiously. "I am rather striking, aren't I?"

Lily leaned over and poked him in the chest with the end of her quill. Sirius made a sound like a deflating balloon and looked at her dejectedly. The rest of the group laughed, and Sirius hung his head, pretending to be even more put out.

"So sensitive, Sirius," Lily teased. "Is this how you act when the goblins poke fun at you?"

"Well, they don't literally _poke_ me, for one thing," Sirius said, rubbing his chest. He'd taken a job at Gringott's and had been working as a curse breaker in various parts of the world for the last year.

"They're not a very…pleasant bunch, are they?" Peter asked, sounding as though he'd had some experience with them.

"It depends who you're talking with. Most of them are a bit fed up right now; goblins don't seem to fit into Voldemort's _or_ the Ministry's plans for a brighter tomorrow."

"Yes, well, goblins don't exactly function by the same set of rules as wizards, now do they?" James reasoned.

"But by whose account?" Mimi asked softly. "Wizards haven't exactly given them an equal share in the lawmaking, now have they?"

"Goblins, I assure you, are more than capable of taking care of themselves," Remus replied, looking a little edgy.

"Don't waste too much sleep worrying about the goblins, Mimi," Sirius advised. "Remus is right, they can take care of themselves…and anyway, I very much doubt you'd agree with many of their laws if they did have an equal hand in magical lawmaking."

"Well, I don't agree with all the laws wizards have come up with, either, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't have a hand in it at all!" Mimi cried.

"I suppose it's not a bad thing that you're so concerned over the plight of your fellow creatures, Mimi," James said thoughtfully, "but keep in mind that it's highly unlikely any goblin would be equally concerned over you."

"Well maybe that's because wizards haven't given them the time of day! You know, some of our laws are really unfair—and it's times like now, when we really need all the support we can get, that we tend to neglect some of the fellow-creatures who could help us—we—"

"I didn't realize you were such a goblin fanatic," Peter cut in, looking a bit alarmed at Mimi's zealousness.

"I'm not just talking about goblins," Mimi said fiercely, and her gaze dropped to the grass by her feet, which she started picking at angrily.

The group's eyes, as a whole, seemed to shift awkwardly to Remus, then just as awkwardly away.

"So Melody," Lily said lamely after a moment, "tell us another dueling story."

This proved to be an excellent distraction from all the tension at hand; Melody had competed in over twenty tournaments in the last year in fifteen different countries and had a solid arsenal of stories to choose from. They listened to Melody's lively narration and relaxed, enjoying the night and each other and the dazzling shower of stars above them, talking until they were too hoarse to speak, too tired to see, too content to move. They fell asleep on the plush blanket of grass, and when they awoke in the morning to find they all had pillows under their heads and blankets wrapped around their waists, they didn't question it; they simply yawned and stretched and smiled at one another before trudging sleepily downstairs for breakfast.

* * *

Melody was furious with herself. She'd actually _flirted_ with Sirius last night—what was she _thinking_? Sure, he was still handsome and funny and—and still _Sirius_, but that didn't give her the right to— 

"Just forget it," she advised herself, slamming her jewelry box closed. She was standing in her guest room at Potter's Cottage, gazing at her reflection in the small mirror that stood above her dresser. "It's over," she reminded herself. "It's over, it's over, it's over," she mumbled, in a sort of chant, which she continued under her breath as she finished dressing.

There was no reason for her to lead Sirius on. But last night…with everybody together again, it had felt like being back at Hogwarts, like being her old self with Sirius again….

But she _wasn't_ her old self, and that was the problem. Over the last few months, everything had changed. Melody's goals, her future, her reality…. Of course she still had the ultimate goal of being a dueling champion and challenging Lord Voldemort to avenge her father, but other goals—smaller goals—had suddenly come into sharper relief. And Sirius…Sirius had no business sticking his nose in the way of those things. Not anymore. Not as anything but a friend, anyway.

This was partly Melody's fault, she supposed. If she hadn't seen him in December…if they hadn't….

It hadn't been planned. Hadn't even been anticipated, really. Melody had been on her way home to see her family, but she'd stopped in London to go Christmas shopping before she headed back to her mother's house for the holidays. A full day of shopping had left her a little weary, so she popped into a local pub (not the Leaky Cauldron, even; her family was all Muggles, so she was shopping in an extremely Muggle part of town) for a quick drink, and the next thing she knew she was buying a round with none other than Sirius Black.

She and Sirius had been in fairly constant contact since leaving Hogwarts; she'd owled him, certainly, more frequently than she'd owled anyone else (assuming, of course, that some of her news would then make it back to James and Lily without her having to pay for another international owl), and it wasn't uneasy, sitting with him at the pub, catching up on things. In fact, it had been brilliant and unexpectedly wonderful, seeing Sirius, and she'd lingered at the pub with him too long.

She was there long enough for Sirius to mention that he'd just found a proper flat, having just returned from Turkey on business for Gringott's. His flat was just round the corner, it turned out, and he hadn't been able to show it to anybody yet. He wanted Melody to pop in for a moment, so at the very least she would know where it was—and if she was ever in London for any reason, he wanted her to know where he lived so she could pop in at any time, for any reason at all.

It was an innocent enough proposition, and it would have remained so if Sirius and Melody weren't Sirius and Melody.

Sirius's apartment had been small, but cute. There wasn't much space for furniture, but perhaps that was all the best, because the little furniture Sirius did have filled up the space nicely. The walk to the flat had been cold and snowy—unusually so, they'd noted, even with their insides still a little warm from their round of drinks. Sirius had offered to make her a cup of tea or hot cocoa to warm her up again before she went, and Melody had made some stupid joke about Sirius becoming very domesticated.

It was strange how easily she'd forgotten how handsome he really was, how much she really liked him, how easy it was to laugh with him. That night in December all her frustrations with him, his immaturity, and their relationship seemed to fade away, and Melody let herself be herself around him in a way she hadn't been for a very long time.

But then Melody quickly became an idiot. She'd stayed for a mug of hot cocoa, curled up on the couch next to Sirius and stared into the fire, and could only fool herself for a minute into thinking that there was nothing romantic about it—that she didn't want anything more from Sirius—that the cute little marshmallows in her cup of cocoa were the reason she'd stayed behind—before things got out of hand. For a brief minute, Melody fooled herself into thinking that she and Sirius were going to make it through the night without doing anything stupid.

In the next minute, though, Melody's denial didn't matter, because she and Sirius were kissing—_Sirius's lips guiding hers, his arms wrapped around her, warm and cozy and wonderful—the fire crackling in the background, the two mugs of hot chocolate forgotten on the table—_

God, she'd forgotten how much she liked him.

—_heat flushing through Melody's face, her stomach, her chest—heat from Sirius's mouth, his lips, his hands—Melody's sweater discarded on the floor, next to Sirius's shirt—_

"No," she said loudly, and her voice echoed oddly around the small guest room. "Forget it. It's over," she reminded herself furiously, searching madly through her suitcase for nothing.

She hadn't meant to sleep with Sirius, but she couldn't help herself. They'd made love several times, well into the night, and when Melody awoke the next morning it was to find herself still curled up against him, warm and peaceful and—_late_, late to see her family, so late—

She'd shrieked when she realized the time and nearly tumbled them both out of bed. But even frantic, that morning was fun—running around the apartment collecting various discarded bits of clothing, Sirius feeding her toast as she scurried around gathering up her things—a big swig of orange juice, a quick kiss good-bye, and then—

Nothing.

"_Nothing_," Melody reminded herself harshly.

It had gotten awkward after that, impossible to see him. Melody remembered all of Christmas holidays wishing for a chance to get back down to London, but it never came. She would have been free for New Year's—would have gone to Potter's Cottage to see Lily and James and Sirius—but that was impossible, too; Lucifer had her booked in a tournament on New Year's Eve, and she had to leave again.

For maybe a month or so Melody had entertained notions of getting back together with Sirius, but then she remembered herself. She remembered his lack of commitment, remembered all her frustrations with their relationship. His letters never revealed anything new about his intentions, and he never, even in the palest of hints, insinuated that he wanted anything more from her than he'd gotten in the past—that he had any desire beyond the urge simply to see her—maybe spend the night with her—

And for Melody, that was not enough.

Maybe it would have been different, if she had seen him soon again after that night. Maybe if she'd stayed in England; maybe if they hadn't both gone off chasing different adventures. Maybe, maybe…

"Well, it doesn't matter," she reminded herself, turning back to the mirror and giving herself a once-over. "It's finished now, and you can't go back."

This was truer than Melody cared to think about. She absently fingered something around her neck, though her reflection in the mirror showed nothing in the place her fingers grasped. She dropped her hand and reminded herself to quit fiddling. There would be a time and a place for that, but not now. Not while she was still thinking so strongly of Sirius.

"It isn't fair," she told her reflection bitterly. "Why do I still…"

But she trailed off, leaving the question unfinished.

That was just as well, she thought, turning away from the mirror. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer anyway.

* * *

The morning was full of awkward glances and unspoken conversations and a mound of secrets Lily wasn't sure she wanted to dig through the day before her wedding. Potter's Cottage turned inside out as Lily and James's mothers went frantic with last-minute preparations, directing house elves and hired workers around the backyard and outdoor gardens as they erected several tents, prepared a pedestal, archway, and trellis for the ceremony, and spruced up the foliage and shrubbery for guest enjoyment. The bridesmaids and groomsmen busied themselves with plans for the bachelor and bachelorette parties, which Lily thought was just as well, because when the bridesmaids and groomsmen were together there was almost too much tension to think about. 

Lily and James managed to slip away from the chaos in mid-afternoon and steal down to Godric's Hollow, where they visited their soon-to-be house. It wasn't very well furnished so far—a single couch sat in the middle of the sitting room—but that would be fixed in a matter of days when Lily and James returned from their honeymoon trip to Italy. They curled up on the lone couch, and James produced two glasses and a bottle of champagne he'd smuggled out of the house.

"Is it bad luck to drink wedding champagne before the ceremony?" Lily wondered as James poured her a glass.

James shrugged. "If it is, we're doomed," he said solemnly, filling the second glass and setting the bottle on the floor. He looked into Lily's eyes and they both grinned. "To us," he said, holding up his glass.

"For good luck," Lily agreed, clinking her glass to his. She closed her eyes as she drank, and as the bubbly liquid created a warm burn in her chest she wished for far more than just luck. She wished for…what did she wish for?

Lily sighed and leaned against James, enjoying the feel of his arm wrapped around her, her head close to his, their legs tangled up together.

"When do you think this war will end?" she asked, watching the bubbles rise in the amber-colored liquid.

James was silent for a long moment. "I don't know," he said softly, running a thumb up and down Lily's arm. "I suppose…whenever we find the means to end it."

Lily sighed. This wasn't exactly what she'd been hoping for. "But you do think it will end?" she asked quietly, nudging herself against him further.

"One way or another," James conceded, not altogether reassuringly, but he kissed her forehead and gave her shoulder an affectionate squeeze. Lily sighed and took another sip of champagne before setting the glass on the carpet.

"I just wish…" she voiced, before the thought was half-finished.

"Hm?" James asked.

She wished for a lot of things. For certainty, for peace, for the chance to stay curled up here with James for ages and ages and never let the world seep in. She wished for things she could barely articulate, things she could only just comprehend…for the war to end, certainly, but on a higher level, for it to resolve. All the problems and prejudices and resentments that caused it were more painful to think about than the stark details of the war itself, and each time Lily tried to wrap her head around them, things grew more confusing, less manageable, muddled and unclear and unsolvable.

She tried to think of a way to explain all this to James, to tell him how she hoped for a world in which they could raise children without having to worry over the shadowy suggestion of murder and betrayal and pain in the inconsistent future. She tried to think of a way to express the pounding of her heart and the weakness of her limbs, the shallowness of her breath and the longing ache in her stomach when she touched him. She tried and failed to think how to tell him all the things he meant to her, all the plans that whirled and coalesced and then dissipated inside her head regarding their future, their lives, their marriage. She briefly imagined trying to explain to him the blank void that came when she tried to imagine her life without him, but found it impossible.

Instead, she removed the flute of champagne from his hand and touched her palm to his, examining the way their hands lined up before twining her fingers around his.

Words still refused to come, and Lily looked desperately up at James and hoped he would understand. He raised an eyebrow at her but didn't say anything.

"I…" she began again, feeling stupid. "I wish it were tomorrow," she managed finally.

James gave her a bemused grin and kissed her on the forehead, pulling her to his chest and enveloping her in his arms. Lily sighed and let her eyes flutter closed, feeling the gentle pulse of his heartbeat beneath her ear.

He didn't always understand every little inarticulate thing she tried to say, but he loved her, and that was enough.

* * *

Lily's bachelorette party was going swimmingly, if Melody did say so herself. At least—_Lily_ seemed to be enjoying herself. At first she'd resisted the idea of a bachelorette party, and when they'd gotten there she'd tucked herself away at the smallest, most remote table possible, insisting that she didn't need one more night of fun, she had plenty of fun with _James_, thank you very much, and she just wanted to get married on time tomorrow. 

Several White Russians later, however, Lily was cutting a rug on the dance floor like no other, and Mimi and Melody were lounging by the bar, taking covert blackmail pictures of the bride-to-be and laughing over old times.

The old times, unfortunately, were quickly overshadowed by the new times, and talk unpleasantly shifted to the darker matters at hand.

"I'm glad they're having a nice big wedding," Mimi said, contemplating her half-empty gin and tonic. "Too many people running off and eloping these days, afraid to gather together for a big celebration. It's nice."

"I pity the poor Death Eater who tries to cross Lily and James on their wedding day," Melody joked.

Mimi grinned, and then the grin slowly faded as she thought about the upcoming ceremony. "So," she said softly, "how do _you_ feel about walking down the aisle with your ex?"

Melody and Sirius, as Maid of Honor and Best Man, would be heading down the aisle together tomorrow, arm-in-arm. Melody fiddled around with something near the neckline of her dress and contemplated her drink before responding. "Oh—should be all right, I s'pose. It's not like we're expected to talk or anything."

"Yeah…that's true," Mimi replied, and her gaze dropped sadly to the floor.

"Hey—I've been meaning to ask you. What's going on with you and Remus these days? I thought—I thought you were getting on all right anymore."

Mimi sighed. "We _were_. He's very angry with me right now."

Melody raised her eyebrows expectantly. "Yes. And…why?"

Mimi glanced around. "Come on."

She grabbed her drink and Melody's wrist and led Melody around to the other side of the bar to a deserted cluster of tables. "_Muffliato_," she muttered, casting a spell so no one would accidentally overhear their conversation.

"Remus hardly talks to me anymore," she confessed. "And when he does, it's just to yell at me."

Melody frowned. "But…it seems like you guys are still close. Just…in a fight."

"Well…I suppose we are, but…we're growing more distant. He's _furious_—he—" she stopped herself, putting fingers to her temple. "I might as well just spit it out." She looked Melody dead in the eyes, which was a bit disconcerting, especially considering it was Mimi, who was rarely so frank.

"For the last three months, I've been living in a werewolf community."

Melody blinked at her stupidly. "Wait—_what_?"

Mimi sighed. "I've been trying to learn about them, for—for research purposes. My job at the _Daily Prophet_ is—well, it's just a source of income. What I really care about is—helping. Trying to help werewolves—any of them—all of them—especially Remus, but he…doesn't agree, he thinks I'm being stupid."

Melody stared at her. "And…in what way would you consider this _not_ stupid? I mean—have you been turned into a werewolf yourself?"

"No! I mean…not yet, anyway."

"Not _yet_? Are you _insane_? Do you know how _dangerous_ it is to live in a werewolf community when you're not a werewolf yourself?"

"They're not dangerous!" Mimi cried, slamming her glass onto the table. "They're just—horribly misunderstood."

"Mimi, they turn into bloodthirsty monsters once a month. I'd say they're a little dangerous."

"Not when they're _humans_ they're not! And—and anyway, that's the whole _point_ of all of this. I'm trying to do research to see if there's anything I can do to _help_ them! To—to make them be _not_ bloodthirsty monsters once a month!"

Mimi looked desperate, frenzied, and Melody saw quite clearly what pressure Mimi had put herself under these past few months.

"But…Mimi…_how_ are you going to…what do you think you're…there's no cure for lycanthropy, Mimi."

"I know that," she snapped, draining the rest of her glass. "But just think—if I could come up with _something_ to make the transformations less painful—less violent—think what that could do! I mean, do you know how many wizards even _care_ about werewolf rights?" Mimi gave Melody no time to respond. "Nobody does, Melody—just the werewolves themselves. And—God, if you could see the way they live, it's _terrible_—they're forced into their own secluded communities, they hunt in packs—they have _hierarchies_, for goodness sake, that carry over into their human lives. The longer they live together the more intense their animalistic tendencies become—and no one wants to help them—most wizards hate and fear them—"

"And you think you're going to be able to _fix_ all this? Mimi, this goes way deeper than a simple potion or spell or—"

"I KNOW THAT! But someone has to take the first step—_someone_ has to try, before they're all driven completely out of the wizards' radar and they all take sides with You-Know-Who!"

Melody fell silent. Mimi looked crazed, her eyes a little bloodshot, her hands shaking slightly. Melody knew Mimi cared about Remus, but she'd never—never realized the extent of her friend's _obsession_ before—hadn't been around to see the changes taking place. "Mimi, I…"

"I'm sorry," Mimi said quickly. "I shouldn't get so angry with people. It's just—no one seems to _understand_, not even Remus, he—"

"Mimi," Melody interrupted. "I think _that_, at least, should be obvious. Remus is worried about you. He doesn't want you putting yourself in unnecessary danger."

"Well, it's for his benefit, damn it! He should be grateful!"

Melody gazed at her for a moment, thinking. "He didn't ask you to do this, you know."

"I know," Mimi said, and dropped her head into her hands. "That's why it's so frustrating. If I want to be with him, I have to give all this up. If I give all this up, I—" She looked up at Melody, her eyes sad now instead of infuriated. "I _love_ doing this, Melody. I love the research. I love the feeling that I—that I might be doing something _important_ with my life, that I have a purpose, I—" She cut herself off and shook her head, tears swimming suddenly into her eyes. "I can't just let him go on in agony. I can't just sit here and let them suffer."

Melody sighed and let her gaze fall to her hands. She thought of her wand, of her dueling. Of her father, of Voldemort. Of Lin and Paolo and Lily's family all those who'd fallen, lost, at the hands of the Dark Lord. She wasn't about to sit idly by, either, and let things go on—why should she insist Mimi do the same?

"I know how you feel," Melody said softly. "Believe me, I…"

"I know," Mimi said fiercely, leaning over and squeezing Melody's hand. "That's why I told you."

Melody looked up and grinned. "Some wedding this is going to be, huh?"

Mimi laughed. "Let's try to keep as much of the angst away from Lily and James as possible. They're pretty much the perfect couple—they don't need any kinks messing up their wedding day."

* * *

"Melody, I don't know if I can do this." 

"_What_? Lily, have you lost your _mind_?"

"I—I—I don't know, I just—I woke up this morning, and I thought—hey, maybe this is a bad idea. Maybe this is a _terrible_ idea. Maybe—maybe you're not ready for this kind of commitment after all. Maybe James isn't either. Maybe—maybe we shouldn't be doing this."

"Okay, Lily, calm down. Please. Just—breathe slowly for a second, all right?"

Melody put her hands on the bride's shoulders and stared at her until Lily appeared to be breathing normally again.

She was completely dolled up, laced into her corset, practically sewn into her unbelievably gorgeous sleeveless wedding gown, veil draped artistically over her head, bouquet in hand, waiting in the wedding tent for the ceremony to start—and she chose _now_ to get cold feet.

"Lily. You're going to marry James."

"I know, but—but—but should I?"

Melody stared at her. "Um…_yes_."

"Oh. Oh, right. You—you're sure?"

"I—Lily. _Yes_."

"Right. Okay."

Lily turned back to the mirror and examined herself. She fidgeted, messing with her veil and the neckline of her dress.

"But—but what if I'm _not_ ready?" she demanded, whirling around to face her best friend.

"Oh, for heaven's sake…Lily, come here." Melody grabbed Lily's hands and dragged her to the small couch on the other side of the tent. "Just listen for a sec. I…you love James, right?"

Lily nodded.

"You said yes when he proposed to you?"

She nodded again.

"And you didn't have second thoughts about it then?"

"Well—no, not at the _time_—"

"Just hush. Yes or no, please."

"Well—no, not really."

"Right. Perfect. Okay, so—you've been engaged for over a year, and you've made it this far, and—any second thoughts before now?"

Lily thought for a moment, her face screwed up in concentration. She shook her head slowly.

"Good. All right. So…just…answer me this, Lily. When you think about your future…can you imagine James not being in it?"

Lily looked at her steadily, thoughts churning around inside her head.

"I mean…when you think about it, can't you…can't you picture yourselves together for a long time? Can't you imagine yourselves growing old together, raising a family together, living together until you're a little old lady and he's a little old man, and you—you're puttering around the house together, you know?" Melody's eyes, at this point, started to go a little misty. "And—and you're still arguing about Qudditch, you know? About—about whose team is better, and—and about the old days, about who should have won the Quidditch Cup at Hogwarts way back when, and—and who pulled the better pranks, and—" She cut herself off, thinking, eyes shimmering with thought.

"Well—you're nosing around for an old spellbook in the kitchen, and he's still racing around the backyard on a broomstick, whacking things around, and you're always arguing about the dumbest things, and—neither of you can remember the names of all your grandkids, but that's okay because you give them all the same thing for Christmas every year anyway—a bag of Dungbombs, of course—and—you have your old Hogwarts friends over all the time, because—well, you just can't get enough of each other, and—and the war's long over, and you made it through all right, and it's just—you're just—"

"Happy," Lily finished, and Melody blinked, surprised to see that her best friend was still there.

"Right," Melody agreed, and both girls were looking a little more than misty-eyed.

"Melody, why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell—tell you what?"

"You're still in love with Sirius."

Melody's cheeks flushed violently. "I am _not_. I—we—we're not even _together_ anymore, I've—"

"Then why were you thinking about you and him growing old together?"

"I—I wasn't."

Lily snorted. "Well, James doesn't go around _whacking_ things when he's on a broomstick. He's a Seeker, not a Beater, and anyway—what makes you think James and I would give our grandkids _Dungbombs_ for Christmas? That sounds much more like you and Sirius than it does me and James."

"Ah, but—see—you haven't got cold feet anymore, have you?"

"Well, no, but—"

"Oh, _there_ you two are! Come on, come on—we're starting!" Mimi said, bursting into the tent and grinning wildly. "You look fantastic, Lily. Come on, Melody—let's get a move on!"

She grabbed Melody by the arm and yanked her out of the tent, leaving Lily alone for another few minutes to compose herself.

* * *

The evening was perfect. Not too hot, not too cool…slightly cloudy, but light fluffy clouds only, being tinged all shades of orange and pink and purple as the sun blazed downward over the horizon. All the frantic work and preparation paid off—the guests made it to their seats with ease, the ceremony started on time, and when Lily appeared at the end of the aisle, everyone had an excellent view of the bride, who by the time she caught sight of James was grinning so widely her face practically beamed with light. 

Lily forgot about the wedding. Lily forgot about her dress, about the dozens of people sitting around watching her walk up the aisle, about the large and unusually heavy bouquet she was holding, and just stared at James Potter's face as she walked toward him, taking the most significant few steps of her life as she joined him on the altar.

"Lily-bean, you look…wow," James whispered, taking her hand.

"Not so bad yourself, Jamesie-poo," she whispered back, grinning.

Lily wasn't quite there for the rest of the ceremony. She just stared at James, grinning, as they tried to make faces at each other in a subtle manner.

When they got to the "I do"s, Lily's throat tightened involuntarily. She was afraid the words weren't going to come out, that her voice would squeak, that she wouldn't be able to—

"I do," she said, warmly and evenly, surprising herself. She grinned, feeling ridiculous—she couldn't _stop_ grinning—but found that she didn't care so much about feeling ridiculous just now. Her _I do_ had somehow come out perfectly; it—it somehow sounded just like her, just how she felt, just at this very moment. How could two small words do such a thing?

And then it was James's turn.

"I _do_," he said, his eyes dancing merrily, and in those small words, he, too managed to capture the essence of his mischievous, trouble-making, deceivingly sweet little self.

And then their wedding bands were on, and then marriage rushed at Lily in the form of a kiss—long and sweet and innocent—and then the ceremony was finished, and Mr. and Mrs. Potter turned to beam out at their friends, and Lily caught sight of her mother sobbing and smiling in the front row, and Lily laughed out loud, tears sparkling happily in her eyes, greeting the world as Lily Evans no more.

* * *

"How're you holding up?" Sirius asked, depositing himself in the seat next to Melody. 

She grinned. "Oh, you know…comfortable shoes, a few glasses of champagne…not too shabby, really."

Sirius nodded, grinning himself. "Hard to believe, isn't it?" he said, gesturing toward Lily and James on the dance floor. "Those two finally tying the knot."

"Yeah," Melody agreed, shaking her head. "And to think she used to slap him every time he tried to kiss her."

Sirius laughed. "Look at them now, eh? All grown up and off to fight the Dark Lord…."

Melody twirled her glass of champagne around between her fingers before taking a drink. She tried, with some difficulty, to ignore the fact that Sirius was now staring at her. "It's all happening so fast these days, isn't it?" she managed, with a glance across the table. He was now looking at her as though he hadn't properly seen her for ages.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "It's getting a little hard to keep up with, I think." He paused for a moment, and Melody continued to contemplate her champagne.

"Melody…" Sirius began, and seemed unable to finish.

"Hm?" Melody glanced up and her heart gave a little jolt. _Damn it. Not fair_.

"How've you been?" he asked softly, and Melody shifted uncomfortably as jolts of memory burst through her head. That night in December…Sirius's apartment….

She'd convinced herself that she would forget about it, that Sirius wasn't right for her, and over the past few months, Lucifer…Lucifer helped her forget; he promised her things Sirius couldn't; he….

"I've been good. Dueling's going well and everything. It's been…busy," she said, glancing into Sirius's eyes for a moment, wondering if he would pick up the hint of apology on her face.

He nodded. "Congratulations to you, by the way, on being ranked," he said, and lifted his glass of champagne for a toast. He grinned. "Though I'm not sure I should be saluting the fact that you're now more lethal with a wand than you were at Hogwarts."

She grinned. She didn't deserve for him to have glossed over that moment, for him to be at all forgiving for the way she'd let things fall apart. But it seemed like he truly wanted things to be easier between them, and Melody wasn't about to mess that up by being anything other than lighthearted. "Scared, Black?" she teased.

"Nah," he shrugged, leaning back in his chair lazily, "I think I could still take you."

Melody let out a bark of laughter. "Oh _really_? Care to find out?"

Sirius grinned at the familiar look of challenge on Melody's face and took a sip of champagne. "I'm not sure we ought to risk it at Lily and James's wedding. Lily might kill us both."

"Good point." Melody grinned back at Sirius for a long moment before realizing she was flirting with him.

She dropped her gaze and stared back into her glass, which was now nearly empty. How many had she had? Her heart was pounding oddly, and she felt a ridiculous flush creeping up her neck.

If she hadn't slept with Sirius in December, this wouldn't be an issue. She would have been able to convince herself that she had to get over him, that he wasn't ready, he would never be, and she couldn't torture herself anymore being in love with someone who didn't want the same things she did. It was over now. She had someone else, she…

"Hey," Sirius said, frowning at the look on Melody's face, "you all right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," Melody lied, and drained the rest of her champagne. She hoped that Sirius would regard the sudden flush on her face as the result of alcohol and not of him.

"You seem a little…edgy."

"Hm? No, I just think…maybe a little too much champagne, a little too much dancing…I need to clear my head."

"Ah, I see. Well…in that case, do you want to go for a walk? Get away from all this? I hear the gardens look marvelous."

If Melody had continued staring at the ground and put her head in her hands and claimed she was suddenly too dizzy to go for a walk, she would have been able to avoid it. As it was, however, she made the monumental mistake of glancing up at him for a moment—one small fraction of a moment—and the look on Sirius's face—

"Yeah, all right," Melody agreed, somewhat stupidly, and Sirius set down his glass of champagne and stood, holding his hand out for her in a surprisingly gentlemanlike fashion. Melody took it, and after she stood, Sirius didn't let go, lacing his fingers through hers and leading her in the direction of the outdoor gardens.

They wound through tables of wedding guests, and by the time they got to the first enormous hedge Melody was ready to turn back. Her mind screamed that this was a terrible idea, that she shouldn't go anywhere alone with Sirius, that she would lose her head if she did…. It wasn't right—it wasn't fair—it wasn't smart, and Melody was on the verge of twisting her hand from Sirius's grasp and walking away when he turned his head to grin at her.

Melody met his eyes again, and in that moment she was lost. Stupidity overcame her, and she followed him blindly into the maze, ignoring her conscience and listening only to the happy little tingles that bounced around her and Sirius's interlocked hands, running up and down her arms and bubbling inside her brain at such an alarming rate that they consumed all common sense.

The first section of the indoor gardens was full of other wedding guests. Sirius and Melody stopped every so often to admire a particularly nice topiary depicting a unicorn or hippogriff before moving on. They wound their way through the hedges into sections of the indoor gardens that contained fountains, shape-shifting bushes, and ever-blooming flowerbeds, until they reached a small deserted area with a fountain carved in the shape of house elves that no one else seemed to have stumbled across.

They halted and stared at the fountain for a few long moments. Sirius, seeming to decide that no one else was going to interrupt them, shifted ever slightly closer and looked down at her.

"How have you been, really? I mean, besides dueling and all that. Have you been all right?"

Melody wasn't quite sure where he was going with this, but the part of her brain that hadn't gone momentarily ga-ga felt uneasy about it. "I've been fine, Sirius. Really."

"I haven't heard from you much the last few months."

Even the ga-ga part of Melody couldn't quite stand looking into his eyes and having this conversation, so she let her gaze drop downward, which unfortunately brought it to rest on their interlocked hands. She liked the feel of it, warmth flowing from one hand to another, and the look of her long elegant fingers tangled up in Sirius's larger, rougher ones. "I know. I'm sorry. I've been…busy."

"I missed hearing from you."

Melody closed her eyes as the non ga-ga part of her overwhelmed her with guilt. "I'm sorry," she repeated, softer this time, and began to wish that she hadn't had quite so much champagne. If she hadn't, perhaps she wouldn't be swaying on the spot, leaning in toward Sirius, misleading…

"Melody, I…I miss you. You in general, not just…hearing from you. I miss talking to you, I miss seeing you…." Sirius brought his other hand to Melody's chin and tipped her head upward. Melody almost didn't want to know what would happen if she looked directly into Sirius's eyes again, but she couldn't help herself.

Melody's stomach fell out of her. In all the time she and Sirius had known each other, not once had he looked at her like—like—_that_.

And for one long, unfortunate moment, Melody forgot that this was not okay. It was no longer appropriate for Sirius to look at her like that, like he wanted her and only her, and forget everything else.

But Melody didn't move, just stared back at him dumbly. He seemed to take this the wrong way, because before she had a chance to move or even really blinked, he leaned down and started kissing her.

Melody must have had a few more glasses of champagne than she thought, because when she closed her eyes her head started spinning, and she realized she was drunk, drunk and kissing Sirius, and for a long moment of delirium couldn't remember why this was a bad thing. Heat flushed through her as she leaned into him, and the world refused to right itself—she couldn't tell if she stood there kissing him for a minute or much longer, but it didn't matter, really—she was pleasantly oblivious, whether because of Sirius or the drink she couldn't say—but that didn't matter, either. It wasn't until Sirius pulled her closer against him and something round and hard dug into her chest that she remembered she wasn't supposed to be doing this, that this wasn't good—this wasn't good at all.

She pulled away slowly, meeting with some reluctance on Sirius's end. The world was still spinning slightly, so she kept her arms around his neck and tried not to appear as drunk as she was.

"Oops," Melody giggled, feeling even more heat rush to her face.

"Oops?" Sirius echoed. "How much champagne have you _had_?"

"Oh, you know…three or four or…five…or so."

"_Five_? Melody, the reception didn't even start an hour ago."

"_No_," she protested, speaking perhaps a little too loudly. She shook her head and spots danced in front of her eyes. Damn. She hated it when it hit her all at once like this. "It was like…hour and a _half_ ago."

"Oh yes, that's much better," Sirius said dryly, gripping her waist as she swayed backwards slightly.

"Don't get all sarcastic on me, Sirius Black," Melody frowned, holding up a finger to wag at him. "I'm practically sober. I could _walk_ home."

"Home where? Home to London, a hundred miles away?"

"Oh. Right. Well I bet I could _Floo_ there."

"Yeah, I can really see you spinning around in a fireplace right now. That sounds like a smashing idea."

"Oooh, there you go _again_," she pouted, and put her finger on his nose. She wasn't really sure why. She'd meant to poke him in the chest.

Sirius raised his eyebrows at her. If Melody wasn't very much mistaken, he looked a bit…amused. "You're _drunk_," he noted, grinning.

"So? I'm an adult! I've been pissed before, you know."

Sirius laughed. "Yes, I know. I've just never _seen_ you."

"Not true. That night-at-the-pub. _Totally_ drunk then."

"Not like this. We were there for a while. We ate dinner." He frowned suddenly. "Have you eaten today?"

Melody threw up her arms and almost fell backwards. "They haven't cut the cake yet!"

Sirius laughed again, straightening her up. "Jesus. You're _smashed_."

"You don't have to keep saying it." Melody put her arms back around his neck.

He looked down at her, frowning again. "Is that why you kissed me? Because you're drunk?"

Melody swayed again, this time leaning in toward Sirius. "I don't…_think_ so." She blinked and squinted until he came into focus. "I think you kissed _me_."

"Well, you didn't seem to _mind_."

"I didn't mind."

"Oh."

Melody only briefly had time to register that this may have been the wrong thing to say before Sirius kissed her again.

She couldn't help herself. She kissed him back some more, wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing herself against him and forgetting—forgetting—

"Wait," she said, remembering suddenly. "This is _bad_."

"Bad?" Sirius looked a bit dazed. He looked down at her but didn't move, didn't try to detangle his hand from her hair, didn't quite move his face far enough from hers for her to finish that thought.

"Mm-hmm," she agreed, kissing him again. "Bollocks. Also not good."

"And this?" Sirius wondered, leaning in and offering her yet another thing to regret.

"Mm," Melody agreed, unable to resist. "Terrible."

Sirius grinned, perhaps thinking it a game. "Why so terrible?"

"Because, I'm…" She got distracted as he kissed her. "I…" And again. "I shouldn't, I'm…."

Melody was still quite drunk, but she was coming to her senses. It was too bad the drunken part of her enjoyed being with Sirius so much, but perhaps…perhaps it was a good thing she was drunk enough to want to tell him now, now…now at least he'd gotten a chance to say good-bye properly, even if he didn't know just now that that was what he'd been doing.

"Please…stop. For—for a minute," Melody managed, frowning and feeling suddenly ill at ease.

Sirius frowned down at her. "You're not going to be sick? You haven't had _that_ much to drink, have you?"

"No…no, it's not that, it's…I'm sorry," she said finally, looking up into his dark brown eyes once more. She placed a hand on one side of his face. She probably shouldn't have—she probably shouldn't have been touching him at all anymore, in fact—but everything still felt so blurry, her head was still spinning around in a dizzying rush, and—

"We can't do this anymore," she blurted. "We can't keeping messing each other around."

Sirius looked oddly brightened by this statement, but Melody was yet too drunk to process exactly what that might mean. "Melody—Melody, I don't want to keep messing you around. I don't. I want us to be something better than that."

"Good. No, wait—better than that? How—how better?"

"Merlin's pants, Melody, come on, even—even smashed, you ought to know how I feel."

"I…." It took a moment for the words to come. "That's not what I meant. Not—not—not what I meant," she clarified.

Sirius stared at her, the furrow between his brows creasing darkly, faint realization sweeping over his face as Melody refused to meet his gaze. "What did you mean then, Melody?"

"I…I meant…we _can't_. Because I…I've…."

Sirius closed his eyes. "Shit," he whispered. "You've—you've gone and gotten someone else, have you?"

Their hands were still tangled up in each other. They blurred under Melody's gaze—her world started spinning again—she didn't quite register until the first tear landed on her wrist that she was now crying. She pulled away, wiping hastily at her eyes.

"Sirius, I thought—I mean, I _never_ thought we'd—we—we were over, Sirius. I had to move on."

"Over? Melody, we were never over. We…" Sirius grabbed her by the arms. "How can you say that? How can you stand here right _now _and say that, when we've…"

"I was wrong." Melody stared at the ground, tears dribbling down her cheeks. "I'm—I'm sorry, Sirius, but I—"

"Look, can't you just dump the guy? Can't you just..."

But Melody shook her head violently, and then grabbed Sirius as the world lurched toward her. "Too late, too late, too _late_," she whispered, miserable.

"Melody, it's not—it's _never_—"

"No! It is—it is—it _is_, it is—it IS! Too _late_!" Hands shaking, she pushed away from Sirius and grappled for the invisible chain around her neck. "I meant to tell you, I—I couldn't think how—how to tell _anybody_, but now…" She tugged until the chain came out from under her dress, then ran it through her fingers until it shimmered into being. The world fractured again as tears swam into her eyes, and she sobbed as she held up the two rings dangling on the end of the chain. Her diamond engagement ring sparkled. Her golden wedding band shone.

Her Sirius went paler than moonlight and backed away from her, stunned.

Melody put a hand over her mouth and cried. "I'm—I'm _sorry_," she managed to choke out. "I never meant to—"

"Who?" Sirius demanded, hoarsely.

"Sirius, if you only knew—"

"Who?" he demanded again.

"Sirius, I—he—he's been—"

"WHO?" Sirius bellowed, and Melody tried to wipe away the stream of tears cascading down her cheeks.

"L—Lucifer. Lucifer M—Malfoy," she managed, and managed to clear her vision enough to see the look of absolute disgust and horror on Sirius's face just before he turned and walked away.

"S—Sirius, _wait_! Please—I—"

She tried to run after him, but he didn't slow down, didn't acknowledge her, didn't even glance over his shoulder when she stumbled, cried out, and sent her drunken, miserable self flying to the ground.

* * *

Lily sat alone at a table with the final glass of champagne, contemplating the night sky. The guests were gone, the dance floor deserted, but Lily remained, alone with her thoughts, content with her life, bursting towards happiness in a way she never had before. 

James, his jacket unbuttoned and bowtie undone, came up behind her and kissed her on the neck as he lowered himself into the seat next to her.

"Well, Mrs. Potter," he said, grinning. "How did you find the evening?"

Lily turned her head and smiled, her face shining in the starlight. "Practically perfect, Mr. Potter," she replied, "in every way."

James leaned over and tucked a stray bit of hair behind her ear. She grabbed his hand and kissed the back of it.

"I was just thinking we—oh, James—_look_!"

She pointed, gasping, over his shoulder, and James turned around, eyebrows raised, and laughed. "Fancy that."

At the edge of the forest lining the property, several unicorns appeared, their silver and gold coats shining in the moonlight.

Lily laughed as well. "God, that's perfect. This whole day has just been so…"

"Perfect?" James suggested, turning back to her and grinning again.

"Oh, shut it. You know there's no other word for it."

"Well, maybe there is. How do you know there isn't?"

"Well, can _you_ think of one?"

"I ought to be able to. I am the brains of this operation, you know," James said stretching his arms over his head cockily.

"Oh, are you _really_?" Lily demanded, poking him in the stomach. "Since _when_, I'd like to know?"

"Since I became Mr. Potter, naturally. The Mister always takes precedence over the Missus."

"Well, we'll just have to see about that, _won't_ we, Mr. Potter?" Lily said, glaring, her brilliant green eyes giving off a fresh pickled toad-like aura of challenge. (And fresh pickled toads, mind you, have been known to be extremely challenging.)

"Oh, I don't think that'll be necessary. You see, I just happen to _know _these things."

Lily let out a bark of laughter. "Oh, that's rich. God, what ever made me think it was a good idea to marry such a _prat_, anyway?" she demanded, leaning closer to him, her eyes still sparking dangerously.

"Well, I'm extremely athletic and attractive, you see. This was all part of my master plan," James replied easily, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

"Oh, stuff it, you great overgrown antler-head," she said as their noses touched.

"Whatever you say, my dearest fuzzy-wuzzy Lily-bean plant," James said, grinning as their lips brushed.

"I thought we talked about you never calling me that."

"Right," James said, putting his hands to her face. "Sorry, Mrs. Potter. I'll have to work on that."

"Yes. See that you do."

And for just one moment, the world seemed to make sense, as the stars shimmered brightly overhead and James and Lily Potter kissed in the moonlight.

* * *

A/N: The end.

Except…it's not.

One last green-eyed, slap-happy, potion-brewing, spell-casting, necklace-wearing, James Potter-kissing, hormonal teenage THANK YOU (no, not a Lily Evans, but a THANK YOU) goes out to everyone who has ever read this story, particularly those of you who have made it to the end. Specific thanks extended to Holly, Emily, and Lia for all their help and support over the grueling years. (You know who you are.)

So now it is the time for grand decisions. Will you scroll down to the bottom and leave me a lovely and generous review…or will you read everything that is to follow and THEN leave me a lovely and generous review? (If I were you, I would just go straight to the reviewing. Not that I'm, you know, biased or anything. And I'm definitely not hinting anything. Definitely not.)

In the following paragraphs, I am going to _attempt_ to write out a summary of everything that is supposed to happen after the end of "Eyes." I may not remember everything correctly and some of it might not make any sense, but I feel like I have to do it, because I'm never going to write any of it, and I feel like you guys ought to know.

So…here goes.

In case you weren't aware, "Eyes as Green as a Fresh Pickled Toad" was intended to be a prequel to the fic "A Lily Story," which mysteriously stopped long ago at the end of Chapter Seven because I wrote a cliffhanger to which I had no predetermined conclusion, and then I couldn't think of a good conclusion for it so I stopped writing A Lily Story and started working on Eyes instead. (Because that's how cool I am.) So if you've already read A Lily Story, you'll know that it is an Alternate Universe fic in which Lily and James do not die. This has basically been my excuse, over the years, for all the discrepancies between "Eyes…" and Harry Potter canon. (Lily being in Ravenclaw, Frank Longbottom being in Hufflepuff, everyone in the world getting to be a Prefect, etc.) Also I started writing this story pre-OotP, so frankly there were just a bunch of things I didn't know.

Anyway, so after the end of Eyes, this is basically what happens to the characters:

MIMI

Mimi dies before Harry is born. You could call her either a casualty of the war or of her own stupidity, but either way her attempt to help the werewolves leads to her downfall. She campaigns for werewolf rights even after Voldemort has recruited many of them to his side, and as a result faces persecution from the Ministry. She ends up dying in a werewolf attack led by Fenrir Greyback. One of her former research companions, Damocles Belby, who she mentions in this Epilogue, goes on to invent the Wolfsbane Potion.

She never resolves her relationship with Remus.

MELODY

Melody and Lucifer have a child named Alex. A long time ago, Alex and Melody were both part of another story I wrote called Ginny's Hogwarts, which has since been deleted from cyberspace and which I no longer have a complete copy of. For some reason (and perhaps because it was pre-GoF??), I thought it would be a great idea if Lucifer Malfoy were somehow related to Voldemort and for his son, Alex, to be the next heir of Slytherin. As a result, Alex can speak Parseltongue and is semi-badass (but, because of his mum, not evil). Melody eventually discovers Lucifer's strong ties to the Dark Lord and ends up poisoning Lucifer to escape his home. She flees to Godric's Hollow and lives with Lily and James for a while before finding a place of her own.

LILY AND JAMES

Meanwhile, Harry is born, the Dark Lord is on a rampage, and Lily and James choose Sirius as their Secret Keeper instead of Wormtail. Not long after, Wormtail is found out as a spy and Remus (whom they had been suspecting because of all the werewolf nonsense) is acquitted of all suspicions. Lily and James soon have another child, only a year younger than Harry, whom they name Melody. (This younger Melody is the same age as Melody Cauldwell's son Alex.)

THE PLOT OF A LILY STORY

James works as an Auror and Lily is the Potions master at Hogwarts. After running away from Lucifer, Melody gets a job as Dueling Mistress at Hogwarts. Remus may or may not be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Sirius is probably an Auror as well, but I sort of don't remember.

Anyway, from what I recall, A Lily Story was about both Lily's and Harry's generations as Harry moved through his first four years at Hogwarts. There were a lot of significant details that I changed from canon because of Lily and James living. For one thing, Harry had a different wand and he couldn't speak Parseltongue; Voldemort never attacked him, so there was no reason for there to be a connection. Neville Longbottom I depicted as a perfectly normal boy, both his parents still sane (because according to canon, they weren't tortured to the point of insanity until after Voldemort's downfall), and Neville also had a little sister, the same age as Harry's little sister. (This detail about Neville, of course, was written pre-OotP, so I had no way of knowing about the prophecy.)

I also intended for each year to mimic, in some ways, the plots of the original books. During Harry's first week at school, for example, Melody schemes to get Harry on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, because of course being raised by wizard parents, Harry already knows he's quite good at Quidditch. There also may have been some namby-pamby planned involving the Sorcerer's Stone, but I don't entirely remember. (I know…great summary, right?)

Meanwhile, Lily and James and Melody have left their youngest children (Alex and Melody) in Sirius's charge. They live in Lily and James's house in Godric's Hollow during the school year, with Lily and James dropping in to visit as frequently as possible.

James gets sent off on Auror spy missions frequently, and at the point where I stopped writing, he's in the middle of a mission that requires camping in Siberia, and in the middle of the night all the Aurors wake up to see the Dark Mark painted across the sky.

Yeah, I'm not really sure what happens here, but James gets out of it just fine. Let's move forward.

Lily occasionally has terrible dreams and premonitions (some of them necklace-related, some not; for example, when James is in trouble in Siberia, she knows about it through the necklace), some of them resulting in her waking up with her lifeline bleeding. She often dreams about the HP canon world, the world we read about in J.K. Rowling's wonderful (and far better-planned) books that have inspired all this nonsense I'm currently writing about. She sees Harry growing up with the Dursleys, sees him being neglected, and has snatches of dreams about his accomplishments at Hogwarts as he ages and tackles greater and greater feats throughout the years.

But of course in the world I'm writing about none of this actually happens, so let's move on.

Yeah. Can't think of any more really crucial plot points in First Year, mostly because there weren't any and even if there were I don't remember them.

So, Second Year Alex and Melody (and Ginny Weasley!) come to Hogwarts, get Sorted into Gryffindor (yep, that's right—the heir of Slytherin gets put in Gryffindor), and at some point during the year Alex discovers the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and opens it, which causes major problems, which are probably resolved by the combined efforts of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and maybe some twiddly insignificant professors like…Harry's mom, perhaps, or Dumbledore or someone.

Meanwhile, Lily continues to grow sick with worry over James and his Auror business, the war gets worse, Sirius and Melody are patching up their relationship and flirting again, and because I can't remember what happens, Remus is basically not a huge part of the plot. He probably would be if I actually sat down and wrote it, but whatever.

In Third Year, Harry may or may not uncover the secret of the Shrieking Shack, but all the Third Years do get to go down to Hogsmeade (yay!), and this leads to some intense spying on the part of the younger Melody and Alex (who, even though they are only in Second Year, steal Harry's invisibility cloak and follow all the Third Years to Hogsmeade anyway), whose parents have started dating again. (You all knew Melody and Sirius were going to get back together. Come on.) This culminates in Sirius proposing to Melody (_finally_), and everyone is happy as a clam.

At least until Fourth Year, when the school is attacked by Voldemort and Melody dies. (It's such a shame.) Well, I think this is what happens anyway. At any rate, the school is attacked by _some_one, and Melody appears to be a casualty, and everyone has lots of issues, and clearly I never plotted this whole thing out very well because I cannot for the life of me remember what happens. (But, fortunately, I don't have to know what's going to happen in a story for me to be able to write a thousand pages of it. This is precisely how I wrote Eyes, at least for the first couple years. I didn't really have anything planned out for it, I just sat down every once in a while and made shit up as I went. Then later I plotted it out and the chapters started getting really long, because I realized I was better at writing nothing than writing plot, so it became very difficult and quite lengthy to fit the bits of plot I needed to fit in each chapter with all the nothing. 'S a very tricky business, writing. If you're going to do it, you should probably be more organized than me.)

Anyway, right, okay, Melody's dead, at least for a while until they discover she's actually been Transfigured into something else and buried in the ground outside Hogwarts. There used to be a really baller reason for this. Like…someone specific attacked Melody to get revenge on her for poisoning Lucifer (possibly, I don't know, Lucius Malfoy was ticked off by this or something), and they wanted her gone but they didn't want her dead, or…or they were trying to kill her but Melody Transfigured herself at the last minute to save herself, and the enemy never figured it out. Of course, unfortunately, her friends had no idea what the hell was going on either, so it took them a long time to figure out what the hell had happened to her…possibly until they captured Lucius Malfoy and extracted his memory and put it in a Pensieve and saw what Melody did to herself. (Ooh. That sounds good. Let's go with that.)

Then everyone is really glad Melody is back, especially Alex and Sirius, and things appear to be getting better. At least for a little while. This is where A Lily Story ends.

I know it seems kind of inappropriately named at this point, because I've told you pretty much nothing about what happens to Lily, but that's only because, as I have mentioned before, I don't really remember. But rest assured lots of stuff happens with Lily. She is around for all of this nonsense. And she maintains a solid relationship with her kids and spends a lot of time worrying about James.

And then there's another story that follows this one, called:

BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES

This fic opens with Melody and Sirius getting hitched. It's a really fun celebration, and compared to Lily and James's wedding there's no drama at all.

Except, I guess, with the younger generation. This is about the time all the kids realize they have hormones and start hooking up with each other. I'm pretty sure I remember the pairings for this story, but I could be wrong. Oh well. At any rate, at some point in either 5th or 6th year, the following people become couples: Melody/Alex, Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione. This sounds right to me now because it's pretty much just canon pairings, so I might be remembering incorrectly. But who cares.

Anyway…the big plot points in fifth year were all probably teenage relationship-related, because when I actually plotted out this story (apparently without writing any of it down, because I rarely have the patience for that kind of thing), HP5 hadn't come out yet, so I didn't have anything to base the 5th year on.

So yeah. I'm sure something happens. And then in 6th year, I toyed with having the major plot point be Lily leaving James for a while, because she just couldn't stand worrying about him anymore. Mostly I knew this would throw my readers into absolute conniptions, so I kind of wanted to do it because I'm evil like that, and also for some reason I had plans to bring Ethan back into the story, to hit on Lily and make her realize she could never ever _really_ leave James. They get back together. Don't worry.

Yeah, okay, and at SOME point here, Lily, James, Sirius, and Melody were going to use Lily's necklace to travel to the past to talk to Godric Gryffindor about Lily's necklace, and Gryffindor's Castle, and other stuff. And it was going to be a really big, multi-chapter adventure through the past (particularly since Harry, Melody, Alex, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione also get themselves dragged along to the past, in a really irresponsible but kind of spiffy manner). And…then I decided to move most of the time traveling to "Eyes" so Lily could find out stuff about her necklace sooner…and then I was feeling lazy when I wrote that chapter so the time traveling wasn't nearly as awesome as it could have been. (Kind of like this summary. Sorry.)

And then in 7th year, when Voldemort has pretty much managed to take control of…oh, I don't know, everything…the really cool part happens. Two fic worlds collide.

My original idea was for the worlds of "A Lily Story" and "Ginny's Hogwarts" to slam together, as the result of a ridiculously powerful spell that Lily's necklace casts. So then there would be two of Harry running around, two of Ginny, two of Melody (the elder) and two of Alex (since Melody and Alex were both characters in Ginny's Hogwarts, originally), and so on. And only with the two worlds colliding, with all the characters together, and Lily and James able to talk to the more canon-like Harry who never knew his parents, and two Dumbledores and everything, could they defeat Voldemort.

Plus all the pairings in Ginny's Hogwarts were different…it was Ginny/Alex, Harry/Hermione, Ron/someone, so there was going to be a lot of fun romantic confusion as well.

I'm not really sure how it all worked out, but in my head it was going to be awesome.

And then I deleted Ginny's Hogwarts and got distracted writing Eyes, and now six years later I'm not ever going to write any of it, but that's cool.

They defeat Voldemort and everyone's happy in the end, and I don't think I planned on having any more major characters die because in case you hadn't noticed, I'm really bad at killing people and having them stay dead.

So…yeah. That's that. That's what happens. (Or at least…it was all _supposed_ to happen, because I was _going_ to write these stories, but…oh well.)

I bet you're feeling really annoyed right now at how completely uninformative and unfulfilling that summary was, but that's okay. Just think about Eyes and how it's finished and how you sort-of know what happens to the characters and it will all be okay.

I really think you guys should all leave reviews for this chapter, because let's face it, you're never going to have a chance to review for a new chapter of "Eyes as Green as a Fresh Pickled Toad" again. Everrrrrrrrrrrrrr. And if you haven't done so previously, why not start now? It's never too late. (Trust me.)

I would honestly love to hear any and all thoughts, opinions, flames, questions, comments, WHATEVER, that you have, because, first of all, I honestly do read them all, and secondly, I'm never posting anything ever again, so I'd really like to hear from as many of you as possible before I go off and tackle the real world and write something original for a change. (Hahahahaha…fun.)

Happy 2008, kids. It's been fun.

Cheers,

Sierra Charm


End file.
